Special stipulations to allow Jewish weddings
Wentworth Liberal MP Dave Sharma has advised the Sydney Beth Din that wedding ceremonies can be performed during the Coronavirus epidemic under certain conditions to allow a minyan.
Using a mikvah is now also permitted.
In a letter sent to Rabbi Yehoram Ulman, Dave Sharma stipulated the conditions. The wedding must be outside and all attendees must be separated from each other by no less than 1.5 metres and there can be no large gathering.
The ceremony must be as short as possible and there must be no celebrations at the wedding.
Dave Sharma stipulated when visiting the mikvah, “No more than one woman is using the mikvah at any one time; appropriate social distancing is observed with the mikvah attendant, and the user of the mikvah observes appropriate personal hygiene measures currently in force.”
A minyan is required for a wedding. Only three people are needed at a Brit.
It is at times like this that I feel proud to be an Aussie. A senior NSW rabbi contacts his local MP who in turn accesses the PM who in turn communicates to the said MP his sympathetic ruling which is sent to the rabbi all within the space of less than 48 hours. Truly we live in a medina shel chesed.