For years, it was Yechidim in Lakewood and across NJ who were in the trenches fighting off the anti Semitic accusations rhetoric and online hate posts against the community on many fronts. They fought them on social media across many platforms, wrote letters and called radio stations responding and fending off lies, vitriol and senseless hate against orthodox Jews in Lakewood and across NJ. While Major NJ Newspapers and others wrote nasty editorials spreading lies and misinformation about the community, including comment sections that are a hot bed of hateful speech and false accusations, the response came from individuals who cared about the community. They did so and continue doing so unassumingly without credit or fanfare.
During the public spectacle and arrests of Lakewood residents when these attacks were at an all time high, the Vaad was silent. When they finaly issued a statement it called innocent lakewood couples "Bad Apples".
Yet, they used the same incident to explain why they wont endorse Kim Guadango.
In a Major PR move the Vaad issues a self promoting 12 page letter blaming everyone else and avoiding the serious issues most ppl in Lakewood care about. Now, the vaad decides it is they, who will respond and deal with the media and online drivel. Somehow the Vaad is twisting it as a reason to vote for their candidates diverting from the traffic density and high property tax issues. They will now move beyond Lakewood and assume the mantel of leadership for all of NJ Welcome to the Vaad of NJ.
From the Vaad Election Letter:
Perspectives on Recent Events- Discrimination from a Time Long Past
As the upcoming elections (Tues, Nov 7th) bring an opportunity for us to make our voices heard, they are also a time for some painful reflection. In many ways, this year was an awakening; witness the tragic events: just this this week in New York City, in Charlottesville, and the rearing of once-dormant, ancient hatreds in the American heartland. This country is nobler and deserves better than hate and regurgitated Nazi slogans, which history has shown can only bring further ruin and destruction.
Those were not distant events. Right here in NJ it was all too painful to watch, as anti-Orthodox fervor metastasized across the State, like a cancer, from a few cells into widespread anti-Semitic sentiment. Discrimination from a time long past returned to visit us, with “Jim Crow” era drives to ban Jews from public parks in Mahwah and Jackson, to selectively forbid Eruvs (while allowing other more intrusive Right-of-Way elements to remain) in North and South Jersey
alike, and to impose discriminatory targeted zoning restrictions and enforcements intended to eliminate Shuls, Dormitories, Yeshivas, Mikvahs, and Succahs too). These were compounded by incessant harassment, much by hateful Social Media agitator “trolls”, who drove a new and frightening reality for NJ. NJ public officials in towns like Mahwah, Upper Saddle River, Woodcliff Lake, Toms River, Ocean Township, Jackson, Brick, and Howell seemed to work overtime on ways to keep Orthodox Jews out, exemplified, perhaps, by politicians like Woodcliff Lake’s Mayor Carlos Rendo, who is running for Lt. Governor. Woodcliff Lake appears to have invested too much energy over too many years battling to prevent a Shul from being built in their town, and Rendo was charged in a public lawsuit with saying that he did not want his town to turn into a “little Jerusalem.” He likely was worried about nearby Spring Valley. Nearby Mahwah passed a law to keep “large Monsey families” out of their parks, along with other targeted public actions by Mahwah officials.
Such methods seem to follow Vienna’s “ Karl Lueger style” Nazi forerunner political anti-Semitism from the 1900’s, matched by people like Jackson’s Councilman Robert Nixon , Jackson’s now disgraced Zoning Board member Larry Schuster, and by Toms River’s Mayor Tom Kelaher , among others. The Toms River Mayor misspoke of his town being subject to an “invasion,” and he (possibly illegally) directed Toms River to spend millions of public tax dollars to rapidly buy up land to prevent them potentially becoming Orthodox neighborhoods. These properties were not in Toms River 's Open Space plan, they were nonetheless set for rapid purchase with public tax dollars, in rushed reaction to Jewish families seeking homes in the area. Kelaher ’s fellow officials’ actions sparked over 1,000 Toms River residents coming to a fiery public meeting to hear of how they can organize block watches to monitor their new Orthodox Jewish neighbors’ activities.
Over in Jackson, Nixon, together with Jackson Zoning Officials, apparently have their own obsessions. These include working nonstop to ban any Yeshiva from opening there (sparking a number of lawsuits and a likely probe). They seem to worry too much about Eruvs, about Orthodox kids using Jackson parks, and about how to stop “them.” These are but a small selection of actions that a reasonable person could conclude are targeted at Orthodox Jews, the entire record would fill too many pages. These actions cover both Democrat and Republican , both Toms River Republicans and Howell’s Democratic Mayor Theresa Berger, whom used anti-Semitic innuendo in their election campaign flyers, with Berger’s flyer particularly repugn ant, showing a map of Howell’s Orthodox Jewish institutions, suggesting those are a threat to Howell’s citizens. Open vitriol accompanied these public actions.
These reflect the tip of an iceberg; we are in possession of thousands of angry hate-promoting postings by private citizens and public officials, including too many calling Orthodox Jews cockroaches, vermin, and more, and some suggesting that it ’ s time to get rid of the Jews. Public officials were part of Facebook conversations where group members attacked Jews, the officials often applauded, and when suggestions were made by well-known people that it’s time for race riots and violence the officials were silent at best. We are now finally and thankfully seeing the first probes of towns like Toms River and the first State lawsuit, against Mahwah, investigating such official anti-Orthodox actions. We are appreciative to the Attorney General’s office for taking the lead in this, and warmly commend him and his outstanding team for their action. Attorney General Chris Porrino acted with principle, and was likely subject to online mob wrath for his moral and legal stand.
These responses do not diminish the trend and facts: social media (led by a ruthless Facebook) is filled with local groups whose mission is stated: to prevent Orthodox Jews from moving into their neighborhoods. These groups have members who publicly call for attacks on Jews, and for public officials to enact laws pointed at Jews. These calls of hatred, even at times of violence, go without answer, with scant editorial or official condemnation. We note that many in Lakewood feel that there has been selective targeting of Orthodox Jews in some investigations, and many have expressed their deepest concern at how officials described the alleged actions of a few as the sins of all Orthodox. Mainstream media seem complicit, with deafening silence to these outrageous claims. Further, they have often fallen prey, with relentless innuendo, to the prevailing stereotypical and anti-Semitic assaults by implying that all Orthodox Jews are complicit in the charges and alleged misdeeds by a handful. These mainstream outlets also host repugnant and unbridled hate speech on their officially sponsored blogs and public platforms . Their cheesy attempts to hide behind ‘first amendment’ protection does not cut it when hate speech is given free rein, without a modicum of distain or an iota taking responsibility for the incitement their sites promote. No exaggeration.
Lest you think that the above perspectives exaggerate, you can turn your attention to the unusual number and prominence of stories and headlines (with highly prominent photo montages of the Orthodox community) about alleged Medicaid fraud, and the extra attention given to these stories. (This is while murder, theft and mayhem is ever present in the public, even when those are on a far greater scale; they do not receive the level of attention given Orthodox misdeeds, both proven and not). For the record, one major local media outlet ran, to date, 51 stories, videos, and features on Medicaid fraud in Lakewood, with many more certainly to come. It ran 24 stories about SCHI, with many more to come. By contrast, we were able to find only 2 stories about the confirmed defrauding of $2.8 million dollars from over 100 war veterans, stolen by a non-Orthodox local educational institution, whose crimes resulted in a conviction. And so too many wonder, why is it that the only time people who get into trouble have their religion mentioned by media is when they happen to be Orthodox Jews. Such editorial selectivity provides serious cause for thought as to how widespread such bias is in the fourth estate (i.e. media).
We call attention to the endless social media posts and the local Talk Radio shows in which Orthodox are vilified and called out as vermin, scum and nothing but the worst “problems.” Facebook, Google and Twitter claim to have community policing that ban hate materials, we have yet to see those in action. So this year has been a time of awakening for so many of us. It has taught us that the beautiful freedoms afforded to us all in the United States are the same freedoms that allows the daughter of a Jackson, NJ State Trooper to post online suggesting the bombing of Jews gathered at Rita’s Ices in Jackson . I t’s the same freedom that allows for 1,200 people to angrily gather for a public meeting in Toms River to oppose the building of a Shul , although it’s on the very same block as a Church and a Temple.
Are we to Blame? We want to address those who blame us for the hatred against us (including Orthodox who blame ourselves). While it is common to blame the victim, and even common for victims to blame themselves, we reject that interpretation. (We note that throughout history there has been no shortage of self-abasing Jews who sadly too engaged in such interpretation.) We do not believe that an Orthodox family who wishes to peacefully live in Mahwah or Jackson, or who wishes to build a Shul or Eruv in their neighborhood is responsible for the exceptional hatred and rancor obsessively aimed at the Orthodox.
We do not believe that the much quoted “Lakewood driving” is the reason why such angry talk has emerged, nor that it is obstinate “ insularity” (to quot e one major regional media outlet) that drives hate, nor that Jews are more dishonest than others. We have heard too much feedback about the bias generated by a press release by a local official who expressed publicly that the “Lakewood community” was warned to stop stealing, when we know well that such broad language would never be used about any other ethnic or social group. We certainly have our faults, they are not the reason why we all are typecast with one paintbrush. We do not believe that Orthodox shirk work, that they don’t pay taxes, nor that we are a “problem.” Nor do we accept the narrative that “Lakewood” is a place to fear.
Lakewood density and traffic, while certainly a challenge worthy of collective attention, is still less than that along Route 37 in Toms River, less than Route 35 in Brick or in Red Bank, less than Newark, less than Staten Island, Jersey City, Chicago, Toronto, Miami, LA and NYC. Our Route 9 traffic moves far too slow, yet it is still faster than it is in Marlboro and Manalapan. No one attacks those towns nor their residents as “major problems” worthy of hatred and disdain.
These challenges do concern us, far more than they concern the falsely pious who attack Lakewood on such common issues. They are our own front-burner issues, and are highest on our own agenda. They are no justifications for the narrative that Lakewood is a “horrible place” or that our “density” (filled with beautiful young families, businesses and schools) is an existential threat to anyone ’s way of life. When we hear the selective unique vitriol directed at us, we sense deeper sentiments. Those dark sentiments doesn’t diminish our determination to improve our town and communities in every way, to be civically engaged citizens, to have better planning, and most important, to better express the beauty of our religious way and model of life and to inspire our neighbors and the world. We want and strive to all those things and we continue to act, with faith, fidelity and integrity.
During the public spectacle and arrests of Lakewood residents when these attacks were at an all time high, the Vaad was silent. When they finaly issued a statement it called innocent lakewood couples "Bad Apples".
Yet, they used the same incident to explain why they wont endorse Kim Guadango.
In a Major PR move the Vaad issues a self promoting 12 page letter blaming everyone else and avoiding the serious issues most ppl in Lakewood care about. Now, the vaad decides it is they, who will respond and deal with the media and online drivel. Somehow the Vaad is twisting it as a reason to vote for their candidates diverting from the traffic density and high property tax issues. They will now move beyond Lakewood and assume the mantel of leadership for all of NJ Welcome to the Vaad of NJ.
From the Vaad Election Letter:
Perspectives on Recent Events- Discrimination from a Time Long Past
As the upcoming elections (Tues, Nov 7th) bring an opportunity for us to make our voices heard, they are also a time for some painful reflection. In many ways, this year was an awakening; witness the tragic events: just this this week in New York City, in Charlottesville, and the rearing of once-dormant, ancient hatreds in the American heartland. This country is nobler and deserves better than hate and regurgitated Nazi slogans, which history has shown can only bring further ruin and destruction.
Those were not distant events. Right here in NJ it was all too painful to watch, as anti-Orthodox fervor metastasized across the State, like a cancer, from a few cells into widespread anti-Semitic sentiment. Discrimination from a time long past returned to visit us, with “Jim Crow” era drives to ban Jews from public parks in Mahwah and Jackson, to selectively forbid Eruvs (while allowing other more intrusive Right-of-Way elements to remain) in North and South Jersey
alike, and to impose discriminatory targeted zoning restrictions and enforcements intended to eliminate Shuls, Dormitories, Yeshivas, Mikvahs, and Succahs too). These were compounded by incessant harassment, much by hateful Social Media agitator “trolls”, who drove a new and frightening reality for NJ. NJ public officials in towns like Mahwah, Upper Saddle River, Woodcliff Lake, Toms River, Ocean Township, Jackson, Brick, and Howell seemed to work overtime on ways to keep Orthodox Jews out, exemplified, perhaps, by politicians like Woodcliff Lake’s Mayor Carlos Rendo, who is running for Lt. Governor. Woodcliff Lake appears to have invested too much energy over too many years battling to prevent a Shul from being built in their town, and Rendo was charged in a public lawsuit with saying that he did not want his town to turn into a “little Jerusalem.” He likely was worried about nearby Spring Valley. Nearby Mahwah passed a law to keep “large Monsey families” out of their parks, along with other targeted public actions by Mahwah officials.
Such methods seem to follow Vienna’s “ Karl Lueger style” Nazi forerunner political anti-Semitism from the 1900’s, matched by people like Jackson’s Councilman Robert Nixon , Jackson’s now disgraced Zoning Board member Larry Schuster, and by Toms River’s Mayor Tom Kelaher , among others. The Toms River Mayor misspoke of his town being subject to an “invasion,” and he (possibly illegally) directed Toms River to spend millions of public tax dollars to rapidly buy up land to prevent them potentially becoming Orthodox neighborhoods. These properties were not in Toms River 's Open Space plan, they were nonetheless set for rapid purchase with public tax dollars, in rushed reaction to Jewish families seeking homes in the area. Kelaher ’s fellow officials’ actions sparked over 1,000 Toms River residents coming to a fiery public meeting to hear of how they can organize block watches to monitor their new Orthodox Jewish neighbors’ activities.
Over in Jackson, Nixon, together with Jackson Zoning Officials, apparently have their own obsessions. These include working nonstop to ban any Yeshiva from opening there (sparking a number of lawsuits and a likely probe). They seem to worry too much about Eruvs, about Orthodox kids using Jackson parks, and about how to stop “them.” These are but a small selection of actions that a reasonable person could conclude are targeted at Orthodox Jews, the entire record would fill too many pages. These actions cover both Democrat and Republican , both Toms River Republicans and Howell’s Democratic Mayor Theresa Berger, whom used anti-Semitic innuendo in their election campaign flyers, with Berger’s flyer particularly repugn ant, showing a map of Howell’s Orthodox Jewish institutions, suggesting those are a threat to Howell’s citizens. Open vitriol accompanied these public actions.
These reflect the tip of an iceberg; we are in possession of thousands of angry hate-promoting postings by private citizens and public officials, including too many calling Orthodox Jews cockroaches, vermin, and more, and some suggesting that it ’ s time to get rid of the Jews. Public officials were part of Facebook conversations where group members attacked Jews, the officials often applauded, and when suggestions were made by well-known people that it’s time for race riots and violence the officials were silent at best. We are now finally and thankfully seeing the first probes of towns like Toms River and the first State lawsuit, against Mahwah, investigating such official anti-Orthodox actions. We are appreciative to the Attorney General’s office for taking the lead in this, and warmly commend him and his outstanding team for their action. Attorney General Chris Porrino acted with principle, and was likely subject to online mob wrath for his moral and legal stand.
These responses do not diminish the trend and facts: social media (led by a ruthless Facebook) is filled with local groups whose mission is stated: to prevent Orthodox Jews from moving into their neighborhoods. These groups have members who publicly call for attacks on Jews, and for public officials to enact laws pointed at Jews. These calls of hatred, even at times of violence, go without answer, with scant editorial or official condemnation. We note that many in Lakewood feel that there has been selective targeting of Orthodox Jews in some investigations, and many have expressed their deepest concern at how officials described the alleged actions of a few as the sins of all Orthodox. Mainstream media seem complicit, with deafening silence to these outrageous claims. Further, they have often fallen prey, with relentless innuendo, to the prevailing stereotypical and anti-Semitic assaults by implying that all Orthodox Jews are complicit in the charges and alleged misdeeds by a handful. These mainstream outlets also host repugnant and unbridled hate speech on their officially sponsored blogs and public platforms . Their cheesy attempts to hide behind ‘first amendment’ protection does not cut it when hate speech is given free rein, without a modicum of distain or an iota taking responsibility for the incitement their sites promote. No exaggeration.
Lest you think that the above perspectives exaggerate, you can turn your attention to the unusual number and prominence of stories and headlines (with highly prominent photo montages of the Orthodox community) about alleged Medicaid fraud, and the extra attention given to these stories. (This is while murder, theft and mayhem is ever present in the public, even when those are on a far greater scale; they do not receive the level of attention given Orthodox misdeeds, both proven and not). For the record, one major local media outlet ran, to date, 51 stories, videos, and features on Medicaid fraud in Lakewood, with many more certainly to come. It ran 24 stories about SCHI, with many more to come. By contrast, we were able to find only 2 stories about the confirmed defrauding of $2.8 million dollars from over 100 war veterans, stolen by a non-Orthodox local educational institution, whose crimes resulted in a conviction. And so too many wonder, why is it that the only time people who get into trouble have their religion mentioned by media is when they happen to be Orthodox Jews. Such editorial selectivity provides serious cause for thought as to how widespread such bias is in the fourth estate (i.e. media).
We call attention to the endless social media posts and the local Talk Radio shows in which Orthodox are vilified and called out as vermin, scum and nothing but the worst “problems.” Facebook, Google and Twitter claim to have community policing that ban hate materials, we have yet to see those in action. So this year has been a time of awakening for so many of us. It has taught us that the beautiful freedoms afforded to us all in the United States are the same freedoms that allows the daughter of a Jackson, NJ State Trooper to post online suggesting the bombing of Jews gathered at Rita’s Ices in Jackson . I t’s the same freedom that allows for 1,200 people to angrily gather for a public meeting in Toms River to oppose the building of a Shul , although it’s on the very same block as a Church and a Temple.
Are we to Blame? We want to address those who blame us for the hatred against us (including Orthodox who blame ourselves). While it is common to blame the victim, and even common for victims to blame themselves, we reject that interpretation. (We note that throughout history there has been no shortage of self-abasing Jews who sadly too engaged in such interpretation.) We do not believe that an Orthodox family who wishes to peacefully live in Mahwah or Jackson, or who wishes to build a Shul or Eruv in their neighborhood is responsible for the exceptional hatred and rancor obsessively aimed at the Orthodox.
We do not believe that the much quoted “Lakewood driving” is the reason why such angry talk has emerged, nor that it is obstinate “ insularity” (to quot e one major regional media outlet) that drives hate, nor that Jews are more dishonest than others. We have heard too much feedback about the bias generated by a press release by a local official who expressed publicly that the “Lakewood community” was warned to stop stealing, when we know well that such broad language would never be used about any other ethnic or social group. We certainly have our faults, they are not the reason why we all are typecast with one paintbrush. We do not believe that Orthodox shirk work, that they don’t pay taxes, nor that we are a “problem.” Nor do we accept the narrative that “Lakewood” is a place to fear.
Lakewood density and traffic, while certainly a challenge worthy of collective attention, is still less than that along Route 37 in Toms River, less than Route 35 in Brick or in Red Bank, less than Newark, less than Staten Island, Jersey City, Chicago, Toronto, Miami, LA and NYC. Our Route 9 traffic moves far too slow, yet it is still faster than it is in Marlboro and Manalapan. No one attacks those towns nor their residents as “major problems” worthy of hatred and disdain.
These challenges do concern us, far more than they concern the falsely pious who attack Lakewood on such common issues. They are our own front-burner issues, and are highest on our own agenda. They are no justifications for the narrative that Lakewood is a “horrible place” or that our “density” (filled with beautiful young families, businesses and schools) is an existential threat to anyone ’s way of life. When we hear the selective unique vitriol directed at us, we sense deeper sentiments. Those dark sentiments doesn’t diminish our determination to improve our town and communities in every way, to be civically engaged citizens, to have better planning, and most important, to better express the beauty of our religious way and model of life and to inspire our neighbors and the world. We want and strive to all those things and we continue to act, with faith, fidelity and integrity.