STATEMENT FROM THE VAAD L'TZORCHEI TZIBUR
This statement is by no means to be taken as an excuse for the election turnout. While the Lakewood VAAD has been around with its current lineup for 17 years, and The VAAD ltzorchei tzibur is about one week old, The end result, as usual, is that no change is happening. As they say "close only counts in horseshoes and grenades". While there was an obvious turnout that did not listen to The Vaads suggestions, there still were plenty of people who followed blindly what they saw on the Lakewood Scoop or on pamphlets thrown about the entire town. The Vaad effort was obviously much stronger than the efforts of the opposition. They obviously have much more to lose monetarily. That is why it is worth it for them to spend so much money on a seemingly innocuous local campaign. They need to retain people in office that will do their bidding even at the expense of our quality of life.
But it is laughable to see them claiming that the entire town showed them support. Nothing could be further from the truth. In 2010 most of the Jewish community showed them that they don't care about their suggestions. Bob singer had given up his position on the committee to Isaac Akerman when it was obvious that nobody was going to listen to the Old Guard. Now forward 7 years later and not much has changed. Most general elections see approximately 6000 of the Orthodox communities votes. Out of those votes approximately 3500 are vaad followers and 2500 are those that oppose them. For them to say that they have a voting block is absolutely false. Unfortunately, those that want to see change in our town have mostly given up.
So where do we stand now? It is my hope that the only way to get things done in this town for the good of the people is to continue to try our best to do what is right even when their selfish actions get in our way.
Yes it is true, close only means something in horseshoes and grenades. Hopefully we can avoid their grenades and continue to focus on the positive in our town of Lakewood.
Harold Herskowitz on behalf of TVLT
This statement is by no means to be taken as an excuse for the election turnout. While the Lakewood VAAD has been around with its current lineup for 17 years, and The VAAD ltzorchei tzibur is about one week old, The end result, as usual, is that no change is happening. As they say "close only counts in horseshoes and grenades". While there was an obvious turnout that did not listen to The Vaads suggestions, there still were plenty of people who followed blindly what they saw on the Lakewood Scoop or on pamphlets thrown about the entire town. The Vaad effort was obviously much stronger than the efforts of the opposition. They obviously have much more to lose monetarily. That is why it is worth it for them to spend so much money on a seemingly innocuous local campaign. They need to retain people in office that will do their bidding even at the expense of our quality of life.
But it is laughable to see them claiming that the entire town showed them support. Nothing could be further from the truth. In 2010 most of the Jewish community showed them that they don't care about their suggestions. Bob singer had given up his position on the committee to Isaac Akerman when it was obvious that nobody was going to listen to the Old Guard. Now forward 7 years later and not much has changed. Most general elections see approximately 6000 of the Orthodox communities votes. Out of those votes approximately 3500 are vaad followers and 2500 are those that oppose them. For them to say that they have a voting block is absolutely false. Unfortunately, those that want to see change in our town have mostly given up.
So where do we stand now? It is my hope that the only way to get things done in this town for the good of the people is to continue to try our best to do what is right even when their selfish actions get in our way.
Yes it is true, close only means something in horseshoes and grenades. Hopefully we can avoid their grenades and continue to focus on the positive in our town of Lakewood.
Harold Herskowitz on behalf of TVLT