Rapid growth of Hasidic Orthodox population creating havoc in NY-NJ communities

Hasidic Jews standing on a wall amongst trees as they try to see the burial of Rabbi Moses Teitelbaum, April 25, 2006, in Kiryas Joel, New York. (Stephen Chernin/Getty Images)

By Carolyn Yeager

First 'Jewish town' in USA

OFFICIAL JEWISH TOWNS, JUST LIKE THE JEWISH STATE OF ISRAEL, are coming to the United States of America. It's being done by settlement building, just like in Palestine, and seccession. From the Jewish Telegraph Agency:

The Hasidic community of Kiryas Joel reportedly will become the first haredi Orthodox town in the United States after voters in Monroe, New York, overwhelmingly backed a referendum on secession.

On Tuesday, over 80 percent of Monroe voters backed the measure on Kiryas Joel, a village of over 20,000 Yiddish-speaking Jews associated with the Satmar Hasidic sect, to form the state’s first new town in 35 years. The Town of Palm Tree — an English translation of the Satmar rebbe’s surname, Teitelbaum — should come into existence in 2020, unless lawmakers speed up the process.

“Today is truly an historic day that will usher in a new era of peace and stability for all the residents of Monroe,” Kiryas Joel village administrator Gedalye Szegedin said in a statement. “We would like to thank all the voters in Monroe for their overwhelming support. They chose a better path forward, one of diplomacy and compromise instead of angry rhetoric and litigation.”

Monroe officials and Kiryas Joel leaders had finalized a legal settlement in July that allowed for the creation of a new town. Both parties had clashed for years over Kiryas Joel’s rapid population growth and increasing influence over Monroe politics. Right: K-J housing development in 2006 (Daniel Case)

In 2015, Kiryas Joel annexed 164 acres of Monroe land and asked for over 500 more. Monroe challenged the original annexation, but both sides let their requests go through the vote. Kiryas Joel will get 56 more acres in addition to the [164 acre annexation] and drop its request for more.

Kiryas Joel’s roots date back to the mid-1970s, when Hasidic Jews began settling in the area under the guidance of Satmar Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum. [Oh!—less than 50 years ago they first came there with a few people; now they have their own town of over 20,000 and growing at an exponentially increasing rate! -cy]

See how they multiply

Rockland County, NY added 547 housing units last year, trailing only Orange and Nassau counties among suburbs in New York, according to census data released Tuesday.

By contrast, Westchester had 63 new housing units last year, and Putnam had 18.

Continued growth in Ramapo’s Orthodox Jewish population, as well as urban renewal in Spring Valley, continue to create housing demand, local leaders say.

Smaller houses in areas along Route 306 have been demolished to make way for larger multiple-unit housing.

“We are seeing the next generation of young people getting married,” said Kaser Deputy Mayor Shlomo Koenig. “People need a place to live and raise their families.”

About three-quarters of the units approved in the past three years were in Ramapo, New Square, Kaser and Spring Valley, other census records show.

Gordon Wren, county director of fire and emergency services, said parking capacity has not kept up with the added housing capacity, making the area’s narrower streets harder for emergency vehicles to maneuver. (From vosizneias.com)

A PVC pipe affixed to a telephone pole in the town of Upper Saddle River, NJ. The pipe helps form an eruv for haredi residents of the area, but non-Jews in the town object to the way the pipes were installed. (Ben Sales/JTA)

Jews transform areas to fit their needs

We know how politically powerful ultra-orthodox rabbis are in Israel and it is no different here. The New Jersey town of Mahwah is being sued by the state after passing an ordinance this past summer forbidding Jews from using religious markers on utility poles, called eruv, and from using Mahwah's public parks if they are non-state residents. An eruv consists of white polyvinyl pipes placed on utility poles to mark areas as being extensions of Jewish residences. It is a hocus-pocus type of cheating that “observant” Jews use to avoid having to observe some Sabbath laws – for example to not carry anything on your person outside of your home. Rabbi-approved, of course.

New Jersey Attorney General Christopher Porrino, after filing a suit against Mahwah, said: “In addition to being on the wrong side of history, the conduct of Mahwah's township council is legally wrong. To think that there are local governments here in New Jersey, in 2017, making laws on the basis of some archaic, fear-driven and discriminatory mind-set is deeply disappointing and shocking to many.” [Good grief, what could be more archaic and fear-driven than to forbid carrying your baby or house keys as a way to please your highly-demanding God?! -cy]

The dispute stems from efforts by Mahwah residents to stop Orthodox Jews from moving into the area in droves, reports Newsweek.com.

“This is a soft invasion,” one resident wrote in an online petition. “Next, we will see homes called places of worship or schools for this religious organization as a way for the members of this religious organization to avoid paying property taxes. I do not want to pick up the tab!”

“They are clearly trying to annex land like they’ve been doing in Occupied Palestine,” another resident wrote.

Suburban communities in New York City often react viscerally to change, and the influx of Orthodox Jews has provoked thinly veiled anti-Semitism in the past*. Opponents often reject erub because they know that without them, Orthodox Jews can’t live in the town: Without the religious boundary, Jews can’t perform dozens of daily life tasks on the Sabbath. [*Before the war in the East Ramapo, New York school district, there was a truce. Local school officials made a deal with their Hasidic and ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbors: we'll leave you alone to teach your children in private yeshivas as you see fit as long as you allow our public school budget to pass. But the budget is funded by local property taxes, which everyone, including the local Hasidim, have to pay — even though their kids don't attend the schools that their money is paying for. What followed was one of the most volatile local political battles we've ever encountered.]

The New Jersey attorney general’s office submitted a complaint documenting a plethora of discriminatory statements made by local Mahwah residents in town hall meetings and on social media. The attorney general also submitted examples proving that the ordinance banning non-New Jersey residents from parks is directed specifically at Orthodox Jews and no other resident.

For example, one non-Jewish resident contacted the town council president expressing concern that her mother, a New York resident, would be prohibited from taking her grandchildren to the park.  The council president responded that the ordinance did not apply to the case of this grandmother.

The suit also seeks $3.4 million from Mahwah because the ordinance for parks violates a New Jersey environmental law.

The Times of Israel also reported on this story:

The state contends Mahwah violated New Jersey’s Green Acres Act by banning out-of-state residents from its parks. The state notes that land acquired under the law cannot be restricted on the basis of religion or residency.

Council president, Rob Hermansen, said the ban was not created to be discriminatory. He noted that Mahwah residents began complaining this year about vehicles from New York occupying parking lots at Winters Pond, a recreational area across from the town’s train station.

The ordinance, he has said, was intended to curb the number of people from outside Mahwah using parks, not to target Jews. [They just happen to be Jews hogging up the free parking. Whose fault is that? - cy]

“We had incidents where Mahwah families could not use the parks,” he said last month, so the council wanted to find a way to “put Mahwah residents first.”

A brand new synagogue in Airmont, N.Y., a town that has seen its haredi Orthodox population boom in recent months as families seek larger houses at a more affordable price. (Ben Sales)

Jews force their way into places they are not welcome

Small, quiet Airmont, a village in the town of Ramapo, Rockland County, has seen its haredi Orthodox population boom in recent months as large families move in from the neighboring town of Monsey. [In the 1950s, Monsey was a one stoplight town with a single yeshiva. By 1997, Monsey had 112 synagogues and 45 yeshivas.-NYTimes] According to Moshe Pinkasovits, many residents don't want the Jews in Airmont. He says some drivers yell “f***ing Jew” when they see him walking down the street with his children. A Jewish neighbor's lawn was egged. But he says, despite that, he isn't leaving because he loves living “in my own house with my own backyard.”

He believes it’s only a matter of time before the Jews become a critical mass. From the JTA

“It’s going to die out,” Pinkasovits said of the anti-Semitism. “[Jews] are moving here because this is how we want to live. Everyone, they’re all going to move out. Wherever you look down the street, you see ‘for sale’ signs hanging. I don’t mind living between them, but I also don’t mind if they leave and I get more Jewish neighbors.”

Pinkasovits is part of a wave of haredi Orthodox Jews who have spread out from Monsey to the surrounding towns. The towns — green, quiet and spread out — offer the large families spacious homes at an affordable price. Like Pinkasovits, haredi Jews who moved to the towns say they just want to live their lives in a nice place, just like their non-Jewish neighbors. [Sure, they're just like their neighbors.]

The battle has coalesced around the construction of an eruv — the artificial boundary that, according to Jewish law, allows Jews to push and carry objects outside their homes on the Sabbath and holy days. The eruv crosses into New Jersey towns adjacent to Airmont in order to accommodate the growing religious community and, while extending only a couple blocks over the border, has led to raucous debates, vandalism and a lawsuit.

Residents of Mahwah, a New Jersey town southwest of Airmont, have complained that the eruv breaks town ordinances because supports that mark the boundary are attached to public utility polls. Others have worried that a growing haredi population will mean a large group of residents who don’t support services like the public school system.

The Vaad HaEruv, or Eruv Association, expanded an eruv in the Monsey area around the beginning of July. Much of the eruv consists of existing telephone wires, but to make it kosher, the association had to install PVC pipes that reach from the bottom of the wire to the ground and are affixed to telephone poles. The pipes, called “lechis,” act as posts for the eruv. The Eruv Association pays for their upkeep.

The Eruv Association says it obtained the necessary permits from the utility company that owns the telephone poles and installed the eruv under local police supervision. But the Township of Mahwah claims the poles violate an ordinance that prohibits placing signs on the poles, and has threatened to issue summonses and demand that the poles be taken down. On Aug. 11, the Eruv Association filed a lawsuit against Mahwah, with Pinkasovits as a plaintiff, claiming that the demand to take down the lechis violates residents’ civil rights.

Another eruv attached to a utility pole - this one with two white pipes and large numbers - put up under the supervision of a rabbi for the benefit of orthodox Jews under strict Sabbath rules.

Mahwah residents, in addition to residents from the neighboring town of Upper Saddle River, have mobilized in opposition to the eruv and what — or who — it represents. A petition opposing the eruv to “Protect the Quality of Our Community in Mahwah” has garnered 1,200 signatures. In late July, 200 Mahwah residents gathered to protest the eruv. And a new organization called Mahwah Strong, also against the eruv, has grown to around 3,000 members.

Mahwah Strong's spokeswoman Deborah Kostroun did acknowledge, however, that residents also were wary of how a growing haredi population might change the area’s character. She pointed to the example of the nearby New York town of East Ramapo, where members of a booming haredi community were elected to the local education board and passed deep cuts in funding for the public schools, which hardly any haredi children attend. In 2015, after accusations of mismanagement, the Board of Education there was placed under state oversight.

“There is a concern because of what is happening one mile away, five miles away, six miles away,” Kostroun said, referring to Monsey and East Ramapo. “Mahwah has one of the 10 best schools in the state, and property values are tied to how good the schools are.”

The online petition to “Protect the Quality of Our Community in Mahwah” was closed after 1,200 signatures because of several 'anti-Semitic' comments.

Jews confident they will prevail

“It’s very sad and I wish it wouldn’t have happened,” said Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, who oversees the eruv. “It’s going to be a long way to fix the relations with all these towns. We have to fight the legal [battle] to get permission to put it up, but we have to have a good relationship with all these towns.”

Airmont doesn’t seem the place to cause a pitched ideological battle. The town of 25,000 has sloping, winding, tree-lined streets — often without marked lanes, sidewalks or much traffic. Large houses are spaced out with yards between them.

It’s a stark contrast to Monsey, which has seen an increasing number of multi-family homes built as its population has grown more than 25 percent since 2000, according to census data.

In Airmont, Jewish infrastructure already is dotting the town. Pinkasovits’ neighborhood alone has three official synagogues, plus another three or four unofficial minyans, or prayer groups, that meet in residents homes. One synagogue, the Congregation of Ridnik, about a 15-minute walk from Pinkasovits’ house, was erecting a fence last week as it planned to expand its sanctuary. The synagogue, attached to the back of its rabbi’s home on a residential street, is awaiting official approval for its expansion.

“Nobody is here to take away their homes,” said Moishe Berger, the congregation’s rabbi, regarding the town’s residents. “Nobody is interested in big development. Everybody wants to keep the neighborhood quiet and nice, but we need places to live.”  [Their needs come first, so it won't stay 'quiet and nice'. -cy]

“For sale” signs dot the blocks surrounding the synagogue; there are three on Pinkasovits’ cul-de-sac alone. They are a symbol of some haredi newcomers’ confidence that when all is said and done, demographics will overwhelm whatever fights are happening now.

“I’m not worried,” said Shalom Kass, the man whose house was egged. “They’ll be gone in a few months, I think. You know how many houses are for sale? Half my block is on the market. There won’t be that many people left to be upset.”