Tel-Chai Nation

In this Forward article, they tell about Haredis moving into the New Jersey town of Mahwah, and the reactions from locals, both legitimate and illegitimate:

Recently, residents of Mahwah, New Jersey, noticed utility trucks driving around town, attaching strange-looking PVC piping to telephone poles. Soon they learned their purpose: the establishment of an eruv, a mysterious boundary that makes it possible for Torah-observant Jews to carry objects on the Sabbath.

It’s a crucial step in making a neighborhood inviting to would-be hasidic buyers — which is exactly what worried the residents of Mahwah, who formed a Facebook group called “Mahwah Strong” to “voice their concerns over the installation of an Eruv and the impact it could have on our community.”

Anyone who’s been paying attention knows that this is far from abnormal. Small townships all around New York and New Jersey have been organizing to protest both existing Hasidic communities and forming ones. This may sound unsavory, but the papers are awash in quotes from people insisting that they are not anti-Semitic. Indeed, a Reform rabbi was instrumental in opposing Mahwah’s eruv.

Even here in Israel, there's Orthodox adherents of the non-Haredi variety who have a problem with these insular-ists, especially if they try to dictate what people may or may not do in neighborhoods where they're the main residency. The socialist lifestyle practiced by many Haredi clans is but one reason why they have a problem with them. And another is because, like many Islamists, they may not integrate.

But others see the opposition as anti-Semitic, or at least anti-Hasidic. And the comments on many of the articles certainly bolster this position. At a town council meeting, a Holocaust survivor was shouted down and hissed at while attempting to deliver testimony about the situation.

Whether or not the anti-Hasidic sentiment and organizing is anti-Semitic, a larger question looms: Is it fair to want to keep Hasidim out of your small upstate town?

Deborah Kostroun has volunteered her time for Mahwah Strong. Among the group’s stated goals are keeping the town — which is currently 94% white or Asian — “diverse.” That diversity, however, doesn’t extend to Hasidic Jews, which many in the group view with fear and distrust.

Oh great. If he/she was cursed at, that damages the efforts made, and certainly undermines those with more common sense.

As for the query posed about hasidics, if they're of the Satmar variety, then yes, I would say they're such a leftist disgrace, not much different from any antisemites in the area, that they don't deserve to be living there, and definitely not if they're going to exploit the town finance folder to bankroll their own schools at the expense of the rest of the population. But anybody who resorted to antisemitic slurs is only bound to hurt the fight to oppose them.

Kostroun also explained to me that the primary worry about a big Hasidic community moving into the area was the effects such a demographic shift would have on the quality of the school district. Many in the township have a high regard for the education their kids currently receive.

She’s not wrong to worry. An unfortunate but well-documented side-effect of the ballooning Orthodox population is the deterioration of the public school system. This stems from the fact that Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews send their kids not to public schools but to private schools, and the public schools in areas like Spring Valley, or Lawrence, end up deteriorating when the majority of residents send their children to private schools.

The problem, specifically, is that the haredis make use of public funds for their own private schools, rather than work to raise the capital themselves. And if they're going to be that socialist, then they have no business moving into a neighborhood whose residents they disrespect.

I can agree with concerns that Haredis will exploit local taxes for their own use, and on those grounds I can support Mawah's resistance. But if they resort to any antisemitism, then they're going to make it extremely difficult beyond that to feel sorry for any trouble they could wind up having.

Labels: anti-semitism, haredi corruption, Moonbattery, United States