New Jersey Group Launches Campaign Against ultra-Orthodox Jews, Insists It's Not anti-Semitic
"After anti-Semitic video removed from NY county GOP Facebook page, chairman defends intent"
The group behind the video is Rise Up Ocean County, which aims to galvanize residents of Central Jersey to stop ultra-Orthodox families from buying real estate in the towns surrounding Lakewood
JTA and Ben Sales Jan 24, 2019 11:45 AM
The video, with suspenseful music playing in the background, opens with footage of a crowd of Orthodox Jews. Then it paraphrases a classic poem about the Holocaust.
“First they came for my house, but I did not speak up,” the narrator says. “I said I am not willing to sell, and closed my door. … Then they came for my forests, but I did not speak up, because I thought I had no vested interests in the forests.”
The script is a riff on the Martin Niemoller work lamenting the perils of inaction in the face of Nazi atrocities.
But the video, which was posted this month, isn’t meant to denounce Nazis. Instead its purported villains are Orthodox Jews looking to move to the Central New Jersey suburbs.
[...]
A similar dynamic is being seen by towns near Monsey, a largely ultra-Orthodox town in New York state near its border with New Jersey. Those towns repeatedly attempted to stop the construction of an eruv, a symbolic ritual boundary that residents said would invite more Orthodox Jews to move in.
Rise Up Ocean County insists its objections are only about “quality of life,” not religion.
[...]
Local Jewish leaders in and around Lakewood acknowledge that the population spike has posed challenges, like clogged streets and scarce parking. In addition, the local school district runs large deficits because it receives funding only for the 6,000 kids who attend public school, but must provide buses for the additional 30,000 who attend private schools.
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