The following is via Bloomberg News, published in its entirety. The article was also linked on the DrudgeReport on Monday morning:
Every home is big on glass in a Toms River, New Jersey, neighborhood called North Dover. Windows let in the sun, or show off chandeliers in multistory entrance halls.
These days, though, most homeowners draw the blinds, retreating from brushes with a fast-growing Orthodox Jewish community that’s trying to turn a swath of suburban luxury 10 miles from Atlantic beaches into an insular enclave. The rub, a township inquiry found, is “highly annoying, suspicious and creepy” tactics used by some real-estate agents.
They show up on doorsteps to tell owners that if they don’t sell, they’ll be the only non-Orthodox around. Strangers, sometimes several to a car, shoot photos and videos. When they started pulling over to ask children which house was theirs, parents put an end to street-hockey games.
“It’s like an invasion,” said Thomas Kelaher, Toms River’s three-term mayor, who’s fielded complaints from the North Dover section since mid-2015. “It’s the old throwback to the 1960s, when blockbusting happened in Philadelphia and Chicago with the African-American community — ‘I want to buy your house. You’ll be sorry if you don’t.’ It scares the hell out of people.”
The upset has its roots in adjacent Lakewood, home to yeshivas including Beth Medrash Govoha, among the world’s biggest centers for Talmudic study. Scholars typically marry young and start large families that maintain strict gender roles and limit interaction with secular society.
Rabbi Avi Schnall, state director of Agudath Israel of America, which represents Orthodox Jews on political, social and religious issues, said a few sales agents “are overly aggressive and making a bad name for the others.” He declined to say whether anti-Semitism is at work, but said the “extent of the anger” in Lakewood’s neighboring towns is deep, fueling opposition to a learning center, a boarding school, dormitories and other proposals.
In 2014, Toms River accused Rabbi Moshe Gourarie of running a house of worship and community center in a residential area, an issue that in December drew more than 1,200 residents to a zoning hearing to raise concerns about traffic and property values.
“The residents are in an uproar not about the chabad so much, but about the real-estate canvassing,” said Gourarie’s attorney, Christopher Costa. Gourarie and his nonprofit outreach group have nothing to do with people looking for homes, and continue to seek permission to operate, he said.
“He’s been a little shocked to have 1,250 people object to what he’s been doing for 12 years,” Costa said. “Nothing has changed except for he’s suddenly being prosecuted.”
The friction reflects increasing insularity among the most religious Jews worldwide. In Israel, the Haredi inhabit a largely separate social world, according to a Pew Research Center survey this month. They share few connections even with their fellow Jews and there is scant intermarriage; 89 percent of the Haredim surveyed said all or most of their close friends belonged to their own community.
Though just 10 percent of America’s 5.3 million Jewish adults identify themselves as Orthodox, they have much larger families than others of their religion, and “their share of the Jewish population will grow,” according to a 2015 Pew survey. Their conservatism could “shift the profile of American Jews in several areas, including religious beliefs and practices, social and political views and demographic characteristics.”
Lakewood, once a rural destination for Rockefellers and other industry titans, is now a land of synagogues, religious schools, kosher groceries and residential neighborhoods in the grip of minivan gridlock. It’s also a place testing the limits of zoning enforcement for 95,000 people, at least half Orthodox, by Schnall’s estimate.
This month, after fire destroyed a single-family home, the Ocean County sheriff said that it was being used as an unauthorized dorm for as many as two dozen yeshiva students. Downtown, inspectors boarded up a commercial building four times, citing non-permitted use as a catering hall and Orthodox study center, only to see the plywood removed and the space reopened. The fifth board-up succeeded, backed by a planning-board ruling, said Steven Secare, the township attorney.
“The trend is going to continue into surrounding areas,” said David Holtz, 43, a Lakewood real-estate agent whose Orthodox clientele is drawn to low crime and sizable newer homes. Toms River residents who don’t want them, he said, are subscribing to “fear of the unknown,” and both Orthodox and secular communities need to abide one another.
That’s unlikely, according to Michael Dedominicis, a 40-year-old construction company owner who leads a social-media group called Toms River Strong that urges the town’s 91,000 residents not to sell. His account of dropping by a neighbor’s open house and being denied entry by its Orthodox listing agent is included in a 16-page report on real-estate canvassing issued by township officials Feb. 5.
“Where is the law in this situation?” Dedominicis said in an interview. “I have homeowners calling me, saying, ‘They’re converting a three-car garage into bedrooms!'”
The opposition, he said, has nothing to do with dislike of Jews, but with a fear that Toms River will become like Lakewood’s more tattered sections, with cars parked on lawns, overgrown landscaping, trash piled at curbs and residents crowding single-family homes.
The Orthodox dominate Lakewood’s school board. Though most schoolchildren attend private religious school, the township provides free, gender-segregated busing, which helps account for about half of a $12 million budget deficit. Some Toms River residents fear a similar drain.
“I don’t have a problem with you,” Dedominicis said. “I do have a problem with you buying your house, renting it out and bleeding my services.”
On March 18, Toms River will start enforcing a cease-and-desist ordinance, fining door-to-door real-estate agents who solicit owners listed in a “do-not-knock” registry. If the number of for-sale signs on front lawns is any signal, though, homeowners have little confidence in the measure.
Michael Mortellito, 50, with two children college-bound, said this was a good time to scale down from a 6,000-square-foot house, with a resort-like in-ground pool, outdoor fireplace and annual property taxes of $17,000. He acted as his own agent, he said, listing for $850,000, and is under contract with an Orthodox couple.
“They’re the only ones buying,” Mortellito said by telephone. “You’re not going to stop them. They’re going to take the town over no matter what.”
(c) 2016, Bloomberg · Elise Young
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20 Responses
BE”H
Right, we are the big bad wolf from from Goldilocks. Excellent comparison, Blacks threatening violence vs. Black-hatters threatening to buy ur house for double (or more) than what u had paid for it. BTW, would the Jew-loving Bloomberg write similarly if it were, say, the “Ten thousand Black Hats” conspiring to prevent the Chinese from expanding past Sunset Park?
“The opposition, he said, has nothing to do with dislike of Jews, but with a fear that Toms River will become like Lakewood’s more tattered sections, with cars parked on lawns, overgrown landscaping, trash piled at curbs and residents crowding single-family homes”
I believe there are many different ways of looking at this article, with various different factors. I think the most important question would be chillul Hashem, followed by the Non-Jews dislike of Jews (notice I didn’t use the word “hatred”). I’ve been to Lakewood, and probably most of the commenters have as well. The double parking, toys/bicycles in the streets and sidewalks, omitting to respond to a “Good Morning” or “Thank You” to Jews & Non-Jews alike, or the driving while using a cell-phone must really be deeply analyzed and determined whether it is a Chillul Hashem. On the same token, I’ve seen “dislike” or “hated” from Non-Jews about saying a Mezuzah on one’s front door or a Sukkah in one’s PRIVATE property backyard as being a code violation or nuisance. It certainly works both ways. All I can (humbly) say is that WE should be the ones that take the initiative to represent the Torah properly. Our big test is next week with Purim. As the Rav of my shul asked “If we saw a video at the end of our lives of how we conducted ourselves on Purim, would we be embarrassed or proud?” Even if the Non-Jews never begin to have a desire for us to expand; I think if we take Purim seriously, continue to always improve our midos, and remember that Derech Eretz Kadmah Le’Torah we will be in store for greater things than Tom’s River, NJ.
Burich Hashem let this problem continue over the entire world….
Filthy anti-semites don’t want Jews moving into their neighborhood. Give it 10 – 15 years and that town will be majority Jewish.
The residents of Toms River would do well to examine their own set of values compared to Jews: large families, property values declining, too many synagogues,learning centers, boarding schools, dormitories, etc., etc.
The learning centers study the Torah and the Talmud which to the citizens of Toms River are based on their Judaeo-Christen bibles. Criticism of large families, property values sounds like materialism, selfishness and arrogance to me.
The world my dear citizens of Toms River should be based on kindness, truth and justice (I am paraphrasing a passage from the Talmud of which the Jewish community studies daily — )not a false, deceiving, self serving interests which your community has.
If these Jews did not exist, would you still have diseases such as polio ?? Would lawlessness, drugs, murders, robberies, rapes, a chaotic legal system grow or end ??
Visit the New Jersey towns of Camden, Trenton, Newark, Patterson for part of the answer. Better yet tour downtown Baltimore or Detroit or East St. Louis Illinois.
In the end, Toms River loses whether they hold onto their “precious” homes or not.
May I as a goy suggest to all Jews especially in Lakewood NJ to do more Talmud Torah, more davvening and more Chesed—
Shalom, a goy
Gerry Mullen
Honestly, anyone that has seen Lakewood does NOT want that replicated anywhere near them nobody wants their property values to double in price if it means uncontrolled growth and traffic like in Lakewood., this is not anti-Semitism. Lakewood and Monsey are disasters for suburbia.
What a kiddush hashem.
I cant imagine what motivates anti semitism.
Three-car garages are OK. Bedrooms for children are not. That pretty much sums up the difference in priorities between the current residents and the newcomers.
The general Toms River old-time resident as well as the police and fire dept are very welcoming to the Jewish community here. This article refers to the exception not the rule
I live in a frum, out-of-town neighborhood that is not Monsey, Brooklyn, Lakewood, etc. I don’t miss the noisy, run-down homes, overgrown lawns, filthy streets with overparked cars, etc, and am very happy to live in a clean area with people who have a minimal level of self-respect. It’s not that I care more about material goods than children, or more about a shpitzy lawn than mitzvose, but I do want to live in a pleasant, clean, quiet place. I can totally see a good goy concerned about his neighborhood becoming the next Monsey, Brooklyn, Lakewood, which is quite unappealing. I’m with him!
Yiddish kind 2:
That is baloney. It is simply not true. There is a tremendous undertone of horrible Anti-Semitism cloaked in various forms in the communities surrounding Lakewood.
M,
You’re in the right place. With your warped and prejudiced and untrue view of general Monsey, Lakewood and Brooklyn, you don’t belong with those that appreciate a beautiful frum well taken care of community despite some exceptions. You are certainly with them.
Hmmmm. Whatever happened to East New York, Brownsville, Rugby, East Flatbush, etc…? Why is there a double standard when it comes to taxpaying Jews?
I live in Toms River. The only hatred is to those real estate agents who are applying too much pressure and forcing them to sell.
Every action has a reaction.
If a Lakewood resident cuts off someone while on their way to the dry cleaners on erev Shabbos, failing to signal or yield to an elder resident who is on their way to the podiatrist, I’ll bet a silver dollar that it will have an angered response. Can you say it is anti semitism? I doubt it.
Lakewood residents and residents everywhere should be mindful of their MIDOS.
I know not of the AMISH, but I can honestly say that I may truly despise them if I get caught in gridlock every time I drive through Pennsylvania.
People are rarely disliked without their MIDOS falling short.
We all need to be mindful of others and work on ourselves, rather than pointing fingers.
I moved from Brooklyn to Monsey when it was still a suburb now it’s B”H growing by leaps and bounds and I still love it – what can be nicer and better for my children and myself to live among Frum Jews. I would never change for a pristine lawn and live isolated among goyim.
karlbenmarx…comment #8….i think you said it best. i agree with you…almost. to say that there is not even one ounce of anti semitism here is simply wishful thinking. but, other than that little point, you are 100% on the mark. i think when yidden move into a previously non jewish neighborhood, they have to use a little seichel and not push their weight around too much. the goyim already have a dislike for us. we don’t have to give them more “feed for fodder”.
Tzoorba and Gilda, I’m going to agree with M. It’s very unlikely I will get a reciprocated “Good Morning” from many in Lakewood, Brooklyn, and Monsey. It’s very unlikely that Non-Jews and many Jews (including myself) find it acceptable that one side of the street is strictly for women to walk, the other for men- same with playgrounds. I have been a visitor to small communities where M lives where I received many Shabbos meal invites and ‘welcomes’, and Monsey where no one asked my name (I wouldn’t say that is so beautiful). But I have news for you- we are ALL on the same boat. If the Jewish residents of large Monsey or small Allentown, PA cause chillul Hashem, we are all in the same boat. Many here are posting a key word- “Midos Tovos”— we can ALL learn and improve.