There are rumblings of anti-Semitism on Long Island.
Some who summer in the exclusive Hamptons have lodged complaints, fearing the beachfront community is attracting an enclave of Orthodox Jews.
Residents of a wealthy East End enclave are up in arms and living in fear that their tony way of life will be destroyed – all because of a quarter-inch strip of plastic.
The furor has broken out, after a local Shul asked permission to erect an Eruv in the community. The Eruv would be made of thin PVC strips attached to power poles on a one-square-mile perimeter around the Hampton Shul.
Some Westhampton Beach gentile residents oppose the eruv because they fear it will attract more Orthodox Jews to the area.
“The building of the “eruv” is really about some young mothers in my congregation who want to wheel their babies to synagogue on Saturday,” Rabbi Marc Schneier told CBS2 HD.
But a disturbing email was circulated and complaints came into the village with “worries” the rabbi was trying to “turn” wealthy Westhampton beach into an Orthodox enclave.
“They walk in the street, which you’re not supposed to, cross anyplace,” one year-round resident told CBS 2 HD. “It’s just not right.”
“The stores will all have to change to conform with Shabbat,” another said.
“The Orthodox, I’m not sure, that’s a little bit more strict,” said another.
(Source: NY Post / WCBSTV)
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8 Responses
Maybe if we followed the rules of crossing streets and didn’t act entitled and arrogant, making a chilul Hashem , perhaps we wouldn’t have a problem creating new communities….
An eruv at the beach?? Pretzus I tell you, pretzus!
this should serve as a reminder that us yiden are in galus and we should not be “mishing” with the goyim. this is what happened in mitzrayim and what happend in europe. klal yisrael is not supposed to be living lives like the goyim, going to their vacation spots, acting like we are the bosses, this is what causes anti-semitism. unfortunatly this is the times we are in. making minyunim on planes, buliding eruvs in communities that have no intrest in hosting us. we are all living in sad times, hopefully we wil all be zoyche to be takin out of galus be’mahayra b’yamaynu.
Of all of the people to fight for an eruv. Wasn’t his father the “guy” who invited the Pope to shul on a Friday night?
I kinda agree with them, let’s face it
when Jews move to a place a lot of things
will have to change… Like dirty pictures
in store windows. It is also a problem
in religious communities that littering
is a norm like on Chol Hamoed at Coney Island
or Boro Park,Williamsburg,CH. Just build
a community somewhere where it isn’t populated
and make your own community, that’s America.
There is on choice, this eruv MUST be supported by the entirety of Orthodox Jewry. After all, we support any other eruv in any other community, why not this one? Moreover, many of the congregants in that synagogue are not yet fully shomer Shabbat. They carry on Shabbat without an eruv. Erecting an eruv will reduce the level of chilul Shabbat in that area, which is a good thing. As such we MUST support it.
I can’t believe you guys can even agree with this. Are you all self-hating Jews?
The point here is that non-Jews often judge our entire community by what a few Jews do. Not crossing the street at the right place? Why is this a reason to try and take steps to keep out an ENTIRE COMMUNITY of people because SOME of them might do something like —- cross the street wrong? (As if it’s such a big deal.)
Let’s look at this another way. Imagine if they were trying to keep out African Americans because some African Americans rob people. Of course that’s racist. That’s the classic definition of prejudice – pre-judging. Saying you can judge a person by looking at their skin color or their religion.
IT HAPPENS TO BE that not all black people are criminals, of course, and they should have a right to live wherever they want. LIKEWISE, not all Orthodox Jews can be judged by the behavior of a few.
Let’s look at the example above of the kosher wrappers on the Coney Island beach. Is it fair to say that NO Orthodox Jews should live in an area because some of them litter? I am a perfect CASE IN POINT: my husband and I took our children to a beach along the Hudson River during chol hamoed Pesach, and at the end of the day, what did we do? We noticed all the kosher l’pesach wrappers, and we are our four children CLEANED UP THE ENTIRE BEACH OURSELVES. There was not one single piece of garbage left on the entire beach when we left. (We didn’t write letters of complaint here on YWN, we took action. Does my family deserve to be labeled because of the other families who littered?)
Should my family also be painted with the same brush as those who litter? Should we also be pushed out of communities? Of course not. THIS IS WHY PREJUDICE IS SO WRONG. It’s unfair, not to mention impossible, to judge a person by their race or religion. That’s why the anti-eruv/anti-Orthodox campaigns ARE antisemitic.
And let’s be honest, is jaywalking THAT BAD? You don’t see Orthodox Jews climbing through windows at night – at least we’re not at all a physical threat to anyone. Let’s be honest: they just don’t like us because we’re different.
And anyway, so what if they’re afraid of change? Every community changes as its demographic changes. This is normal. If they don’t like it, too bad.
Anyway, stop justifying their prejudice and acting like self-hating Jews. Be proud of who you are, and proud that we ARE different.
To Bas Torah…
I agree on the general idea of your
post but there are some things I don’t:
1. Crossing in middle of the street
is not that big of a problem unless
you want to get killed on a country road.
2.You said “Coney Island beach. Is it fair to say that NO Orthodox Jews should live in an area”
Nobody is saying no Orthodox Jews can live there
but I think they are afraid it will become the
next Kiryas Yoel.
Anyway I agreed with your idea of prejudice,
Good post.