A growing list of Republican officials have stepped up in recent days to condemn hateful and antisemtic statements made by GOP members against the Orthodox Jewish community in Jackson Township, New Jersey. But so far no action has been taken to remove party members from their posts.
A statement released by RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt, and New Jersey Senator Robert Singer, condemned “hateful rhetoric in the strongest possible terms.” The party leaders added, “There is no place for anti-Semitism in our party.” The joint statement came in response to several social media posts by Jackson GOP chairwoman Clara Glory and Jackson GOP Club President Todd Porter.
In a recently surfaced Facebook post, Glory seemed to agree with a user referred to Orthodox Jews as “crooks,” suggesting they “should be deported.” Glory maintained that this is not called “stereotyping” because the facts are that Jackson residents fear of the growing Orthodox Jewish community. In another post, Glory indicated that members of the Jewish community “break the laws of the town.”
In 2015, Porter also suggested that local residents should blasted heavy metal music during daylight hours to keep the Orthodox Jews out of local parks.
Jackson Mayor Michael Reina recently admitted that he’s intentionally discriminating against the rapidly growing Orthodox Jewish community in his township, according to an audio obtained by YWN.
During a meeting earlier this year, former Ocean County GOP chairman George Gilmore is overheard in the audio asking the 3-term Republican mayor if he’d be fighting churches the same way he’s fighting shuls and Jewish institutions. “If these were churches would we be fighting them?” Gilmore asked.
“Absolutely not,” was Reina’s response.
The hatred against the local Jewish community has become extremely concerning following the deadly terror attack at the Kosher grocery in Jersey City last week.
Ocean County GOP Chairman Frank Holman, III has so far declined calls to intervene, and refused to comment on the posts.
Hirsh Singh, a Republican candidate running for Senator Cory Booker’s Senate seat, joined his party’s leaders in denouncing the local officials. “As an Indian American, I understand firsthand the stupidity of bigotry, hate, and racism,” Singh said in a statement. “Anti-Semitism is all 3 and it has no place in the Republican Party or America. It must be condemned and stopped. We cannot ignore hate or anti-Semitism and allow it to breed here in New Jersey, one of the most diverse racially and culturally states in America. That is why I am proud to be a member of the party that represents religious and racial equality and freedom for all, the Republican Party.”
Last month, Council President Rob Nixon, who was named as a defendant in the lawsuit filed against the township by Agudath Israel of America for “outrageously targeting” the Orthodox Jewish community, resigned from his post as the case proceeded. The matter is also under investigation by the Attorney General and Department of Justice.
In an audio, obtained by YWN, former Jackson planning board member Richard Egan can be heard at a meeting calling Councilman Ken Bressi “delusional” and “deranged” for “looking to destroy the town and take over the government after it is destroyed” and comparing him to Hitler after Bressi intervened to settle the suit and. Bressi had also called out several Jackson Township public officials as being anti-Semitic.
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15 Responses
This is sick and they should be ostracized from the Republican Party
They’re no different than the squad
Why do people forget that we’re in golus???
Even in America Eisav soneh l’Yaakov
Who would have believed?
though it seems that most are still denying while burying their heads in the sand
This has absolutely nothing to do with golus, or anti-semitism in general. We bring it on ourselves. Our negative reputation, though created by a very small fraction of our community, preceded us to Jackson Township. Can it be reversed? Probably not. Those who can’t afford housing in traditional Yiddishe enclaves, e.g. Boro Park, Williamsburg, or Monsey, will need to move to someplace like Postville, Iowa or elsewhere, someplace where the residents haven’t heard about Jews ripping the throats out of their fellow Jews or committing disgusting white collar crimes that land them in prison.
Arizona,
BS
He didn’t say anything about African Americans or Hispanics which commit crimes too
Coffee addict, as you can see they *are* being ostracized from the GOP. The equivalent people in the Democratic Party are not. The article complains that “so far no action has been taken to remove party members from their posts”, but it doesn’t explain what exactly the party could do about that. They don’t seem to have posts with either the state or the national party. They’re officials of a local political club, which is controlled entirely by its own members; I expect those members will meet in due course and boot these people out, but I don’t think there’s anything the party can do about it.
Arizona, Yidden do nothing to deserve this degree of animosity.
He’s a Democrat. Why is that “shocking”.
He’s a Republican. Read the article before you comment.
@Arizona
Your self reflection may be commendable, but have you heard of Stockholm syndrome?
I too used to be extremely perturbed by infractions in decency that i heard of regarding the community i reside in. Whether it was brooklyn, where i grew up, or lakewood, where i live now, or monsey, where i lived as a newly married man.
Not being one to just take hearsay as a given, (see shmiras haloshon for more info), and not being one to lament and let go, i embarked on two interesting endeavors. I made it a point every time i saw something upsetting, such as a car driving irresponsibly, or not starting when the light turned green, to actually see who was driving before adding it to my “here we go again” box.
Also, i started following people who cut me or others off, till an area where i could converse with them, to find out their thought process. (freaky i know, and unsafe too, but hey, i’m still young b”H:)
I found something very interesting, many of the infractions where not done by “our” community, and of those that were, who i actually got to discuss with after, many had some very simple explanations for what happened which usually came down to a difference in perspective.
This led my to an ongoing conclusion 1. All situations with high volume are a mess. Just look at downtown Manhattan. Hardly because of jews there. 2. since we are a conscientious people we are extremely sensitive to the image of our community, which ends up exaggerating the actual reality of those said infringements. Check it out for yourself. This includes our “expanding community” issue.
Although i believe it can be done better, truth is all minority communities have a housing issue with “not enough affordable housing”. They just have advocates demanding rich people make them ample apartments and amenities while we fend for ourselves with the help of above.
Arizona, so the prisons are empty of blacks, Latinos AND whites, right? It’s only us Jews who are soooo bad!!! Whites and blacks don’t shoot people all the time, don’t cheat and rob all the time, Latinos are not involved in drugs and gangs… no it’s only us Jews who are soooo bad!
Ugh, you make me want to vomit. I mean, we are not perfect, some from within our communities can be crooks and rude, and we can try to better ourselves as individuals, but overall, certainly according to the violence and crime that people from other races commit, we rank the best. And that’s a fact.
Who’s a Democrat? Reina is a Republican.
@philosopher
@chash
Both of you, very well said!
@arizona, you suffer from a disorder, you gotta be blind and sick to even compare the level of crimes from our community to the rest of the population, we are not perfect, but not to compare to others.
“heavy metal music”?-heck, would sound like most of the chasuna music nowadays.
Jealousy, jealousy and yet more jealousy is the root. unfortunately we don’t help ourselves in how we live I’m talking most specifically to those with means. You don’t realize how your justification for acquisition and need to flaunt your wealth has affected us all .You are drilling holes on OUR ship.