NJ Schools are Closed; Lakewood, NJ Schools are (Not) Closed? And Please, Donate Blood

 

March 22, 2020

NJ Gov. Phil Murphy on State Shutdown: “Folks Needed To Be Jolted”

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy told ABC’s “This Week” why he announced a statewide ban on social gatherings and non-essential workers going to work.

“Folks needed to be jolted,” He said. “You mentioned in the tape that it’s no time to panic, but just as — just the same, it’s no time for business as usual.”

Murphy vows tougher measures against gatherings as coronavirus count nears 2,000

Gov. Phil Murphy on Sunday vowed stricter enforcement of his edict against public gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic as the number of confirmed cases in New Jersey is fast approaching 2,000.

Confronted with anecdotes about students still attending and living in a religious school in Lakewood and some nonessential stores remaining open, Murphy said that when he hears such stories, “we are really damned unhappy and we’re going to take action.”

“We are not happy with people out there ignoring what is a clear, unmistakable order to stay at home,” the governor said during his daily coronavirus briefing.

Murphy did not specify how enforcement would be ramped up, but his statement during the conference call with reporters came one day after he imposed tighter restrictions on public gatherings in New Jersey.

Murphy, who had previously restricted gatherings to 50 people, said his Saturday executive order “actually dropped it to zero” and that state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal would weigh in on the situation during Monday’s briefing.

Earlier Sunday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered New York City to come up with a plan to reduce the number of people gathering in public spaces within 24 hours. Cuomo said he saw people gathered in large groups and playing recreational sports during a tour of public places in the city on Saturday. He said such activity is “insensitive, it’s arrogant, it’s self-destructive, it’s disrespectful to other people and it has to stop and it has to stop now,”

 

Lakewood, New Jersey, Covid-19 MORTAL THREAT!

Coronavirus: Orthodox Jewish leaders close Lakewood synagogues, citing ‘mortal threat’

Mike Davis and Gustavo Martínez Contreras, Asbury Park PressPublished 6:50 p.m. ET March 20, 2020 | Updated 8:31 a.m. ET March 21, 2020

LAKEWOOD – Rabbis from a coalition of Orthodox Jewish organizations — including the Orthodox Union, Agudath Israel and the Lakewood Vaad — Friday declared the coronavirus outbreak a “mortal threat” and ordered sweeping changes.

“We have taken the unprecedented and deeply distressing step of shuttering the central fixtures of our lives — our shuls, yeshivos and schools — and certainly to eliminate other gatherings,” the religious leaders said in a statement.

The declaration followed more evidence Friday, announced by Gov. Phil Murphy and public health officials, of the spread of the coronavirus in New Jersey.

All of the Asbury Park Press coverage of coronavirus is being provided free for our readers. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Press at APP.com/subscribe.

In recent days, government and religious leaders have expressed worry that the public health warnings — more social distancing and bans on large crowds — were not sufficiently being followed in Lakewood, sparking an uptick in local cases of the disease.

 

Friday’s message from the religious leaders amplified the warnings.

“This is an unprecedented situation,” doctors and religious leaders said on an automated phone call, sent to the town’s entire Jewish community Friday afternoon. “We beg you to prevent all and any congregating.

“Only isolating will prevent greater catastrophe from unfolding.”

Ocean County:  Change isn’t easy amid coronavirus outbreaks, say Lakewood Orthodox Jewish leaders

Chaskel Bennett@ChaskelBennett

Robocall released to the entire Jewish Community of Lakewood NJ from Doctors, First Responders, Rabbonim & community leaders: STAY HOME, SAVE LIVES!!@AsburyParkPress @GovMurphy @AgudahNews @Avi_schnall

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1:35 PM – Mar 20, 2020

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The directive made for a Friday unlike any in a long time in one of the nation’s biggest Orthodox Jewish enclaves.

The streets were so empty that finding a parking spot near the door of Gourmet Glatt, a Kosher grocery store, had never been easier.

 

 

How Can a $5M STEM Grant Benefit Yeshiva Students Who Are not Taught STEM Subjects? Are they?

Orthodox Yeshivas Claim to Need STEM Funding To Hire STEM Teachers. But, They Do NOT Teach Their Students STEM Subjects.

STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. We are the first to advocate for, if not demand the teaching of STEM subjects to ALL schoolchildren. We believe that it is fundamentally neglectful that children are not raised on a core curricula including STEM subjects. But, dream as we may…

That advocacy is all for naught. Yeshivas do not teach their students science, technology, engineering and math. They do not allow their students on the internet (unless it is Kosher) and they do not by implication teach STEM subjects. They therefore should not be getting money geared toward the hiring of STEM teachers, when that money will inevitably and inherently not be used for that purpose.  It is the same scam as e-rate, which was money intended to be used for computer equipment. It’s an oxymoron, Jumbo Shrimp – so-to-speak.

Cooperation and Mutual Respect in Ocean County – Letter to Editor

DEAR EDITOR OF LM:

 

I am a 25 year resident of the Jersey Shore and a 3 year resident of

our Jersey Shore town.

 

I have been watching closely the issues surrounding the

growth of Lakewood and the expansion of the Orthodox

community into our Jersey Shore town.

I have heard they are all ready in the southern

part of our Jersey Shore town and are buying up businesses.

I have also heard that they had bought up

a lot of land in our town years ago.

I have seen what has happened in Jackson and it

is so disheartening. Jackson has not been respectful

of their growth and now has federal lawsuits pending against it.

 

Has your group been aware of the future growth of

the Orthodox community into our town and what to

anticipate as far as funding to our public schools,

land use laws, and RLUIPA ? I welcome the

Orthodox community, but I want

to see responsible development, environmental

sustainability and preservation of the beautiful

rural character of our town. I do not want us to be

slapped with lawsuits like Jackson. I certainly do not

want our town to look like Lakewood either.

 

I would like to see us work with the Orthodox community

and not see it  divide our community like it has in Jackson.

 

Again, I hope I have not come across as disrespectful to

the Orthodox community, but I want to see our town

welcome them yet balance it with responsible

development and not have political tensions and

conflict which has also happened in Rockland

and Orange County, NY.

Anonymous.

The GOP Bowing to Pressures of Agudath Yisroel and Major Fundraisers – Not About Religion, About Over-Development

This is a Land Use Issue. It Always Has Been. Any Other Characterization is a Strategic Misrepresentation.

Dear Readers:

This blogger has been accused of being a liberal, a self-hating Jew and an anti-Semite. If I am to be judged by those who choose to bully and use the judicial system as a constant weapon, shove the mantra of anti-Semitism down everyone’s throats and toss integrity to the wind, then I will take whatever insults someone wants to sling my way.

A more recent accusation was that I am an idealist too. Yeah… true enough. It would be nice if money was not the currency of darkness, if honest opinions and speech was not chilled by hundreds of thousands of dollars; and if truth and transparency were the goals for which we all strive.

But that is just not happening. It was a lofty goal when this blog was started.

Four years later, the insults sometimes feel more like compliments when the judgments come from those whose moral compass sits far askew from my own.

This piece is focused on over development and the misapplication of laws, the manipulation of a system by those who want to use anti-Semitism to justify any mode of behavior and the resulting tragedy for everyone.

Zoning in Jackson Township, New Jersey should never have invited the chorus of the “anti-Semitism” choir. It should not have attracted big money donors and Agudath Yisroel who want to chalk everything up to anti-Semitism to allow their own to act with impunity. Codes and laws should be enforced equally across the board. The laws passed were intended to foster responsible development and maintain a quality of life within a specific landscape, not to chase out religion. That ultra-Orthodox Jews were and continue to be the most affected by those laws is a function of sheer numbers and statistics, not a generalized hatred.

I have said repeatedly that the Holocaust should not have given us a sharper spear to toss when things don’t go our way. Using it as such demoralizes everyone who perished during the Holocaust, and only increases an “us versus them mentality” which ultimately intensifies hostility. It is a dangerous game to play. And so it begins.   

The NJ Gov. and AG Should Have Been Investigating Claims of RUOC, Claiming Anti-Semitism is a Ruse

If the AG and Governor of the State of New Jersey Can Restrict Speech and Press at Whim, When Can They Restrict Due Process? When Can They Deny Appropriate Redress? Where Does the Truth Get Blurred?

Dear Readers:

Question – 

Could Facebook be held to have facilitated the commission of a crime if leaving the page (Rise Up Ocean County) standing, would have prevented it?

The Attorney General Gurbir Grewal in New Jersey along with the Governor Phil Murphy likely never read the articles or opened any investigations into claims made by Rise Up Ocean County, which investigations had nothing to do with anti-Semitism. Those claims included but were not limited to: basement businesses in private homes not zoned for commercial use, bank fraud, zoning law violations, irresponsible land use and a litany of others.

That the comments on the page were occasionally hateful and vitriolic is a shame and a challenge for any page moderator; but not grounds to remove the page. The State of New Jersey has court rulings that preclude the infringement on any speech that does not incite violence.

The Supreme Court just affirmed that when it comes to the First Amendment, hate speech is not an exception. The ruling was over a federal trademark law that banned people from registering offensive names; the court sided unanimously an Asian-American rock band named the Slants, whose band name was deemed racially disparaging. But many argue hate speech is not the same as free speech — it incites violence and does not warrant constitutional protection. Should hateful speech be protected? 

Lawsuit Claims Anti-Semitism and Does not Acknowledge Over-development and Irresponsible Zoning

‘Significant anti-Semitic hostility’ blamed for Jackson housing project denial, lawsuit says

VIDEO

JACKSON – The developer who proposed building 459 units of housing on South Hope Chapel Road has sued the township and its Planning Board, claiming the plan was rejected because of a “rising tide of anti-Semitism in the township.”

“The board denied the application, bowing to severe anti-Semitic pressure from local residents and fears that Orthodox Jews may purchase homes and reside in the development,” the lawsuit states, “and due to the inclusion in the development of a house of worship that may be used as a synagogue by Orthodox Jews.”

Dr. Rich Roberts speaks: Meet Dr. Rich Roberts, the GOP mega-donor using his clout to fight ‘bigotry against Orthodox Jews’ in Jackson

‘Atrocious actions’: Breaking down the letter from Dr. Rich Roberts to Jackson mayor

Gregory P. McGuckin, who served as Planning Board attorney when the Jackson Trails application was discussed, said Tuesday he had not yet seen the lawsuit.