Lakewood NJ , Jewish community (Lawrenceville: sale, condo, chapel)

[lakewoodresident]

I would add a little to this discussion as a resident of an adult community in Lakewood. We had a very nice over 55 adult condo community here that consists of 300+ small houses, a stream, nice lawns etc. Then all of a sudden the UOJ decided they needed a synagouge. So they bought a house using an old lady to purchase it, knock out the walls and started meeting on Fri nights, holding services on Sat. and more meetings on Sun. Forty to sixty of them show up on Saturday wearing thier robes etc.
Along with them they bring women and children. The bylaws of the community say residential use only and is private property. They just ignore the rules and have said we "own Lakewood" and will do what we want.
There are may elderly people living here who own these houses and this is all they have. Many are terrified of these UOJ's roaming the streets day and night. Also a few more houses we have noticed they are starting to gut the insides out, I guess for more temples. This is totally out of hand, the condo board has lawyers working on this but they seem to be blocked, the Zoning Dept, Building Dept. etc seem to be sidestepping the issue. Where do we turn now any help would be appreciated, I think it's time for Lakewood residents to take thier town back. Also beware this could happen in your town next.

And yes these are rude, arrogant people.

[kort677]

Originally Posted by lakewoodresident

I would add a little to this discussion as a resident of an adult community in Lakewood. We had a very nice over 55 adult condo community here that consists of 300+ small houses, a stream, nice lawns etc. Then all of a sudden the UOJ decided they needed a synagouge. So they bought a house using an old lady to purchase it, knock out the walls and started meeting on Fri nights, holding services on Sat. and more meetings on Sun. Forty to sixty of them show up on Saturday wearing thier robes etc.
Along with them they bring women and children. The bylaws of the community say residential use only and is private property. They just ignore the rules and have said we "own Lakewood" and will do what we want.
There are may elderly people living here who own these houses and this is all they have. Many are terrified of these UOJ's roaming the streets day and night. Also a few more houses we have noticed they are starting to gut the insides out, I guess for more temples. This is totally out of hand, the condo board has lawyers working on this but they seem to be blocked, the Zoning Dept, Building Dept. etc seem to be sidestepping the issue. Where do we turn now any help would be appreciated, I think it's time for Lakewood residents to take thier town back. Also beware this could happen in your town next.

And yes these are rude, arrogant people.

in addition they will try and claim the house is now a church and will get tax free status

[bigjersey]

The reform and conservative jewish community in Atlantic and Cape May counties is assimilated and actively involved in almost every facet of the community. In fact, the JCC and Jewish Family Service are some of the most active and visible community organizations in the area.

My guess is that the Lakewood ultra orthodox are migrating from New York City. If you haven't noticed, New York City does breed a sort of roughness, arrogance, and even a bit of paranoia among its residents. This is what accounts for the rudeness, NOT THEIR RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND. Furthermore, (in response so someone's assertion that Jews are rude) many of the Jews in Israel came from Eastern Europe and Russia. If you go to Eastern Europe or Russia today you will notice a rudeness and roughness among the gentiles as well. For instance, in Krakow and old gentile (Poland has like 2000 jews left) woman elbowed me in the ribs instead of saying excuse me. People are less folksy in those parts of the world... but it is NOT an ethnic or religious thing. Also, it should be noted that people in South Jersey are generally considered less friendly than say people in the Midwest. Midwestern Jews for instance are culturally more friendly and passive than say the average gentile from New Jersey. If you go anywhere in the midwest you would laugh if you were from New Jersey. People know how to wait in line patiently. If someone is driving slowly they generally slow down in order to avoid angst and frustration. In New Jersey people flash you their blinkers, honk, and waive their arms like they can't wait 30 seconds.

So MY advice is to engage that community on issues you can agree upon. Schools, Taxes, Lawn Care. BUT if they don't conform to community and zoning standards, AND their use of a residence as a temple is causing MAJOR problems for neighbors.. than go to city council and COMPLAIN. Knock on their doors and complain. Trust me, they won't suck your blood or eat you alive, or put a curse on you.

[lakewoodresident]

Actually I don't care who they pray, what they wear or where they live. What is wrong is their ignoring the rules of the condo, the using the house as a synagouge etc. The rules are here for everybody, white, black, UOJ or green people.

[Lepke]

Ok where do I begin?

Lakewoodresident, I don’t think the senior citizens in your community have any cause to fear orthodox Jews roaming the streets. These people are not especially known for violent criminal activity or victimizing the elderly.

As far as opening synagogues (not temples) in your community there is not much can be done. This seems to be something that ultra orthodox, Hasidic and Haredi Jews do that is near impossible to fight. They know every loophole to get around any bylaw, covenant, zoning ordnance, law or will of the existing community. They simply follow their own rules and laws and do not care what the secular world thinks.
The town has changed and there is nothing you can do.

Bigjersey, Lakewood has the largest adult yeshiva in the world, hence these folks are coming from all over the world not just New York.
Everything you said about secular, reform and conservative Jews is correct. We are good members of any community we inhabit. You can also add modern orthodox to that list.

I don’t know about this “people in South Jersey are generally considered less friendly than say people in the Midwest.” I have found people from jersey to be very friendly as are most New Yorkers including the orthodox ones. If you want to meet rude unfriendly people try Vermont.

You obviously don’t know much about the yeshiva orthodox of Lakewood or you wouldn’t advise gentiles to engage them. These are the very same Haredim who cause so many problems in Israel and they don’t want to be engaged by the secular world.

Lawn care? Many will only mow the lawn to keep from getting a fine.
Schools? They don’t send their children to the public schools and don’t want to pay for public schools.
Taxes? I guess every one can agree on taxes except they demand that taxes help pay for their religious schools and bus service while gutting the public schools.

For the most part they are rude to you or treat you as if you are invisible if they don’t know you are Jewish. Once they find out that you are a Jew they treat you very differently.

Unfortunately for us we won’t be wearing yellow stares that say “Jude” on them any time soon so I guess we’ll continue to be the brunt of rude unpleasant behavior.

[lakewoodresident]

Lakewoodresident, I don’t think the senior citizens in your community have any cause to fear orthodox Jews roaming the streets. These people are not especially known for violent criminal activity or victimizing the elderly.

This may be true but there was one of them that backed an older man late 80's in the corner after a condo meeting and told him that they are going to take the place over and if didn't like try to stop them.

Normally they may not be dangerous but there are people here in their late 80's and 90's. These people are afraid, most live alone as their spouses have passed on.

These people (if you can call them that) can be stopped. And I'll leave it at that. We bought a house here to enjoy our senior years and this garbage is not going to stop us without a fight.

[Lepke]

Originally Posted by lakewoodresident

This may be true but there was one of them that backed an older man late 80's in the corner after a condo meeting and told him that they are going to take the place over and if didn't like try to stop them.

Normally they may not be dangerous but there are people here in their late 80's and 90's. These people are afraid, most live alone as their spouses have passed on.

These people (if you can call them that) can be stopped. And I'll leave it at that. We bought a house here to enjoy our senior years and this garbage is not going to stop us without a fight.

I wish you luck my friend and hope you win the fight.
But I don’t think you can win. I’m originally from a community in Brooklyn called Sea Gate, a beautiful private seaside community. When I was growing up Hasidic Jews would come for the summer and rent homes or stay in the ocean breeze hotel, by fall they were gone. Don’t get me wrong, these were mostly very nice folks and there were very few if any problems. Then in the late 70’s they started buying houses and changed the entire neighborhood. They set up synagogues in private homes, mind you there were already 3 synagogues that had served the community for over half a century. Bought multi family houses and literally rented to anyone (and I mean anyone). The Sea Gate association and many long time residents fought tooth and nail but in the end we failed.
The very same sort of thing is and has been going on in Rockland county New York. I have a friend in an upper middle class town up there who is having the same problems. They’ve started moving into this very affluent town and pulling the same crap, setting up schools in private homes not zoned for this purpose not to mention numerous synagogues. My friend a Harvard educated attorney decided to run for mayor to try and stop this blatant violation of the zoning laws and unmitigated chutzpah (gall) of this new orthodox community in his town.
It wasn’t long before my friend was branded an anti-Semite and Nazi even though he and his entire family are Jewish. They voted as a block and he lost the election.

In the end they will take over your community. They will buy up houses and rent them to section 8 or illegal aliens until they have enough men to support a synagogue then they will move in. when it’s all said and done young families will be living in this community that was once reserved for 55 years and older. Not only that but they will still keep the tax breaks reserved for seniors, not paying the school taxes that everyone else has to pay.

Again the best of luck you will need it.

[lakewoodresident]

Also to anyone in Jackson the town next to Lakewood they are at your border and some are living just inside Jackson, beware. They just recently took over a supermarket on County Line Road in Jackson.
Howell you may be next. These people need to be stopped.

[LawrencevilleGA]

Originally Posted by lakewoodresident

Also to anyone in Jackson the town next to Lakewood they are at your border and some are living just inside Jackson, beware. They just recently took over a supermarket on County Line Road in Jackson.
Howell you may be next. These people need to be stopped.

Funny you should mention Howell.
I lived there for 30+years. Not a single UOJ to be seen as a resident.
They have repeatedly tried to infiltrate Howell and take over as they did in Lakewood. If I'm not mistaken Howell has certain laws preventing them from doing what they do in Lakewood. I may be wrong in that regard. Not involved in local politics.
Now it appears they are buying foreclosed homes in Howell and renting them out to Drug rehab groups. They don't even have to notify neighbors either.
They are protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
There's one house in a residential neighborhood that was bought with Cash almost 300K I think by a UOJ sounding woman's name.(matter of public record, can't remember it as of right now) The next week it's a half way house with convicted hard core rehabbed drug addicts (some 1 month removed). There's no supervision and there are 4-6 of them. They are supposed to police each other.
Crazy thing is Neighbors can't do a thing about it. The topper is...If you want to sell your house, you have to legally notify buyer that a half way house is your neighbor.
It's called Block Busting and it trickles down until the entire neighborhood is inhabited with riff raff. Then the orig. buyers move in and take over the neighborhood.
They are a smart bunch, that's for sure.

[lakewoodresident]

I think it is time for all the regular citizens in N.J. to start getting their act together to stop these people. Especially in the Lakewood, Jackson, Howell and Brick areas that border Lakewood. They have destroyed an old vaction town (Lakewood) and turned it into a mess. They are forcing old time residents old, turning everything they can into tax free religious and school buildings. Stuff a bunch into a house and call it a school dormiitory. Rent houses out to the illegal day workers (which I would rather have) who overcrowd the houses, which lowers the property values around them. Then they come in with a handful of cash and offer you half of what you thought this house you worked for is worth.