KJ האבן ארייגעגבען איבער 1,000 בלעטטער אין קארט!

KJ leaders mock dissidents' suit

Court papers rebut church-state issues

Just weeks after getting hit with a federal lawsuit alleging widespread discrimination against community dissidents, Kiryas Joel leaders have filed a pile of court papers disputing the claims and scoffing at the drastic remedies the plaintiffs have sought.

The case, filed in June by Goshen civil-rights lawyer Michael Sussman, argues that municipal and religious authority are so entwined in the Satmar Hasidic community that it blurs the constitutional line separating church and state. Dissidents claim to suffer discrimination in secular matters because they oppose the majority group's spiritual leader, Grand Rebbe Aaron Teitelbaum.

As a remedy, the plaintiffs have asked the court to dissolve the 34-year-old village or, short of that, remove its municipal leaders from office.

In a response filed this month, lawyers for the village call the case a "patchwork quilt of allegations" that "consists in large part of issues that already have been litigated and decided, in some cases on multiple occasions."

Brian Sokoloff, a Long Island lawyer representing Mayor Abraham Wieder and the village trustees, labels the demand for new leadership a "scorched earth" approach that would violate the constitutional rights of those officials and flout the will of voters.

"Plaintiffs seek to disqualify them from public office based solely on the membership of those individuals in a religious congregation," Sokoloff wrote.

'Grab bag' evidence, KJ says

Separate responses have been submitted by six lawyers or teams of lawyers in all, each representing different defendants. All are asking U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff to dismiss the case.

The lawsuit, brought by eight individuals, a dissident congregation and an umbrella organization called the Kiryas Joel Alliance, tries to show a pattern of discrimination against dissidents in public life through a series of examples that touch on property-tax exemptions, law enforcement and other areas.

In their replies, the defendants scorn that evidence as "a medley of unrelated incidents," a "grab bag" and a "mishmash."

Kiryas Joel was incorporated in 1977 as a satellite of the Brooklyn-based Satmar community and has a fast-growing population of more than 20,000. Its long-running internal conflicts stem from a split in the Satmar movement over support for rival Grand Rebbes Aaron and Zalman Teitelbaum — brothers with competing leadership claims.

Hasidic school suing village

Denial of building permit at issue

South Blooming Grove — A Hasidic school is suing the village for denying its request to rebuild a bungalow cottage into a model home for a new Hasidic community near Kiryas Joel.

The Article 78, filed last month in Orange County State Supreme Court by Sheri Torah Inc., says the village's denial of its building permit to replace the Apple Lane cottage with a modular building was "arbitrary and capricious."

The village Zoning Board of Appeals — upholding the decision of the village building inspector — rejected the religious school's request on appeal.

The board argued that the replacement building would enlarge the cottage by adding a second story and that the building was ineligible for renovation under current zoning because it was abandoned.

The school says the village decision is discriminatory. "The whole thing just evidences an attitude that is negative to this group establishing itself within (the village's) midst, and that's the tragedy," said Sheri Torah's attorney, Jim Sweeney.

The dwelling lies amid a bungalow community of 46 run-down rental cottages on 26.2 acres of an 800-plus-acre property once known as the Lake Anne Country Club, which fronts on Clove Road.

According to an affidavit filed with the Article 78, a group of Hasidic investors called Keen Equities bought the 800-plus acres in 2004 with the intent of creating a Hasidic community for family, friends and relatives who lived in or near Kiryas Joel, south of the property.

Sweeney contends that the non-Hasidic neighbors of the property conspired to thwart these plans in 2006 by incorporating the Village of South Blooming Grove, which includes the property. Village officials have denied this contention.

Similar discrimination claims have been raised in numerous lawsuits against the village, most of which have been dismissed or discontinued. In one of the remaining suits, Sheri Torah says the village Planning Board has been deliberately avoiding a request to convert a former casino near the cottages into a shul to serve as the epicenter of the community's religious way of life.

Dennis Lynch, the attorney for the village in the lawsuit against the ZBA, said the plaintiffs need permission from the Planning Board to renovate the cottage because it is abandoned, an assertion the plaintiff disputes.

The village, in turn, disputes the plaintiff's claim that the property was properly subdivided in 2009, when a religious court in Kings County transferred the property with the cottages to a break-off faction within Keen Equities known as Blue Rose Estates, which leases the cottages to Sheri Torah.

All three groups — Sheri Torah, Keen Equities and Blue Rose Estates — share the goal of turning the bungalow colony into a Hasidic community, Sweeney said.

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