Record touches lots of 'hot buttons' on Kiryas Joel
By
Ari Felberman
The Record included the Kiryas Joel administrator in its list of "The
Record's Most
Powerful." In the write-up, you noted that Kiryas Joel was a "hot-button
topic" and that
brings me to my point: Unlike the Orange County Human Rights
Commission, which avoided the
"hot-button topic," the Record seems to enjoy pressing
the "hot button."
Cases in point: You write that developer Jonah Mandelbaum built
hundreds of units with
hundreds more on the drawing board. You then write that
developer Nachman Kanovsky - ¦
built close to 1,000 homes, almost all eventually bought
by Orthodox Jews." If the
religious beliefs of home buyers is newsworthy, why didn't
you enlighten us about the
religious beliefs of the buyers of Jonah Mandelbaum's
"hundreds of units"?
The "hot button" is getting warm.
You named five
individual builders who, together, built thousands of units in Orange
County in just
the past few years and called them "powerful." On the other hand, the
housing units
built in Kiryas Joel are dubbed "uncontrolled growth," which will cause
Kiryas Joel to
"own Orange County."
The "hot button" is getting hot.
You then write, - ¦
when KJ has 50,000 people and owns Orange County, King Szegedin will
rule us all." This
statement is sadly tantamount to shouting "fire" in a crowded theater.
This incendiary
statement implies that growth in Orange County, outside Kiryas Joel, has
come to a
complete halt, and that just isn't so. As a matter of fact, 40 years from now,
when
Kiryas Joel will have 50,000 people, Orange County may have 1 million people! So how
do
you figure that Kiryas Joel would rule?
Besides the point that Kiryas Joel never
had any designs or desires to rule anyone, Kiryas
Joel never even put up a candidate to
run in Town of Monroe or in County Legislature
elections when they would have won
hands-down.
The "hot button" is getting hotter.
You threw in the mix these
juicy statements: "the indomitable KJ machine," "dashing off
screeds" and "conjures
projects few other municipal leaders would contemplate." You
portrayed the Kiryas Joel
leadership as omnipotent in a "Cardinal Richelieu" sense when in
reality it should be
seen for what it is - forthright and caring.
Let's face facts. Hasidic communities
aren't welcomed with open arms anywhere in Orange
County. As such, Hasidic Jews wishing
to live in Orange County have but one choice, the
Village of Kiryas Joel. Village
leaders are cognizant of their responsibilities and act
accordingly. They remember how
they struggled to provide their residents services that
other county residents take for
granted, whether it's water, sewer or education for the
village's handicapped
children.
Yet, after all its accomplishments, Kiryas Joel never sought to expand
its power base, not
very Richelieu-esque.
The "hot button" is getting red
hot.
Jews the world over recently celebrated Passover without fear of the infamous
"blood
libels" or their repercussions. The civilized world now knows that the "blood
libels" were
baseless. But how many tens of thousands of Jews were slaughtered before
the now-civilized
world became enlightened? Fear-mongering, especially on "hot-button
topics," can be
extremely dangerous.
Kiryas Joel residents extend their hand in
friendship to their neighbors to jointly build
a better Orange County.
Ari
Felberman is government relations coordinator for the Village of Kiryas
Joel.
[סשמאל
http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2006/05/05/opinion-5views-05-05.html
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