Dissident Jews say enclave in NY oppresses them

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JIM FITZGERALD, Associated Press

Updated 03:46 p.m., Monday, June 13, 2011

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WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — Dissidents in a Hasidic Jewish enclave in upstate New York demanded Monday that the village be dissolved on the grounds that its existence violates religious freedom.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court, the dissidents say the majority congregation has taken over village government in Kiryas Joel and selectively enforces tax, zoning, election and other laws to oppress them.

"Due to this inherent and unavoidable entanglement between religion and government, the village has engaged, and continues to engage, in religious discrimination," the lawsuit said.

Kiryas Joel's attorney, Donald Nichol, denied any infringement of religious rights.

"These people have been allowed to exercise their religious freedom even beyond the village statutes," he said.

Kiryas Joel was incorporated in 1977 by members of the Satmar Hasidic sect from Brooklyn. Few if any others live there. A village of large families, it is one of the fastest-growing places in the state, with a population of 23,000.

It also is listed as among the poorest places in the country and is heavily dependent on food stamps, Medicaid and federal housing vouchers. But it has little of the street crime or drug problems that other poor communities have.

The lawsuit says many of the dissidents — nine are named as plaintiffs — follow the teachings not of the grand rebbe, Aron Teiltelbaum, but his brother Zalman Teiltelbaum, who leads a Satmar group in Brooklyn. It says the dissidents comprise about 40 percent of the village population.

The lawsuit says the dissidents recently established a wedding hall outside the village where couples could be married by rabbis not sanctioned by the grand rebbe. Village officials then told the majority congregation to excommunicate the newlyweds, the lawsuit says. It says religious leaders also incited violence against the couples with "hateful" leaflets and loudspeaker announcements.

The lawsuit also says the village gives tax-exempt status to the main congregation but not the dissidents, disregards its own zoning law to advance the main congregation's activities and assesses sanitation fees against dissident organizations even when they use outside garbage companies.

It also alleges voting fraud, including intimidation of voters and busing in non-residents to vote.

The lawsuit asks that the village be dissolved, or that religious leaders not be permitted to hold government office for 25 years.

Nichol, the village attorney, said that proposed remedy would itself be religious discrimination.

"It would be like saying a Catholic can't be president," he said.

The lawsuit names as defendants the village, the main congregation and several village officials.

It does not name the grand rebbe as a defendant but calls him a "key non-party."

In a separate lawsuit, also filed Monday but in state court in Rockland County, Sussman targeted the grand rebbe of another Hasidic enclave, in New Square.

That lawsuit alleges that Grand Rebbe David Twersky directed a fiery attack on a villager who had begun praying at a synagogue other than the main synagogue in New Square, 30 miles from Manhattan.

On May 22, Aron Rottenberg suffered third-degree burns over half his body in what police said was an attempt to burn down his house. Another New Square resident, Shaul Spitzer, has been charged with attempted murder. The lawsuit alleges — as Sussman has previously, in a letter seeking a federal investigation — that Twersky was responsible.

Hank Sheinkopf, who advises some village leaders, said attorneys had not yet seen the lawsuit.

It seeks $36 million for Rottenberg and his family from Twersky and Spitzer.

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Dissident Jews say enclave in NY oppresses them

Originally published: June 13, 2011 4:38 PM
Updated: June 13, 2011 6:45 PM
By The Associated Press JIM FITZGERALD (Associated Press)

Quick ReadDissident Jews in Hasidic enclave in NY say it discriminates against them, should be dissolved

(AP) -- Dissidents in a Hasidic Jewish enclave in upstate New York demanded Monday that the village be dissolved on the grounds that its existence violates religious freedom.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court, the dissidents say the majority congregation has taken over village government in Kiryas Joel and selectively enforces tax, zoning, election and other laws to oppress them.

ארטיקל אין The Record ביי די סעטלעמענט 1997
 
The Times Herald-Record KJ, DISSIDENTS REACH PACT Dateline: NEW YORK CITY Tuesday, March 11, 1997 Section: News Edition: Pike County Page: 3 By PAULA McMAHON Staff Writer Illustration: Record photo: Although the lawsuit was focused on one building -- the Khal Charidim synagogue at 3 Van Buren Drive -- it had much wider implications for the community. Text: The two sides in the long-running dispute in Kiryas Joel worked out a peace agreement yesterday and vowed to try to live together without conflict. ''We are brothers,'' said Zalman Waldman, one of the leaders of the minority group as he left the federal courthouse. ''It's like when two brothers get in a fight and when it is straightened out, everybody is happy.'' ''This marks a new beginning for Kiryas Joel,'' said Deputy Mayor Abraham Wieder. ''We have developed a framework of working together. Now our village can move forward as a community whose residents live together in harmony as we build for a bright and prosperous future.'' Dissident Joseph Waldman said he was very happy with the deal. ''I'm willing to give (village officials) another chance. We pray to God that everything will work out.'' The terms of the agreement are an attempt to settle a wide variety of controversial issues in the village - ranging from religious rows to governmental matters. Included in the deal is an agreement to let the minority group of dissidents open their synagogue, which the Village of Kiryas Joel had previously refused to permit. The dissident Khal Charidim group brought a $6 million civil rights lawsuit against the Village of Kiryas Joel. The complaint stated that village officials used their governmental power to discriminate against a minority group which had broken away from the religious majority. Michael Sussman of Goshen, the lawyer who represented the dissidents, said he thinks the agreement will significantly diminish the community's problems. ''As with any settlement, the success will be in the doing - it's not in the lawyers talking,'' he said. ''There will have to be understanding on both sides - and tolerance.'' Lawyer Benjamin Ostrer of Chester, who assisted Sussman, said it was in the interest of the whole community to settle in a way that was acceptable from religious and legal standpoints. ''An in-court decision alone would have placed a big question mark over the success of the deal,'' he said. Although the lawsuit was focused on one building - the Khal Charidim synagogue at 3 Van Buren Drive - it had much wider implications for the community. In fact, the federal complaint opened up many issues including what the dissidents' lawyer called the ''blurring of the line between church and state in Kiryas Joel.'' It is a complex deal and it was not easily negotiated by either side. The understanding was reached by an unusual blend of religious negotiations among a number of rabbis in Brooklyn and the trial process in the secular federal court in downtown Manhattan. The resolution came on the fifth day of testimony in the jury trial. It was a day of cliffhanger tension in the courthouse as the two sides wavered between near-agreement and near-collapse of the negotiations. U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff allowed a two-hour adjournment yesterday morning when he was told that representatives from both factions had been working with a group of rabbis in Brooklyn to try to hammer out a deal since Sunday night. When the two hours were up at about 11 a.m., the village's lawyers told the judge they believed an agreement had been reached, while the minority group's legal team said they did not know if there was a deal. The judge then allowed another adjournment until 1:45 p.m., warning both groups that there had better be an agreement by then, or Deputy Mayor Abraham Wieder would return to the stand and the trial would continue. During that break, tensions rose and fell in the courthouse as the lawyers tried to contact the negotiating teams in Brooklyn. One lawyer yelled into a public phone in a stairwell. Village officials zigged and zagged from one end of the hallway to the other murmuring among themselves. And security was beefed up when so many young students from the Satmar sect's rabbinical schools arrived at the courthouse, that security officers cleared the courtroom and made everyone stand on line in the lobby to get a ticket for the afternoon session. When 1:45 p.m. came, there was no settlement and Wieder returned to the stand, where he continued to testify until shortly before 3:30 p.m., when dissident leader Zalman Waldman and officials including Village Treasurer David Eckstein and Village Trustee Mendel Schwimmer walked quietly into the courtroom. ''My client is here. He says they have a settlement,'' Sussman told the court. Like the dispute it was created to resolve, the agreement was not simple. And even as Sussman was reading the terms of the agreement onto the court record, there were still some details to be ironed out. At one point, nine men clustered around the courtroom microphone whispering about clarifications to the deal. Seconds later, the whole treaty seemed to be on the verge of collapse when questions arose about whether another pending lawsuit about federal housing programs in the village would be dropped, too. Another stern warning from Rakoff and the two sides agreed that the second lawsuit would also be dismissed. Everyone involved in the lawsuit then stated on the record that they had reached agreement. And the deal was done. Whether or not the pact will resolve the community's problems depends on both sides' actions, Judge Rakoff warned them in court yesterday. ''Settlements are only as good as the goodwill of the people behind them,'' he said. The terms - The Village of Kiryas Joel agrees not to discriminate against anyone on the basis of their religion. - The Village of Kiryas Joel agrees that people will only serve on one municipal or public school board at a time. They can also serve in positions as religious trustees. - A permit will be issued immediately by the village to allow the "dissidents" or Congregation Khal Charidim to use its synagogue at 3 Van Buren Drive. They had been banned from using it. A mikvah, or ritual bath, will also be opened at that location. - The minority group will submit a list of 10 candidates to the village and Kiryas Joel's housing authority. Officials will choose someone from that list to monitor meetings and distribution of any services or benefits. - The village will make all of its documentation available for review each month by two people from the minority group. - A community resolution board will be created to negotiate solutions to disputes. Each side will appoint two members and if the four-member committee becomes deadlocked, a fifth person may be appointed. - Kahl Charidim members will be asked to use the dispute resolution system to solve problems. They are ordered to do this instead of going to newspapers or secular court. Anyone who violates this provision could be expelled from the religious group. - The majority Congregation Yetev Lev also agreed to take its grievances to the board. - A total of $300,000 will be paid to the minority synagogue - a first payment of $150,000 will be made within four weeks, the rest will be paid in installments over the next 12 months. - The civil rights complaint and another lawsuit about federal housing issues in the village will be dismissed.

אמת אמת ליידער א שוידערליכער חילול ה'
איך וויל נישט אריין רעדן אין די צדדים, אבער ווי אזוי עס זאל נישט זיין, איז כולי עלמא מודי אז זיי זענען היינט מחלל שם שמים מסוף העולם ועד סופו,
און לאמיך פארציילן א סוד,
 אין יעדע קהלה איז ליידער דא מהרסים (ביי מיין קהלה אויך), און איך ווייס עס קלאר און קראנט אז דער יעניגער פון קר"י(וואלדמאו) ער האט געוויזן דעם גרינעם ליכט פאר די סקווירא מהרסים, און קיין שום ספק נישט אז דאס וועט נאכפאלגן אויך ביי אנדערע קהלות קדושות בישראל, אין אמעריקא, און אין ארה"ק.
און ליידער וועט מען אויף אים טייטלען מיט די פינגער, און פארשולדיגן דעם בראך.
און אז די רבנים וועלן יעצט פארשווייגן די איצטיגע סקווירא / סאטטמאר חילול ד', וועט מען שוין האבן נאכדעם פארשפעטיגט דעם שיף.

אשריך ר' יוסל
ביסט געווען די וועג ווייזער פאר אלע אונטערדריקטע אראפציווארפן פון זיך די עול פון די טיראנען מיט די ווייסע בעקיטשעס וואס זענען פארפלעקט מיט אידיש בלוט

ווי קען מען זעהן א ווידעא פון די פרעס קאנפערענס?

Orthodox Leader, Arson Suspect Sued In Fire Bombing

As he lays in a hospital bed with third degree burns over half of his body, Aron Rottenberg, 43, has filed an $18 million lawsuit against the Grand Rebbe of the Hasidic Jewish community in the Village of New Square, and against a young man who allegedly targeted Rottenberg because he chose to pray outside the main synagogue of the tight-knit and ultra-insular village in Rockland County.

"It's a very painful sight, to see a man who for no reason other than where he wants to pray literally now bound, bound almost in a sheet you'd say, tightly bound to his body which covers skin grafts over 50 or 60 percent of his body. The man is in extraordinary pain yet finally got him to smile yesterday because getting him to laugh is too painful and he said to me 'I am going back, whenever I am released, I'm going back to live in my house'," defense attorney Michael Sussman said at a press conference in his Goshen, NY office.
Related


 

Rabbi's Supporters Heckle Arson Victim's Family At Press Conference  

Rottenberg was allegedly attacked in the early morning hours of May 22 when Shaul Spitzer, 18, came rushing towards Rottenberg's home with a incendiary device. Rottenberg confronted Spitzer, who was reportedly attempting to throw the fire bomb into the home. Spitzer was also injured in the incident.

Spitzer has been charged with attempted murder and is named in the lawsuit. The lawsuit also alleges the assault was ordered by the powerful leader of the religious community, Grand Rebbe David Twersky, 70. Spitzer lived with Rabbi Twersky and would not have acted if he was not ordered by Rabbi Twersky, according to Sussman. Sussman also says there had been several threats on the family by members of the group with Rabbi Twersky's knowledge.

"Everything going on in that community is with his approval. Here there was a pattern of six or seven months of violence against this family," Sussman said


 

Joseph Waldman says he understands the harrassment because it has been happening to him for years in the village of Kiryas Joel, near Monroe, NY.

"Same situation Mr. Rottenberg went through could have happened to me. They torched my car three times, my house," Waldman said.

In a separate lawsuit filed in federal court, Waldman and others are asking to dissolve the current government in the Village of Kiryas Joel following decades of religious discrimination by strong and politically-protected village leaders.

This lawsuit comes after a synagogue was closed more than a year ago at the hands of Congregation Yetev Lev D'Satmar of Kiryas Joel, Inc., which represents the Village's majority religious faction, according to Waldman.

The complaint also alleges threats against the "dissidents" group, including disparate treatment in property taxation, selective enforcement of village ordinances, fraud and corruption in village elections and harassment and enforcement towards the "dissidents".

In the Village of New Square, no one would comment on the impending lawsuit. Ramapo Police Department squad cars could be seen patrolling the area. Rottenberg's wife, Ruth Rottenberg, told PIX11 just days after the fire bomb incident that the police department was no help for their family of five who had been sleeping inside the home when Spitzer arrived.

"I expect we will file a broad lawsuit which deals with the powers that be in that county. It's not going to be limited to the Ramapo Police agency. There are other powers that be in that county who know full well what's going on, who have enabled this behavior," Sussman said.

Since the incident, the Rottenberg family has not been back home. The family continues to get threats from the people in the community they once called their own, according to Sussman. Rottenberg and Spitzer remain at a local hospital getting treatment for their injuries.

איז דא ערגעץ ווידעא פון די פרעס קאנפערענס?

KJA Et Al v. Village of Kiryas Joel Et Al.complaint.filed

תוקן על ידי 1satmar ב- 14/06/2011 07:05:46