New York county GOP takes down video warning of Hasidic Jewish 'takeover' BY OWEN DAUGHERTY

[applegrove]

Last edited Thu Aug 29, 2019, 10:49 PM - Edit history (1)

New York county GOP takes down video warning of Hasidic Jewish 'takeover'

BY OWEN DAUGHERTY at the Hill

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/459377-new-york-county-gop-takes-down-video-warning-of-hasidic-jewish-takeover

"SNIP.....


A county Republican Party in New York on Thursday removed a video from its Facebook page widely condemned as anti-Semitic.

The video was posted Wednesday by the Rockland County Republican Party and featured a warning of a “takeover” by Hasidic Jews, NBC 4 New York reported.

The video included local news clips detailing community issues claimed to be caused by the recent influx of Jewish people in the county set to ominous music with images of dark storm clouds.

It included messages like "our families" and "our way of life" are at stake.


......SNIP"

[customerserviceguy]

1. I used to live there

and believe me, it was no laughing matter that the Hasidic population was doing its level best to take over politics in that county. It's one of the reasons we moved to SC.

[Turin_C3PO]

2. Many major Jewish organizations condemned the attack on these Hasidic Jewish people,

including the ADL.

[customerserviceguy]

3. I know

but even the conservative (not orthodox non-Hasidic) Jews I knew in Rockland County were privately expressing their frustration with the Hasidic population. I fully expect the ADL to take the side of any group of Jewish people, regardless of their feelings about them.

What you had, especially in Ramapo township was Hasidic people getting on the school boards, then cutting property taxes greatly, because all of their kids went to yeshivas. That made it tough for people of color in towns like Spring Valley to have their kids get a decent education in the public schools.

Believe me, I lived it, and I understand why the GOP was trying that strategy, not that I agree with it.

[applegrove]

5. Sounds like a very republican policy.

[customerserviceguy]

6. Yes, it does seem like something they'd do. n/t

[Hekate]

10. Substitute the word "theocrats" & I hope people might get the picture more clearly...

I respect people's right to worship as they please. I'll live in harmony with just about anybody, as long as they let me do the same.

But I draw the line at theocrats -- be they fundamentalist/Evangelical Christians or Hasidic Jews or Rajneeshis who want my tax money for their private schools, and who want to take control of democratically-run townships and public services they don't believe in because their God told them so.

American history is chock full of people hiving off from the larger society to form little utopias of their own: hippie communes, Shaker villages, and on and on since Colonial days. They buy a plot of land and set it up along their desired lines, and that's fine.

But in my considered opinion, theocrats who want control of the rest of society are to be approached with great skepticism.

[Hortensis]

12. As you point out, this group's behaving as self-isolated groups do,

"hiving off" from society in the middle of it. This one's very strongly religious but also ultra-conservative, and the twist here is that it's not a proselytizing religion. For the most part they specifically don't want others to join them and by definition reject others. It's very bad for healthy, diverse communities when any exclusive, ultraconservative group develops too much presence, but adding in (the usual) religious component certainly doesn't help.

[stopdiggin]

13. a critical difference here

is a group or community that just wants to be left alone .. verses a group that is actively trying to influence and control an agenda(s), not only for themselves but for non-members and society at large.
(and it can be a kind of tricky path. these groups can be, and are, criticized both for being insular and uninvolved .. and for being TOO involved and influential)

[Hortensis]

16. Yes, this group doesn't just want to be left alone.

Power struggles between groups competing for cultural and budgetary dominance in communities are common. Especially unhappy, though, when they involve significant demographic changes to established communities and disputes are between groups that are very different culturally and/or religiously. And they're especially intractable almost any time the vast difference involves an extremely conservative group.

In a GA community near our kids, the "actively trying to influence and control an agenda" affecting "society at large" was far more typical -- between the interests of an influx of more affluent families and the larger number of lower-income residents. The racial mixture varied, more white/less black in one and black and white in the other, but basically they were culturally similar and religion didn't enter into it. It blew up into the courts and media as the affluent gained more dominance and used their power to attempt to impose major changes on the community that, among other things, would allow their kids to attend a different school system, to the detriment of the rest. Bad neighbors.

[stopdiggin]

23. well said

Yep. As you point out, this kind of social friction is almost inherent in areas with cultural (and demographic) flux. The term "gentrification" has come about to describe (one form) of this type of conflict. Adding "religion" to the mix just gives us a handy label (and target?). It's obvious we don't have much of a handle on how these things work .. how they play themselves out .. or how to better manage, or cushion, the impacts and frayed fabric. Perhaps in the future the social sciences can help us find paths to mitigate?
(in my own case .. I frankly don't have a lot of use for organized religion of any stripe .. and particularly for those that insist on bullying and hectoring in the public square. I'll be much happier if my country can return to an ideal that articulated that "freedom of religion" at some basic level means freedom FROM religion)

[Hortensis]

24. +100. Our constitution guarantees many basic rights to all men,

but morally speaking, one man's rights end where another's nose begins. We run into problems with rights and freedom when some object to others having as much as them.

Interestingly, researchers found long ago that the single biggest difference between liberal and conservative thinking and emotions was on the subject of equality. Liberals tend to believe in it for all, feel it in their guts, conservatives not so much and sometimes not at all.

[Coventina]

17. Thank you for that. Yes, THEOCRATS of any stripe are a bane to the rest of community once

they get the power to run a community along their religious beliefs.

We've had that same problem with Fundamentalist Mormons here in AZ.

[Hekate]

18. Bingo. And ages ago my Oregon brother got to experience the Rajneeshis moving in

Religious freedom must be protected in a democracy -- but democracy itself must be protected from those who wish to impose their version of their God's will on everyone else. And make us pay for it.

[customerserviceguy]

25. I, to

recall the Oregon Rajneeshi experience. I was living in the Seattle area at the time, and I recall the Rajneeshis attempting to poison salad bars just before a county election, so that they would suppress turnout from non-cult members. That went too far for a "live and let live" kind of place, which is why they got a foothold in the first place.

[applegrove]

4. That is what normal politics is. One group trying to take over from another.

Last edited Thu Aug 29, 2019, 11:36 PM - Edit history (2)

If they have the votes they win. Really what is the fference when a party is insisting on picking winners. If they aren't for just about everyone they can go **** themselves.

[Blue_true]

7. One person who apparently had firsthand knowledge says their end goal was to reduce

funding for stuff that they did not use. Even in my republican led red county, the administrators actively fund schools, libraries and recreation facilities, even though some of the well off kids are in private schools.

[applegrove]

8. Well it is the republican plan for the last 40 years across the nation and has resulted

in the ladder pulled up and an entrenched wealthy class grown in size. Like Mexico's elite. Or Saudi Arabia's.

[Blue_true]

9. Yes. nt

[phylny]

15. Having lived in Goshen, Orange County, I saw our

neighbors in Monroe-Woodbury live this experience. The Hasidic families are large with parents who have an 8th grade education, and many need public assistance because they don’t work or can’t find a job. The strain on utilities (water and sanitation), land, and housing becomes massive and the need for more and more land is never ending.

We just had friends from Congers visit us last weekend and one of them, a Jewish woman, said the influx is becoming an issue in Rockland County.

[Behind the Aegis]

11. Not surprised.

I am surprised they took it down though, usually people don't give two shits about anti-Semitism, though they feigning they are offended...they aren't. NY is having some real problems in regards to its Jewish population. I won't be surprised when I get up one morning to read DU and see there has been a murderous attack, anymore than I will be surprised by those who make excuses for it.

[LanternWaste]

19. I'm a bit surprised.

Not by the antisemitism I see out in the world, but by the implicit rationalizations made on behalf of the antisemitic and the "well... I kinda get their point, just look what they're doing to our infrastructure!" sentiments I too often read.

[Hekate]

20. I care very much about anti-Semitism, & anyone posting videos with ominous music & storm clouds...

...warning about an "invasion" by the Hasids the way that branch of the GOP did is going to get a sharp call-out from me if it shows up on my radar.

But I stand by my own framing of the issue, because it has a larger context as well.

[Behind the Aegis]

14. Oh look...

While the video was ultimately removed, the group posted a statement to its Facebook page from county GOP chairman Lawrence Garvey that "anyone who dares speak up about overdevelopment, corruption, or education is immediately labeled as anti-Semitic without any concern for facts or without any idea of the true issues at hand."

Poor dears. Just love seeing people constantly whine about being labeled anti-Semites.

Guess they just weren't ready for the "infestation".

[customerserviceguy]

26. This is not your ordinary

"we don't like minorities" situation. It wouldn't take a lot of looking to find the Rockland County measles outbreak stories, and those refusing vaccinations were generally Hasidic in that place.

They are hyper-aggressive drivers, rude by NY standards, and are buying up everything that they can to allow their culture to take over what was a reasonably homogeneous area. We were tired of the crowding, the traffic, and the expense of living there, but the Hasidic takeover was a factor, too.

There are lots of Jewish folks in New City who are good neighbors, and nobody has any complaints about them.

[uponit7771]

21. K&R, But His Gaffes !!!

[real Cannabis calm]

22. K&R

[no_hypocrisy]

28. When zoning laws are referenced, what is not said is that

these housing developments don't necessarily follow SAFETY zoning laws that protect against fire, electrical, and/or structural damage. And the Hasidics don't welcome inspectors and threats of withholding certificates of occupancy. Also unplanned construction can have unintended consequences of traffic that doesn't flow.

I'm Jewish and it seems to me there are times to invoke antisemitism and then there are inappropriate times. Zoning is the latter.