Sunday, April 02, 2017
In Lakewood, new scrutiny on 'business as usual'
Pastor Glenn Wilson's church in Howell Township is austere and seats just about 50 worshipers for Sunday service. The four gospel singers are backed by a five-piece band -- guitar, bass, drums, organ and alto sax. Some numbers are sung in English, some in Spanish.
Wilson's congregation is largely black and Hispanic and most come from neighboring Lakewood. The pastor is a Lakewood guy, moving in from Cuba in 1971, and has witnessed the town's transformation. Transformation may be too gentle a word. Upheaval is more like it.
In 20 years, Lakewood's population has almost doubled, and is now home to about 60,000 Haredi and Hassidic Jews - the largest number in America outside of Brooklyn. They now make up more than 60 percent of Lakewood's population. There are blocks and blocks of new buildings in town with signs only in Hebrew. The old, Pinelands neighborhoods of single-family ranches and bungalows are being plowed under and replaced by new multi-family condominiums. Almost as ubiquitous as the men in all-black clothing and hats, and women in shin length skirts, are the yards strewn with plastic toys and bicycles. Large families move around in vans, except on Friday evenings and Saturdays, when the religious laws prevent them from using any modern convenience.
Beth Medrash Govoha (BMG), the largest Yeshiva in the United States, has 6,500 students - 1,000 more than, say, the undergraduate enrollment at Princeton. A branch in Israel is known as "Lakewood East."
BMG anchors a "Yeshiva row" of a dozen smaller schools, but Lakewood also has about 250 tax-exempt temples, synagogues and shuls, many in private homes.
"With that many tax-exempt properties it obviously erodes the tax base," said Tom Gatti, head of Senior Action Group, which looks out for the interests of the significant number of retired residents in town. "What we need here is a comprehensive investigation by the township and the state into why so many of these properties are given tax-exempt status."
"There is much to be concerned about here," said Wilson, 59. "I've been spending 10 years trying to change the way those in power are doing things and I spend most of my energy being careful not to sound anti-Semitic. Because if you come across as anti-Semitic, you lose all credibility.
"But this isn't about religion," he said. "It's about the abuse of power. What they do isn't illegal - they were voted into office - but it is wrong."
Wilson is the head of Lakewood UNITE (United Neighbors Improving Today's Equality), a group that is trying to protect the township's failing the school system.
Ten days ago, Lakewood schools superintendent Laura Winters sent a letter to Ocean County's school superintendent that said her district is "unable to provide its students with a thorough and efficient education required by the New Jersey State Constitution" and that the "level of education" offered by the district is "tragically inadequate and inferior" compared to other Ocean County towns.
That letter - and the indictment on Wednesday of Rabbi Osher Eisemann, the founder and director of the School for Children with Hidden Intelligence (SCHI) in Lakewood - has brought a new wave of public scrutiny into how the township is being run by the dominant Hasidim.
Members of the group control the school board and the zoning board, which has allowed the increased development that routinely snarls traffic and, at the current rate, will make Lakewood New Jersey's largest city in 30 years.
Eisemann is accused of laundering $630,000 of public tuition funds through a nonprofit fundraising arm of his private school, then using the money to invest in a clothing business.
How the private SCHI gets public money in the first place takes a little explaining. In New Jersey, public school districts must bear the cost of special education students, even if they are sent to schools out of their district, which is not uncommon for children with autism needs, intellectual deficiencies or hearing problems.
"This isn't about religion. It's about the abuse of power." -- Glenn Wilson, Lakewood activist
The Lakewood schools have special education programs, but the school board allows Hasidic children to be educated at SCHI and another Orthodox-run school called the Center for Education.
Last year, Wilson filed a lawsuit with the U.S. Attorney's Office Civil Rights Division in Newark, citing inequities in how special education programs in Lakewood were run. That suit is still active, according to a source who asked not to be identified.
The suit contends SCHI and Hasidic school, the Center for Education in Lakewood, were paid more than $23 million in public school funds to educate 261 children.
According to the lawsuit and public records, the yearly tuition for each of the 200 children at SCHI is $97,000, plus $10,000 for a summer program and there is only one minority child in the school. The Center of Education charges $55,000 each for 61 Lakewood students and has no minority students, though black and Hispanics make up about 30 percent of the township.
"We (the public system) could educate those kids for half that," said Michael Rush, a member of Lakewood UNITE, a former superintendent of Red Bank schools and a state education assistant commissioner under Gov. James McGreevy.
The drain on the public schools, according to the letter from Winters, has caused a $17 million deficit that could raise the student-teacher ratio to 50 to 1, as the district prepares to lay off 119 teachers.
"This shouldn't be happening," Wilson said. "The non-Orthodox children in this town deserve better."
Rabbi Aaron Kotler, whose grandfather began the BMG yeshiva in 1943, often speaks for the Hasidic community. Calls to him from the Star-Ledger weren't returned but in a recent interview with WNYC he said, "I share Pastor Wilson's desire. We all want to see a district that thrives and flourishes, and ensures that any kid, whether Hispanic, Orthodox, or Christian or Muslim or any religion, gets the same opportunities that every child really deserves."
Wilson began trying to draw attention to Lakewood's problem 10 years ago, when he charged that Orthodox landlords allowed the properties they rented to blacks and Hispanics to be reduced to squalor.
"When the people moved out, they tore down the houses and got approvals to build multi-family houses," he said.
Last year, Lakewood approved 501 single-family homes and duplexes -- 175 more than Jersey City. Several more huge developments, numbering as many as 2,000 housing units, are on the drawing board.
Yet, with all that development and influx of Hasidic homeowners and renters, the poverty rate of Lakewood continues to grow and is now at 38 percent.
In her letter about the dire needs of the Lakewood schools, Winters compared that number to the three poorest districts in neighboring Monmouth County. Neptune has a poverty rate of 11 percent, Long Branch's is 18 percent and Asbury Park is 32 percent.
Lakewood's per capita income of $11,775 is three times less than neighboring Brick and Lacey townships.
Wilson and other members of UNITE say something doesn't add up. They wonder how a township of 100,000 people can't support a public school system with only 6,000 students - compared to the 30,000 in Orthodox schools. They wonder how the town will sustain itself if the ratable properties continue to become deemed tax-exempt for religious purposes. And they wonder how there can be so much statistical poverty when so many around them seem to be living comfortable lives.
During the Sunday service at Wilson's church, the children were brought forward and prayer was said over them.
"In this house we have potential doctors and lawyers and teachers," said assistant pastor Lissette Rodriguez. "We need a change in the atmosphere, in the schools to help them along."
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2017/04/in_lakewood_new_scrutiny_on_business_as_usual_di_i.html
Wilson's congregation is largely black and Hispanic and most come from neighboring Lakewood. The pastor is a Lakewood guy, moving in from Cuba in 1971, and has witnessed the town's transformation. Transformation may be too gentle a word. Upheaval is more like it.
In 20 years, Lakewood's population has almost doubled, and is now home to about 60,000 Haredi and Hassidic Jews - the largest number in America outside of Brooklyn. They now make up more than 60 percent of Lakewood's population. There are blocks and blocks of new buildings in town with signs only in Hebrew. The old, Pinelands neighborhoods of single-family ranches and bungalows are being plowed under and replaced by new multi-family condominiums. Almost as ubiquitous as the men in all-black clothing and hats, and women in shin length skirts, are the yards strewn with plastic toys and bicycles. Large families move around in vans, except on Friday evenings and Saturdays, when the religious laws prevent them from using any modern convenience.
Beth Medrash Govoha (BMG), the largest Yeshiva in the United States, has 6,500 students - 1,000 more than, say, the undergraduate enrollment at Princeton. A branch in Israel is known as "Lakewood East."
BMG anchors a "Yeshiva row" of a dozen smaller schools, but Lakewood also has about 250 tax-exempt temples, synagogues and shuls, many in private homes.
"With that many tax-exempt properties it obviously erodes the tax base," said Tom Gatti, head of Senior Action Group, which looks out for the interests of the significant number of retired residents in town. "What we need here is a comprehensive investigation by the township and the state into why so many of these properties are given tax-exempt status."
"There is much to be concerned about here," said Wilson, 59. "I've been spending 10 years trying to change the way those in power are doing things and I spend most of my energy being careful not to sound anti-Semitic. Because if you come across as anti-Semitic, you lose all credibility.
"But this isn't about religion," he said. "It's about the abuse of power. What they do isn't illegal - they were voted into office - but it is wrong."
Wilson is the head of Lakewood UNITE (United Neighbors Improving Today's Equality), a group that is trying to protect the township's failing the school system.
Ten days ago, Lakewood schools superintendent Laura Winters sent a letter to Ocean County's school superintendent that said her district is "unable to provide its students with a thorough and efficient education required by the New Jersey State Constitution" and that the "level of education" offered by the district is "tragically inadequate and inferior" compared to other Ocean County towns.
That letter - and the indictment on Wednesday of Rabbi Osher Eisemann, the founder and director of the School for Children with Hidden Intelligence (SCHI) in Lakewood - has brought a new wave of public scrutiny into how the township is being run by the dominant Hasidim.
Members of the group control the school board and the zoning board, which has allowed the increased development that routinely snarls traffic and, at the current rate, will make Lakewood New Jersey's largest city in 30 years.
Eisemann is accused of laundering $630,000 of public tuition funds through a nonprofit fundraising arm of his private school, then using the money to invest in a clothing business.
How the private SCHI gets public money in the first place takes a little explaining. In New Jersey, public school districts must bear the cost of special education students, even if they are sent to schools out of their district, which is not uncommon for children with autism needs, intellectual deficiencies or hearing problems.
"This isn't about religion. It's about the abuse of power." -- Glenn Wilson, Lakewood activist
The Lakewood schools have special education programs, but the school board allows Hasidic children to be educated at SCHI and another Orthodox-run school called the Center for Education.
Last year, Wilson filed a lawsuit with the U.S. Attorney's Office Civil Rights Division in Newark, citing inequities in how special education programs in Lakewood were run. That suit is still active, according to a source who asked not to be identified.
The suit contends SCHI and Hasidic school, the Center for Education in Lakewood, were paid more than $23 million in public school funds to educate 261 children.
According to the lawsuit and public records, the yearly tuition for each of the 200 children at SCHI is $97,000, plus $10,000 for a summer program and there is only one minority child in the school. The Center of Education charges $55,000 each for 61 Lakewood students and has no minority students, though black and Hispanics make up about 30 percent of the township.
"We (the public system) could educate those kids for half that," said Michael Rush, a member of Lakewood UNITE, a former superintendent of Red Bank schools and a state education assistant commissioner under Gov. James McGreevy.
The drain on the public schools, according to the letter from Winters, has caused a $17 million deficit that could raise the student-teacher ratio to 50 to 1, as the district prepares to lay off 119 teachers.
"This shouldn't be happening," Wilson said. "The non-Orthodox children in this town deserve better."
Rabbi Aaron Kotler, whose grandfather began the BMG yeshiva in 1943, often speaks for the Hasidic community. Calls to him from the Star-Ledger weren't returned but in a recent interview with WNYC he said, "I share Pastor Wilson's desire. We all want to see a district that thrives and flourishes, and ensures that any kid, whether Hispanic, Orthodox, or Christian or Muslim or any religion, gets the same opportunities that every child really deserves."
Wilson began trying to draw attention to Lakewood's problem 10 years ago, when he charged that Orthodox landlords allowed the properties they rented to blacks and Hispanics to be reduced to squalor.
"When the people moved out, they tore down the houses and got approvals to build multi-family houses," he said.
Last year, Lakewood approved 501 single-family homes and duplexes -- 175 more than Jersey City. Several more huge developments, numbering as many as 2,000 housing units, are on the drawing board.
Yet, with all that development and influx of Hasidic homeowners and renters, the poverty rate of Lakewood continues to grow and is now at 38 percent.
In her letter about the dire needs of the Lakewood schools, Winters compared that number to the three poorest districts in neighboring Monmouth County. Neptune has a poverty rate of 11 percent, Long Branch's is 18 percent and Asbury Park is 32 percent.
Lakewood's per capita income of $11,775 is three times less than neighboring Brick and Lacey townships.
Wilson and other members of UNITE say something doesn't add up. They wonder how a township of 100,000 people can't support a public school system with only 6,000 students - compared to the 30,000 in Orthodox schools. They wonder how the town will sustain itself if the ratable properties continue to become deemed tax-exempt for religious purposes. And they wonder how there can be so much statistical poverty when so many around them seem to be living comfortable lives.
During the Sunday service at Wilson's church, the children were brought forward and prayer was said over them.
"In this house we have potential doctors and lawyers and teachers," said assistant pastor Lissette Rodriguez. "We need a change in the atmosphere, in the schools to help them along."
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2017/04/in_lakewood_new_scrutiny_on_business_as_usual_di_i.html
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