Thursday, May 08, 2025
Upstate NY legal battle underlines Hasidic community growing pains
New York State Attorney General Letitia James came out in support of federal intervention in a dispute over a Jewish housing development in the Catskills region, in a local conflict that has highlighted ongoing growing pains for Hasidic communities around New York City and alleged antisemitism in small towns.
James issued a warning to officials in the town of Forestburgh who have allegedly blocked Hasidic Jews from building homes in the community. She called the allegations "profoundly disturbing" and said that, if proven true, the claims would violate the federal Fair Housing Act.
"Discrimination on the basis of religion, race, national origin, or other protected characteristics — whether explicit or cloaked in pretext — is not only illegal but fundamentally un-American," she wrote in a letter on Monday that backed a federal statement of interest in the case, one of several similar disputes in the tri-state area.
The defendants' legal team responded in a letter to James's office, saying that the town agreed with James's support for religious liberty and housing non-discrimination, but that her characterization of the case was "inaccurate or incomplete."
The dispute stems from a 2022 civil lawsuit filed in the federal Southern District of New York court against the town of Forestburgh, its zoning board, and several town officials. The plaintiffs are Lost Lake Holdings and Mishconos Mazah, companies owned by Hasidic Jews.
The two companies said they had bought land for a development in 2020. The previous owner, who was not Jewish, had obtained approval to build more than 2,600 residential units at the 3.3-square-mile site. The town board had described that development as a "wonderful project" and local residents backed the non-Jewish company, the lawsuit said. The rural town has a population of around 900.
The company failed to carry out the construction project, and the two Jewish companies bought the site. After local officials realized Hasidic Jews had acquired the land for development, the town set up a series of obstructions to prevent construction. Local officials and inspectors denied building permit applications, conducted an illegal search of the property, over-assessed the value of the site to drive up taxes, issued stop-work orders, and adopted a local law that imposed a 1,000% increase in fees, among other measures, the lawsuit alleged.
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