As the Orthodox Jewish Demographic Grows

Walking to shul in Monsey

"How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, Your dwelling places, O Israel!"  This wonderful blessing about the Jewish people expressed in the Torah (Bamidbar 24:5) by Balaam is not one you will likely hear today. At least not about Orthodox Jews in certain areas of New York and New Jersey. This is not to say that Orthodox  Jewish homes aren’t individually beautiful. Many of them are. But as our numbers increase, so do our dwelling places. And as those grow, so does the enmity of some of our new or potential neighbors. Bethany Mandel describes just such a situation in the Forward: 

Recently, residents of Mahwah, New Jersey, noticed utility trucks driving around town, attaching strange-looking PVC piping to telephone poles. Soon they learned their purpose: the establishment of an eruv, a mysterious boundary that makes it possible for Torah-observant Jews to carry objects on the Sabbath. 

It’s a crucial step in making a neighborhood inviting to would-be hasidic buyers — which is exactly what worried the residents of Mahwah, who formed a Facebook group called “Mahwah Strong” to “voice their concerns over the installation of an Eruv and the impact it could have on our community.” 

At first glance this might seem like a typical ‘snobbish’ exercise in ‘soft bigotry’ to keep the Jews out of their neighborhoods! Surely putting up an Eruv – if done properly - is not usually anything that will blight a neighborhood. Most people wouldn’t even notice it unless it is pointed out to them. Eruv construction tries to utilize natural boundaries whenever possible. So why do they protest it?

It isn’t the Eruv they are protesting. It is what that Eruv symbolizes to them. An onslaught of change so drastic that it will not only change the character of the town but will affect the way government funds are allocated to important public facilities like public schools.

I’m not sure it’s is correct to say that Mahwah Strong is based on an innate hatred of Jews. As Mandel notes there is a Reform Rabbi that has joined them in opposing the Eruv. What they really oppose is the kind of change their neighborhood will likely go though. Which is what often happens when Orthodox Jews move in an large numbers. It is about the drastic cultural change that will result and more importantly the financial change that will affect the welfare of the secular residents.

One need not go too far from this New Jersey community to see what that kind of demographic change has done to towns where this kind of thing has already happened. The now proportionally much smaller secular demographic  in places like Monsey and Lakewood suffer from that.

Monsey’s public schools needed to tighten their budgets by eliminating nonessential enrichment courses.

That was the result of a legal maneuver of the now majority Orthodox population who voted Orthodox Jews onto their school board. They legally redistributed much of the funds allocated by the government to their own parochial schools. True, they had every right to do that. They were entitled to those funds as mandated by law. Funds that were not allocated to them by the previous secular board.

The financial burden on tuition paying parents (especially those with large families) is so great, that Orthodox residents are grateful for whatever financial relief that public funds will give them. Nobody did anything illegal. But at the end of the day the public schools suffered.

This is one thing Mahwah is afraid of. But it isn’t the only thing. One of the most problematic results of an explosion of new residents into a small town is the rapid construction of new homes to accommodate that growth. The cheapest way to do that is to build multi unit dwellings, large and ugly buildings containing many condos per building.

Thus changing the pleasant look of suburban neighborhoods filled with single family homes with attached two car garages and large front lawns into one that looks more like a tenement slum albeit with newer buildings. Adding unprecedented traffic congestion and shortages of places to park. It is so bad in places like Monsey and Lakewood that even many of the Orthodox residents are upset! 

Furthermore the ambiance of what was a once small quiet secular town is changed into the hustle and bustle of Orthodox Jewish communities filled with grocery stores; restaurants and shops geared to them rather than to the secular public. This is what happened to Lakewood and Monsey.

Looking at towns like these and seeing all the above mentioned changes that took place, I don’t think you can consider opposition to that antisemitism.

For the observant Jew, these places might be idyllic. What better neighborhood to live in than one that in a suburban setting that is geared to Orthodox Jews?!  Where all of your neighbors are shomer shabbos and there are a variety of shuls to go to. All within walking distance from your home. No matter what part of that town you live in there will more than one shul or shteibel near your home.  And shops to shop from for all your Orthodox needs.

But think what that must look like to a secular neighbor that saw a once idyllic quite secular town geared to a secular lifestyle with pleasant  traffic patterns and plenty of parking spaces - now having to put up with those all of these changes! I do not blame them one bit for opposing it. If I were in their shoes, I would oppose it too.

As Mandel points out Jews have the right to live anywhere they choose in this country. It is discriminatory to bar members of a particular demographic group from moving into your neighborhood. No different than opposing black people from moving in. So on technical grounds the growth of influx of Orthodox families – no matter how large - into any town is perfectly legal.  Barring them from doing so is against the law.

While the need to expand our borders is  great because of our own demographic explosion, one should take into consideration what that growth means to the residents of a town who see you as coming in and taking over. Thereby changing the character of the town from being secular to being Orthodox. 

Put yourself in their shoes before you yell ‘Antisemitism’! Because even if that is the real motivation in some of the opposition, it clearly is not what motivates all of it. As these kinds of things increase, the actual antisemitism may increase  as well. We would do well to remember that as we pursue our legitimate rights to live where we choose.