New Jersey Police Officer Disciplined For Dressing Up As Orthodox Jew At Party

Rochelle Park, New Jersey volunteer firefighter Pete Donatello III. Image by Township of Rochelle Park

By Aiden Pink May 13, 2019

A police officer in Bergen County, New Jersey has been disciplined after being photographed dressing as an Orthodox Jew at a party at the local firehouse – but local officials either don’t know or refused to say what the punishment was, the North Jersey Record reported Monday.

While attending a party on December 28, Pete Donatello III, a police officer in Maywood who volunteered as the fire chief in nearby Rochelle Park, “decided that it would be funny to wear a make-shift Yamaka (sic) and parade around the Firehouse with it on and make fun of the Jewish Faith,” according to an eyewitness whose letter to the Rochelle Park Township Committee was acquired by the newspaper.

Donatello could not be reached for comment. The mayor of Maywood declined to comment, and a police captain said that photos of the incident were referred to an internal affairs unit but refused to discuss the matter further. Rochelle Park administrator Robert Davidson said Donatello was disciplined by volunteer fire chief Jason Brown but neither he nor the town attorney would specify how, and Brown declined to comment.

Mayor Michael Kazimir said that under the town’s bylaws, Donatello could not be removed unless a tribunal convened by the fire chief recommended it. “As far as I understand it … there is no further action we can take at this point,” Kazimir said.

In response to the incident, Rochelle Park mandated an hour-long sensitivity training seminar for all township volunteers. Around 85 of 100 volunteers have gone through the training, though Donatello hasn’t yet, Davidson said.

But in a March 7 letter, township emergency management coordinator Pete Donatello Jr. – Donatello III’s father – as well as Brown and the medical services captain said that emergency service volunteers were being singled out by the mandate and that they would refuse to participate – though they eventually backed down.

Mahwah, another city in Bergen County, settled a lawsuit last year after passing ordinances that state officials said targeted Orthodox Jews, such as banning the construction of an eruv.

Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink

Aiden Pink is the Deputy News Editor for the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO