Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

Challenger Wins Bloomingburg Vote as Orthodox Newcomers Ruled Ineligible

Image by martyna starosta

Sullivan County’s Board of Elections has backed claims that more than 100 residents of the upstate New York village of Bloomingburg — including Orthodox developer Shalom Lamm and his family — were not legally eligible to vote in last month’s contentious local elections.

Lamm announced Wednesday that he would end his fight over the election results, according to the Times Herald-Record.

The challenger in the village mayoral election, who opposes Lamm’s plan for a sprawling subdivision, was named the victor after a hearing.

In documents obtained by The Forward, the Department of Elections claims that more than 100 newly registered voters living in Lamm-owned properties throughout the village had not lived there for the required 30 days before voting or were already registered to vote elsewhere in the country. In one case, registration forms were altered photocopies with addresses that do not match the original documents.

The Commissioners determined that registrants’ lack of presence in the village prior to the election date has “cast an aura of sham.”

The documents allege that Lamm, who local residents believe has been trying to ensure that Mayor Mark Berentsen stays in power, was already registered to vote in West Hampstead, N.Y. Two of his family members who also voted in the elections live full-time in Israel and another studies at Yeshiva University in New York City.

Last month’s elections became a battleground for protracted tensions over Lamm’s 396-home housing development, which apparently caters toward the Satmar Hasidic sect.

The current mayor was a supporter of Lamm’s project, which has garnered widespread local opposition. Berentsen’s opponent has vowed to put a wrench in Lamm’s development project.

Challenger Frank Gerardi won an election night count by a 3-1 margin.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.