JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
As has been the case for two years in a row now, exactly one of our pop culture predictions for 2017 turned out to be right. Unfortunately, it began with the words “Lena Dunham will pen a well-intentioned but tone deaf open letter to someone or another,” and yes, that turned out even worse than…
An elderly New Jersey couple has accepted $1 to settle litigation over the building of sand dunes that blocked the panoramic beachfront and ocean view from their home, the state said on Wednesday. Governor Chris Christie separately issued an executive order directing Acting Attorney General John Hoffman to begin legal action to acquire roughly 1,000…
Shortly after being sworn in for his first term in January, Lakewood’s mayor, Albert Akerman, visited “Tent City,” an encampment of about 100 homeless people living in a densely wooded area of township land — a rare slice of open space in the fastest-growing municipality in New Jersey. Akerman, an Orthodox Jew originally from the…
The 112th Congress’s failure to bring emergency disaster aid for New York and New Jersey to a vote before adjourning has left scores of synagogues and other places of worship — not to mention thousands of businesses and homeowners — in limbo following Hurricane Sandy. “The word ‘unconscionable’ comes to mind,” said Rabbi Scott Hoffman…
Amid the widespread devastation on New Jersey’s Atlantic Ocean shore following Hurricane Sandy, there was a tale of two Jewish towns as they each marked the sabbath. In Deal, a borough of about 1,000 residents — most of them upper income Syrian Jews — the streets were eerily quiet as the Sabbath approached. Neither the…
Asbury Park and Bay Head are two towns on opposite ends of the Jersey Shore’s socio-economic spectrum – one with many poor people, the other with professionals in lucrative Wall Street careers. Superstorm Sandy has swept away many of the differences between the two. Asbury Park is a faded dowager seaside resort, still struggling to…
About 18,000 families in the Orthodox town of Lakewood, N.J. reportedly remained without power Wednesday after it took a nearly direct hit from superstorm Sandy. Just 10% of the 20,000 who lost power had their electricity restored by Wednesday morning, the Lakewood Scoop site reported. For the few gas stations in town that were operating,…
With Hurricane Sandy pounding the Jersey Shore, residents of the predominantly Jewish town of Lakewood were already experiencing severe damage early Monday. Just after noon, trees and power lines had begun to fall, due to strong winds reaching up to 70 m.p.h. Local authorities reported that more than 5,000 residents were already without power. Township…
