Since I became observant in high school, I’ve been asked, “How can religious people act that way?” by non-Orthodox friends and family more than I would like to remember — and they are asking a good question. I have had the privilege of spending the decade after high school in full-time learning in two of…
— The Jewish community of Lakewood, New Jersey, is providing assistance to the family of a 2-year-old Latino boy who was killed in a tragic accident. Jayden Marquez was killed Thursday when his aunt accidentally backed into him with her car in the family’s driveway. An Orthodox Jewish committeeman, Meir Lichtenstein, went to the hospital…
— Several swastikas and other anti-Semitic messages were spray-painted on equipment at a playground across the street from an Orthodox yeshiva in the heavily haredi Orthodox township of Lakewood, New Jersey. The graffiti discovered Thursday included the words “Hail Hitler,” the Asbury Park Press reported. A spokesman for the Lakewood police said the department received a report of…
A New Jersey law will give $7 million in state funds to a consortium of Orthodox yeshivas in Lakewood to spend on school busing, even as the cash-strapped school district struggles with a crippling financial crisis. The windfall comes after state-appointed monitors in the Lakewood school district threatened to cut busing to all public and…
— A New Jersey township is calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate haredi Orthodox community leaders for alleged “blockbusting,” or trying to pressure large numbers of longtime homeowners into selling their property to Orthodox Jews. The incident is the latest example of tensions between a large and growing haredi Orthodox community in…
New Jersey law enforcement officers removed computers and boxes of records from a special education school with close ties to Lakewood, N.J.’s large ultra-Orthodox community, according to a report in the Asbury Park Press. The June 29 raid was of the School for Children with Hidden Intelligence was carried out by the New Jersey Department…
Government officials in the heavily Orthodox town of Lakewood, New Jersey removed a Hanukkah menorah from the town square while allowing a Christmas tree to remain. The decision to remove the menorah, which the township has displayed alongside a Christmas tree for decades, came after a resident threatened to sue, The Associated Press reported, citing…
Lakewood, New Jersey, is a bustling Haredi town organized around its grand yeshiva and dominated by strict rabbinic authority. So when a few rebellious teenagers took to hanging out by the lake on Sabbath afternoons — violating Sabbath rules by smoking and using their cellphones — the yeshiva’s head rabbis gathered dozens of men to march…
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