COMMUNITY CHANGE

Jackson council condemns 'religious hate,' won't formally denounce Rise Up Ocean County

Mike Davis
Asbury Park Press

JACKSON - Faced by a crowd of dozens of Orthodox Jews asking them to denounce a controversial Facebook group decried as anti-Semitic, township council members took a stand, but not exactly what the social media group's critics had in mind.

Reading a written statement at Wednesday's meeting, Council President Rob Nixon condemned “religious hate, bigotry, stereotyping, scapegoating and an ‘us vs. them’ mentality.”

But the council stopped short of passing a formal resolution denouncing Rise Up Ocean County, the Facebook page that many in the county’s Orthodox Jewish population — and a growing list of elected officials and multi-faith leaders — have deemed anti-Semitic.

Jackson council members listen as Orthodox Jews ask them to pass a resolution formally denouncing Rise Up Ocean County. From left to right: Councilman Ken Bressi, Council Vice President Barry Calogero, Councilman Alex Sauickie, Councilman Andy Kern

“As a community, it shouldn’t take resolutions to bring people together,” Council President Rob Nixon said, reading a written statement. “The mayor and council took an oath to defend the Constitution and that includes the right to free speech. At the same time, we do not endorse and are not responsible for the content of the press and social media.

“But I want to advise any group that makes statements under the protection of their constitutional rights: You need to respect that what you say has consequences that hurts others. And when those words lead to fear, you need to make it right,” he said.

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Nixon said the council was legally prohibited from passing a resolution, as it hadn’t issued the proper public notice. But when pressed on if he would consider the resolution at all, he referred to his previous comments.

“Regardless of who says what, we’re not going to stand for stereotyping. We’re not going to stand for hate speech,” he said.

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Councilman Ken Bressi expressed support for the resolution, which was drawn up and delivered to the council by the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The Wiesenthal Center is a nonprofit group that targets anti-Semitism, hate speech and human rights abuses.

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Bressi said he was initially skeptical of supporting a resolution promoted by one organization, but changed his mind after being assured that the group would have taken similar action if a Facebook page had targeted a different religious group.

The Jackson council chambers has been the home of countless spark plug debates over land use issues, especially those that involve the Orthodox Jewish community. Series of meetings discussing a ban on dormitory or eruv construction — both were eventually overturned — regularly became spectacles with pointed fingers, angry interjections and booing.

But on Wednesday, the dozens of attendees — including many men and women who identified themselves as Jews from Jackson, Lakewood and Toms River — were in agreement with the council, at least verbally.

“I don’t consider the Orthodox community new anymore. I’ve been here almost four years. We are a part and parcel of this community and we’re not going anywhere,” said Mordechai Burnstein, a California Avenue resident. “We want to be united. We want the community to work, but we have groups that are seeking to divide and delegitimize it.”

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Outside the council chambers, there was no such harmony.

Nearly three dozen people crammed into the hallways of the municipal building as a group of Ocean County faith leaders and elected officials called on the council to pass the resolution, which the Lakewood Township Committee did last week.

While a resolution would not have the force of law, speaking out was necessary to “speak out against anti-Semitism,” said state Sen. Robert Singer, R-Ocean, whose district includes Lakewood.

“There can be no acceptance of anti-Semitism. There is no ‘I didn’t really mean that.’ … Saying sorry is not good enough,” Singer said. “We’re all in this together. We must speak out against anti-Semitism. We must pass resolutions in communities against anti-Semitism. We cannot accept it. Once you accept it, they win. And they cannot win.”

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The Rev. John Bambrick, priest at St. Aloysius church in Jackson, also called for the council to pass the resolution.

“I believe that, here in Jackson, our citizens want to raise up our neighbors and our friends — not rise up against them.”

But immediately following the press conference, Jackson residents arriving for the meeting shouted their disagreement at those who had just called for peace. 

“You’re trying to stifle the people of Jackson,” one woman said.

“They’re coming in and destroying the environment,” said another.

The Rise Up Ocean County page has been active since last year, usually calling attention to general growth issues in the area surrounding Lakewood, including traffic and overcrowding.

The recent criticism against the Facebook page began when the group posted a video parodying the words of "First they came...," the famous poem by German cleric Martin Niemöller about those who stood silent as the Nazis systematically persecuted socialists, union members and Jews during the Holocaust.

"Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me," the poem concludes.

In the video posted by Rise Up Ocean County, the "socialists," "trade unionists" and Jews of Niemöller's poem were replaced with "my house," "my Board of Education" and "my township and county government, but I did not vote, because I was busy that day."

The post was eventually removed and Rise Up Ocean County administrators apologized.

Orthodox Jews make up the majority of Lakewood's 102,000 residents, and the population is growing and expanding into neighboring towns. Much of that growth has occurred in Jackson, with nearly 1,000 Orthodox Jewish families living in Jackson.

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Michael Cohen, eastern region director for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said the organization “strongly condemns the inappropriate and incendiary injection of words and imagery associated with the Nazi Holocaust into an already emotional divisive debate over the future of neighborhoods in various communities in New Jersey.

“U.S. law guarantees against discrimination because of religion, sex or the color of one’s skin. That includes seeking to exclude Jews from particular communities,” Cohen said. “We call on leaders of all parities to attempt to address concerns of local homeowners in ways that protect the rights of all while eliminating harmful rhetoric that only hurts all concerned.”

In a statement, Rise Up Ocean County administrators — who have declined to publicly identify themselves — condemned the resolution and denied any anti-Semitic motivation.

"We further condemn the governing bodies that would so willingly forgo our First Amendment right to free speech to curry favor with a small but very powerful group in the Lakewood community," a statement from the page reads.

“Doing so using 'anti-Semitism' as the rallying cry is not only disingenuous but reeks of the corruption that we are so aggressively fighting. To those governing bodies unwilling to bow to the extraordinary pressure being applied today, we salute you and support your fortitude."

Staff writer Stacey Barchenger contributed to this report.

 Mike Davis; @byMikeDavis: 732-643-4223; mdavis@gannettnj.com