![]() The name itself raised hackles in North Jersey, where people know the nonexistent "South Monsey" by different names: Mahwah, Upper Saddle River and Montvale, the three towns where Steinmetz plans to expand the eruv.Īlso, Steinmetz said, an eruv is not like a synagogue, a yeshiva or a ritual bath, all of which must be located inside a neighborhood before Orthodox families can move in. “This is a service for people who live in New York.”īecause the boundary flows across the border from Monsey, Steinmetz named his group the South Monsey Eruv Fund. “It was not our intention to go into New Jersey for the purpose of serving people in New Jersey,” he said. Letter: Eruv is important to Orthodox community Letter: Want to build an eruv? Build a bridge first Letter: Strips of plastic are not signage Letter: Questioning placement of eruv on telephone poles That can be accomplished only by crossing into New Jersey. To include those families, the eruv must form a complete circle around their homes, according to Steinmetz, who said he is not the leader of a synagogue. He said that leaves thousands of Orthodox families in Monsey, Airmont and Suffern - all in New York, yet just minutes on foot or by car from northern Mahwah - outside the eruv because their streets either cross the state line or dead-end just north of it. Roads and power lines crisscross the border between New Jersey and New York. The issue is much simpler than that, he said. The eruv doesn’t mean ultra-Orthodox Jews are taking over, said Steinmetz, who has worked over the last 20 years to build an eruv that he says covers more than 70 percent of Rockland County. “I didn’t know they were planning on taking over the town.” “Where did they come from? What are they doing here?” said Don Simpson, 86, who lived in his house on Airmont Avenue for 30 years before noticing the eruv marker on the utility pole in front of his house last week. Their concerns, in turn, have drawn criticism that they are motivated by anti-Semitism - an assertion that Mahwah residents deny. Rather, they say they are worried that a seismic change could degrade property values and alter the character of the township, whose population of 26,000 is 80 percent white, 10 percent Asian, 3.5 percent black and 7 percent Latino, according to 2015 census estimates. They wondered why a New York-based group needed to expand its boundary into New Jersey, especially when few if any Hasidic families live in Mahwah. News of the eruv scared many Mahwah residents. An eruv allows Jews of various Orthodox faiths to perform tasks outside their homes on Saturdays, such as carrying keys and pushing strollers, that are usually prohibited on the Sabbath. ![]() The controversy started last month when Mahwah’s town engineer ordered an organization run by Steinmetz to remove from telephone poles a number of skinny plastic pipes that mark the boundary of the eruv. Opponents of the boundary, known as an eruv, “got the people scared for nothing,” Steinmetz said. Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, who led the effort to install the symbolic religious boundary that started the whole dispute, says it’s all a big misunderstanding. But nobody knows what’s really happening.” "I’m worried they’re trying to take over the town. “It has nothing to do with religion" Azemi, 36, said of ultra-Orthodox Jews. Mahwah: Residents voice opposition, support for eruvĬommentary: Eruv bans aren't about wires, they're about exclusionĪzemi has no idea. Upper Saddle River: Eruv discussion draws criticism and support among crowd of 200 Is the ultra-Orthodox community starting to expand across the state line? Or are the whispers that swept across Mahwah over the last two weeks - about the power company secretly extending a religious boundary into town, about people in Orthodox clothes driving into Mahwah to commandeer parks and offer homeowners suitcases full of cash for their homes - nothing more than baseless rumors?Įxpansion: As eruv heads south, Bergen County on alert Her front yard lies in Rockland County, New York, where members of Hasidic sects of ultra-Orthodox Judaism have bought entire neighborhoods in recent years, fundamentally altering the look and character of the town of Ramapo and its villages. If a battle is brewing - and nobody in Mahwah seems to know if it is - then Nicole Azemi’s house straddles the front line.Īzemi’s home sits in Mahwah, one of the most racially and religiously diverse towns in northern Bergen County. Watch Video: Video: Mahwah residents voice opinions on eruv
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