And On Hanukka, The Rabbis Gave Them Matches …

…Earlier this year, the North Rochdale house was found to be home to more than five people and did not have a fire-suppression sprinkler system, according to Community Affairs. A settlement was reached in June, resulting in a $2,000 fine, discontinuing its use as a dormitory, vacating the site by July 6 and not allowing any more individuals at the house in the meantime, according to Community Affairs.

Within weeks of the settlement, the North Rochdale Avenue house again, along with the two on Homestead Lane, were found to be operating as unapproved dormitories, according to Community Affairs.

The three houses had more than five people living in each, no sprinkler systems, and had illegal and unsafe electrical work…

Teenage children, some as young as 13, packed tightly in unsafe, unregulated wood frame houses in violation of state law.Why? They attend a boarding school and these unsafe structures are their dorms

What group of people would do this? Hindus? Buddhists? Seventh Day Adventists? Atheists?

Of course not. Who is it, then? Why, shock of all shocks, haredim, the only group with specific religious laws preventing, on the books, at least, this type of reckless endangerment and disregard for secular law.

According to this report, Me'on Hatorah yeshiva of Roosevelt, New Jersey is a branch of Telshe (AKA, Telz) Yeshiva. They got their foothold in Roosevelt by leasing space from Congregation Anshei Roosevelt synagogue in what appears to be a convoluted deal that inappropriately benefited the town's mayor, who also happened to be the president of the synagogue.

More on that deal here, along with an allegation that the mayor got the yeshiva to rent space from the synagogue he presided over with a promise that the town's lone public school would soon be declared non-viable and its building vacated, at which point the yeshiva would take it over.

Comments

Leave it to hate-filled Shmarya to spin this, yet another one of his "stories" to paint Charedim as demons.

Shmarya has probably read other articles regarding this saga that demonstrates that that the secular Jews who comprise most of Roosevelt, NJ have it in for Orthodox Jews. Sure, they will always find some obscure code violation to hound the yeshiva with. A family of 6 living in a house does not require fire sprinklers but 6 yeshiva boys do, because the house is all of a sudden relabeled a "dormitory."

Nice try from Shmarya and his fellow Jewish anti-Semites.

[Shmarya]

Oooooooooooooo! Those evil antisemites! Demanding sprinkler systems and safe electrical wiring! What Jew haters!

/end sarcasm/

BTW, according this article detailing the history of the town, less than 1/3 of the residents are now Jews:

Today, the once predominantly Jewish town is less than one-third Jewish. However, it remains the only town in the United States in which the lone house of worship is a synagogue.

Shmarya, cut it out already. You know you are omitting all the relevant details of how the secular Orthodox haters in town were putting the squeeze on the yeshiva in a nasty way.

After you dug through the old articles, you only highlighted the couple of details that make the yeshiva look bad when there are dozens that show how below the belt the secular opponents are.

There is no word as to the nature of the electrical code violation. It could amount to basically nothing. Under the NYC health code for instance, restaurants get nailed for "vermin", even if a box of certain types of food was delivered 5 minutes earlier and not immediately sealed inside a plastic bin.

Of course we all anticipate Shmarya coming back with his hair-splitting arguments like a nudnik, so he can get in the last word and avoid ever admitting that he could be wrong.

[Dr Fred]

SAhmarya: How sad that we Jews proclaim to the world that we are commanded to live by a higher standard, yet those among us who proport to accept that premise b***h and moan when held to that account.

[Ari]

The fact that the "Jew-hating" residents are calling the Yeshiva out on this, and even in a not-so-nice way is completely irrelevant.

The fact of the matter is that they're right, however unappealing their methods are. And if the law is being broken, what else would you do - scream that the people who are pointing it out are anti-Semitic and drawing attention from the fact that the law is actually being broken.

Bravo.

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

If it's a mitzvah in the Torah to remove danger from one's house, why don't Chareidim take fire safety seriously. This reminds me another story reported on this site, in which the "helige" bochurim just laughed at the firefighters who ordered them to evacuate the building. They also disabled the fire alarms too.

I like how these "religious" people get to pick the mitzvos they want to keep. When Conservative and Reform Jews do the same thing, these hypocrites scream about it.

[Dr Fred]

Gee, isn't there something in the Good Book about putting a railing around one's roof?

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

Off topic, but hilarious.

Check out this "frum" lady complaining because someone had the temerity to send her flier goading her to buy a television.

Oh, the humanity.

[Shmarya]

There is no word as to the nature of the electrical code violation. It could amount to basically nothing.

Please. And the complete lack of a sprinkler system?

Oh, I know. God will protect them, right?

[anonymous]

Golly gosh. Wasn't it the Charedi Rabbi Steven Riskin who did the exact same thing with his dormitory in Riverdale Ny?

Guess he must have learned it from the Charedim.....

Again, Shmarya won't answer the criticisms posed to him because he can't. All he does is harp on the sprinkler system, a technicality. A family of 6 is not required but 6 bochurim are just because the code says so. This yeshiva has boys staying in small groups in area homes.

If someone went down to Shmarya's failed restaurant with the code book and an axe to grind, he would no doubt find violations that come when one is medakdek kechut hasaara. Failed Messiah's "arguments" fail even more miserably.

The article saying the yeshiva is a branch of Telz is in error.

Rabbi Avremel Ausband left Telz to start "Talmidei Telz" / "Yeshiva of the Telshe Alumni", which is not officially Telz itself like in Cleveland and Chicago.

The yeshiva has a history of being hounded by anti-Semites that would make Shmarya proud.

At the first location in Westwood, NJ, town inspectors were down there all the time looking for violations after local residents complained that Jews from Monsey were invading. Residents would gather at town hall and shout all kinds of overtly racist complaints. The Jews were not from Monsey. When the town couldn't shut them down, residents started a series of Kristalnacht attacks and smashed all the windows repeatedly. The NY Times took notice when the yeshiva put a sign in front informing the anti-Semites that they will leave the windows broken. The town was still bent on getting rid of them and finally did so after losing in court by declaring eminent domain.

When the yeshiva moved to Riverdale, the local secular Jewish anti-Semites convinced the city to declare the yeshiva building a historic landmark to prohibit any expansion or renovation.

By all indications, the Roosevelt NJ yeshiva is not even a branch of Talmidei Telz, but rather of a different Riverdale NY yeshiva called "Meon Hatorah." People just wrongly assume that there is only one yeshiva in Riverdale.

[Shmarya]

"Again, Shmarya won't answer the criticisms posed to him because he can't. All he does is harp on the sprinkler system, a technicality. A family of 6 is not required but 6 bochurim are just because the code says so."

Again, our anonymous commenter who refuses to use his own name or an alias proves his inability to both reason and tell the truth.

1. Those "samll groups" of teenage boys pose a greater fire risk that a family. They live without parental supervision and there is a long history of yeshiva dorms and fires, damage and, of course, abuse.

Even if this were not true, cities have the responsibility and the right to set fire safety codes, zoning codes, building codes, and the like and, under Jewish law, we must obey those codes. That means what the yeshiva did here (and what others have done elsewhere) is both a violation of local laws and a violation of halakha.

2. I never owned a rerstaurant. I did co-own a meat market - deli. That meat market- deli did not fail while I owned it, and it remained in business for more than 10 years after I sold my half.

But truth, like moral reasoning and honesty, are foreign to our anonymous 'friend.'

3. Choose a nickname and stick with it or, if you have any guts at all, which I doubt, use your real name and stick with that.

The next comment you leave without one of those will be your last.

[Barry]

"Again, Shmarya won't answer the criticisms posed to him because he can't. All he does is harp on the sprinkler system, a technicality. A family of 6 is not required but 6 bochurim are just because the code says so."

In Nebraska you can obtain a driver's permit at 14. In New York you need to be 16. Therefore any 14 year old Haredi prosecuted driving in New York is a victim of antisemitism since he is only in breach of a mere technicality since this restriction only exists because dumb New York driver's licensing code say so. I happen to know that in the Falkland Islands there are no sprinkler requirements for dormitories so I cannot see what the New York authorities are fussing about.

[Ari]

Our anonymous friend presents the crux of this issue:

The laws of the United States are considered "technicalities" (except of course, when it suits them) only harped upon by anti-semites who clearly hate them and everything they do.

In reality, it is their contempt for the laws of this country in which they are afforded rights and benefits but which they desire to contribute nothing to, which is the target of criticism and even hatred.

You want to know what causes anti-Semitism? Look in a mirror.

[Alex]

oooooh Shmarya you antisemite! trying to get holier than thou charedim to actually follow RULES!!!!!! lol Shmarya you are such a nazi!lololol

just joking

Shmarya, if you want to be a Fascist and block me, go ahead. You're not being honest about your m.o. anyway. You once before blocked me even though I was using a moniker and remained civil. You couldn't take the fact that you were being challenged. During the previous episode which was quite a while ago, you deleted my comments and then attacked my position without giving me the opportunity to respond. This is one reason why many UOJ supporters have no affinity for you. UOJ allows his critics to post while you are deceitful.

While I am not advocating defiance of the law, you only present one overly biased side of the story against the yeshiva and say nothing of the seculars breaking the law, like with the paintball attack on the yeshiva.

The yeshiva's transgressions themselves are pretty benign. Of course you will endlessly argue that it stems from Charedi demonism, but 6 boys staying in a private home and supervised by a dorm counselor do not pose more of a threat than a family of six. Again, I am certain that you were guilty of many more minor violations of local ordinances at your restaurant. And yes, you argue here too that it was a "deli", but I seem to remember that you yourself once wrote using the word restaurant. (Of course your purpose there was to malign your former Charedi customers. What else is new?)

[Shmarya]

I have never blocked anyone other than missionaries and spammers, unless the violate comment rules and are warned.

If I banned you before, which I doubt, it was because of the latter.

You were warned clearly here. Pick a name and stick with it. You refuse to do so. Goodbye.

[Shmarya]

During the previous episode which
was quite a while ago, you deleted my comments and then attacked my
position without giving me the opportunity to respond.

Completely false.

Anyone reading the comments here can see that I regularly allow attacks on me, and that I do not ban unless the circumstance is extreme.

You repeatedly attack others and fail to respond to the facts that prove you wrong. You lie. You are regularly obnoxious.

Let I allowed you to continue to post. All I asked was that you use your real name or pick and stick with one alias.

You refused to do either.

You are banned.

[Alex]

mr. anonymous said "waaaaaaaaaaah evil nazi shmarya banned me!!!! Something about not following, rules? what are rules? I don't know! Rules must be an invention by the yatser hara to take me off the derech!"

The only thing that is completely false is you, Shmarya. I am not a missionary or spammer yet you deleted me earlier when I used a nickname.

You are spinning back at me everything that you are guilty of. You live to attack others and you do not answer many criticisms that I have raised over the last month.

With some message boards, it is more technologically difficult to ban someone not using a user name. You may have been trying to coax me into using another user name to make it easier on yourself to delete me.

You are very eager to silence me because I pose questions and criticisms that, despite your most calculated spin, you have a difficult time defeating.

You are a fraud.

[Shmarya]

You are very mistaken. You are also still not using a name or a nickname. So, after many warnings – you're banned.

Looks like I was right. After two "final warnings" from Shmarya huffing and beating his chest like a big shot, he hasn't been able to delete me.

The truth stands while miserable Shmarya fails miserably again.

[EDITED BY SITE OWNER

You're an infantile person. You are banned because you have repeatedly refused to follow comment rules. Go Away.]

Blah blah blah, Shmarya :o)~