Lying To Oprah, Part 2: Haredim And Child Safety – Illegal Haredi School Deemed A Firetrap Still Open
A haredi school deemed a "firetrap" remains open despite its lack of a certificate of occupancy or permits. It has no fire system or sprinkler system in a majority of building. At the insistence of firefighters who responded to a fire at the school in May and were appalled by the fire safety violations they saw, the Village of New Hempstead took the school to court to compel its closure until the building – built illegally without permits as a single family home and then illegally converted to children's yeshiva a few years later – is completely brought up to code, gets a certificate of occupancy and passes building and fire inspections. But the judge says she lacks the power to close the school, and haredi children still study in what one firefighter called a "firetrap."
Ohr Torah yeshiva in New Hempstead
Religious school ruled illegal by Ramapo still open; congregation gets 30 days to file plans
Steve Lieberman • The Journal News
NEW HEMPSTEAD — A Route 306 religious school continues to hold classes for children in a former single-family house despite being taken to Ramapo Town Court for operating illegally and after yeshiva officials promised the village mayor they would first seek approvals.
Congregation Ohr Torah went before Ramapo Justice Rhoda Schoenberger on Tuesday and got another 30 days to move ahead on filing plans and going before village planning and zoning boards. The congregation lacks a certificate of occupancy and approvals to operate a school in the house and an addition.
While the village recently issued summonses carrying potentially thousands of dollars in fines, Schoenberger told lawyers for the school and village that she’s powerless to close the school, officials said. She also told the lawyers this was her first view of the case.
The usual method for dealing with an illegal school in Ramapo is for the town or municipality to seek a closure order from a state Supreme Court justice based on health and safety conditions. The usual result has been that state judges give the school time to put in required fire and safety equipment and to go before local planning and zoning boards.
The lack of such enforcement led New Hempstead to incorporate as a village to control its own zoning in 1983, so the illegal school is operating with the village’s de facto consent.
New Hempstead Mayor Lawrence Dessau said Wednesday that if the village doesn’t get anywhere before Schoenberger, officials would consider going to a higher court.
Dessau acknowledged he allowed the school to operate without permits after yeshiva officials promised to legalize the building, which lacks a certificate of occupancy. They never got approvals to convert the building into a school or for construction of an addition.
Village Attorney Keith Cornell is prosecuting the congregation before Schoenberger. The case is in Ramapo Town Court because New Hempstead doesn’t have its own court.
Dessau, a New Hempstead board member since the village’s incorporation, said he felt confident giving the yeshiva extra time, believing it would make good on its promises because its attorney, Ira M. Emanuel, was involved.
“I had hoped this might have been brought to a satisfactory conclusion already like they promised,” Dessau said. “I tried to give them room to get everything legal. All they had to do is move out and get all the necessary approvals. It hasn’t really worked out well.”
Emanuel said the congregation would go before the village planning and zoning boards. He didn’t attend the court appearance before Schoenberger.
Emanuel said the operators pleaded not guilty to the village charge of occupancy without a certificate of occupancy. He declined to comment on whether the congregation is holding classes inside the building but has acknowledged no certificate of occupancy exists.
“We are working diligently and cooperatively with the village to have this thing legalized and permitted,” Emanuel said. “We advised the judge we’re in the process of putting together an application for site-plan approval.”
The village moved to cite the school earlier this month and take it to court after extensive pressure by Hillcrest volunteer firefighters, who responded to a May fire at the building.
Fire Inspector Chris Kear said part of the building has a working sprinkler and fire alarm system hooked into the county emergency communications center. The sprinkler system only has been installed in the addition built to the single-family house, he said.
The school officials have been told they can’t occupy the lower level of the original house but continue to do so, Kear and Hillcrest Fire Chief Lloyd Hovelmann said.
Mates Cantor, a rabbi from Australia, built the 5,282-square-foot building that once had four bedrooms and 4 1/2 baths without any approvals and permits from the village about a decade ago. Cantor sold the property to Ohr Torah for $995,000 in March 2011. The assessed value is $223,700 and the village property tax is $1,073, according figures from the Village Clerk’s Office.
Kear said the school is operating in a single-family residential zone, which can be allowed by permit. The school, among other issues, needs to provide a detailed engineering report on the building, the level of electrical wiring inside the building, and revised site plans.
“The representatives told us that they wanted to do it right,” Kear said. “They did throw a lot of money making some changes. The building remains occupied.”
Hovelmann said the school is both dangerous for the children and firefighters. He said an architect with the state met with a counterpart for the congregation last week during an inspection that found many issues not in compliance with the village and state regulations.
Illegally built private homes, multi-family dwellings, schools and synagogues, illegal remodeling and illegal additions have been common in haredi villages like New Square, New York, and in heavily haredi neighborhoods of other towns.
Firefighters recently reached an agreement with the hasidic Village of New Square's leadership they hope will reduce or eliminate this problem.
Firefighters report entering haredi-owned buildings and finding illegal internal walls that block exit routes, substandard wiring, missing sprinkler systems and smoke alarms, emergency exits chained and locked or blocked by large pieces of furniture or even by illegally built walls.
The situation was so bad in some areas like New Square that firefighters threatened to refuse to respond to calls because the danger to firefighters of entering these illegal haredi buildings to fight a fire was too high.
Despite this horrific record of hasidic/haredi lack of concern for safety, including the safety of their own children, Oprah Winfrey's look into hasidic life touts the safety of these hasidic communities and the family/child-centric outlook of hasidim, completely ignoring this issue and the ongoing issue of dozens of coverups of child sexual abuse and rape within these communities.
Oprah should be ashamed.
Related Posts:
Everything is learned by comparison Shmarya. Hassidic communities are very safe when compared to many other areas.
How many muders are registered in hassidic communities? How it compares with other communities?
Lets stop propaganda mode and switch to rational thinking for just a
moment.
Posted by: who knows | February 16, 2012 at 08:11 AM
Lets stop propaganda mode and switch to rational thinking for just a
moment.
Posted by: who knows | February 16, 2012 at 08:11 AM
The irony is simply staggering. You people have no idea of how you sound. You have absolutely no clue.
Posted by: Jeff | February 16, 2012 at 08:23 AM
Schoenberger told lawyers for the school and village that she’s powerless to close the school
Yes, I'm sure.
In the meanwhile, they need to make certain their mezuzah has no flaws, so that Hashem will be able to protect them.
You know what's really sad? There are thousands of people - many of whom probably read this blog without commenting - to whom the above sentence will make perfect sense.
Posted by: Jeff | February 16, 2012 at 08:27 AM
who knows-youre dead wrong i count murder of the soul as murder and there are plenty in the hassidishe community with all the molestation and thievery
Posted by: jancsipista | February 16, 2012 at 08:35 AM
"Everything is learned by comparison."
It is? I must have missed that day of school.
You eally think anyone outside your closeted insanity believes you can justify crazy-ass haredi behavior this way? "could be worse. At least our kids are in an unsafe buikding instead of abusive orphanages in Russia or dying of AIDS on the streets in Africa".
You must feel very proud of your low standards and lack of accomplishment...
Posted by: Eli | February 16, 2012 at 08:45 AM
Posted by: Jeff | February 16, 2012 at 08:27 AM
someone posted a story about an incident that happen in monsey maybe in the 50's 60's.
a boy a hit by a car and killed the community help a meeting what to do with this rabbi who was a know figure (just cannot remember the name)
some ideas
check mezuzah
maybe give more thzudukha
maybe they should talk less in shul
and so on and many otherthey loked at teh rov what to do
he said maybe we should petition the county to build sidewalks so people do not have to walk in the street where the car goes.
there thinking of cause and effect is not based on the obvious or realty
Posted by: seymour | February 16, 2012 at 08:54 AM
Everything is learned by comparison Shmarya. Hassidic communities are very safe when compared to many other areas
v
that argument never works to eat chazer or go to a movie and any other thing. what is always said is we do not compare ourselves to gentile or secular jews
Posted by: seymour | February 16, 2012 at 09:00 AM
there thinking of cause and effect is not based on the obvious or realty
Posted by: seymour | February 16, 2012 at 08:54 AM
Exactly right.
How do we help stop conflict with the Palestinians? Women should cover more of their hair and wear longer skirts.
Maybe we should turn it back on them. Instead of collecting money for Rubashkin's defense, maybe they should be more careful about, I don't know, shatnez. Like, not wearing garments made of EITHER linen or wool, so they won't even come CLOSE to violating the halacha.
Posted by: Shoshi | February 16, 2012 at 09:18 AM
I don't get it. The Lohud story makes no mention of Oprah, how did her name get connected with it. Maybe she is to be blamed for not mentioning the problem with haredi press blurring faces of little girls or chabad asking $5 for beggars to beg in 770.
Posted by: Confused | February 16, 2012 at 09:27 AM
I'm going to predict what the Great W4M will say:
"Where does it say in the Shulchan Aruch that one has to do what the firefighters recommend in the name of "safety"? Sprinklers are a goyish invention.
Clearly, the firefighters are anti-Semites trying to harrass Yidden who are just trying to learn Torah."
Posted by: Betzalel | February 16, 2012 at 09:40 AM
Posted by: Betzalel | February 16, 2012 at 09:40 AM
and they should be more than happy to sacrifice their lives for Torah yiddin
Posted by: seymour | February 16, 2012 at 10:18 AM
there thinking of cause and effect is not based on the obvious or realty
Posted by: seymour | February 16, 2012 at 08:54 AM
No, it certainly isn't.
Maybe we should turn it back on them. Instead of collecting money for Rubashkin's defense, maybe they should be more careful about, I don't know, shatnez. Like, not wearing garments made of EITHER linen or wool, so they won't even come CLOSE to violating the halacha.
Posted by: Shoshi | February 16, 2012 at 09:18 AM
An excellent idea, if we could get the Jewish organizations on board, which we would never be able to do.
Posted by: Jeff | February 16, 2012 at 11:07 AM
We always like to run our lives according to the sensibilities of that overweight, annoying, smug Afro-American television entertainer. Maybe we should all convert to Oprahism!
Who gives a flying tashmish who tells what to that talking head idiot?! Maybe it's what passes for religion in the Twin Cities.
Posted by: A E ANDERSON | Eden Terrace, Auckland, New Zealand | February 16, 2012 at 11:37 AM
Whatever happened to hishtadlus? Aren't you supposed to help G-d out by providing sprinklers, fire exits, etc? Look how many Jews died in the Triangle fire. If the building that housed the factory had a modern fire alarm, fireproof stairs, sprinklers, and no locked exit doors (all of which was actually feasible in 1911), every single person in that factory would have gotten out in one piece. For pity sake, these firetraps are where we send our CHILDREN! (Stories like these make me glad my kids are homeschooled.)
Posted by: AztecQueen2000 | February 16, 2012 at 11:44 AM
Why is it Oprah's fault? Her show isn't about journalism, it's about showcasing her.
I am reminded about a story in Newsweek 20 years ago about Rabbi Schneerson. A sentence read something to the effect that, while he is the leader of one sect, he "...is beloved by all Jews."
Obviously, the reporter just repeated what the Rebbe's minyons told him and took it for fact.
I thought it was the funniest thing in that issue.
Posted by: Sarek | February 16, 2012 at 01:21 PM
Maybe Shaul Spitzer can see if the place is really a fire trap.
Posted by: flat earth | February 16, 2012 at 01:33 PM
"Cantor sold the property to Ohr Torah for $995,000 in March 2011. The assessed value is $223,700. . . "
Anyone have any ideas as to the reason for the difference? Or how he could build it and sell it for almost a million without the approvals and permits?
Posted by: Ichabod Chrain | February 16, 2012 at 10:21 PM
What's the problem? According to Jerusalem Post charedim are now taking care of sex abuse problems and more likely not to hide them. It just illustrates how the press misjudges the Torah True Community and does not report its wonderful response to protecting Jewish Kinderlach. They unlike the other Jewish movements are standing tall now on fighting child abuse while other Jews and goyim abuse their kids at will. The truth always comes out in the Jerusalem Post.
Posted by: yudel | February 17, 2012 at 03:30 PM
They should built fire security measures on that school.
Government should do better!
Posted by: plumbing | February 18, 2012 at 05:27 PM