New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection has been fighting the rabbi for more than two years, and a court this year gave Abadi 60 days to remove the dump. The 60 days expired June 18, but the dump is still there, and the Department of Environmental Protection fears it will begin to pollute the township’s water supply.
Abadi's dump in 2010
Lakewood Rabbi In Court Over Illegal Dumping Of Religious Waste
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
In 2010, a Lakewood haredi rabbi, Chaim Abadi, hired a contractor to make a clearing and dig a pit on property owned by an elderly woman, Grace Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald, in her 80s, lives on Long Island. The property is in Lakewood Township in New Jersey. Fitzgerald apparently did not know what Abadi was doing on her property.
Abadi used the illegally-dug pit to bury sheimot, damaged religious books and torah scrolls, tzizit (fringes) and other ritual items that were too damaged to repair. Jewish law forbids what it terms the mistreatment of such objects, mandating that they be stored or buried rather than thrown in the trash.
Abadi’s dump site is located near an active water well, and he lacked the proper permits needed to bury the items there.
New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection has been fighting Abadi for more than two years, and a court this year gave Abadi 60 days to remove the dump. The 60 days expired June 18, but the dump is still there, and the Department of Environmental Protection fears it will begin to pollute the township’s water supply.
At one point, Abadi reportedly claimed to have legal use of the land and disputed its ownership. But he didn’t have legal use and the ownership claims he and supporters made were false. The land was finally deeded to Congregation Minyan Shelanu Inc. by Fitgerald earlier this month after years of wrangling. According to a report in the Asbury Park Press, Abadi is the “owner” of Congregation Minyan Shelanu Inc.
Abadi is best known nationally for managing a website, Kashrut.org, which publicizes his father’s, Rabbi Yithak Abadi’s, often liberal kashrut decisions. The elder Abadi was the posek, decisior of Jewish law, for Lakewood Yeshiva. He now heads his own kollel, advanced yeshiva, in Jerusalem.
Rabbi Chaim Abadi is due in court this morning.
The Asbury Park Press reports that the state’s Department of Environmental Protection says that Abadi, his congregation, and two other defendants are in “blatant defiance” of the court order to remove the buried materials. It is asking that a fine of $1,000 per day be imposed on the defendants until the illegal dump is removed and properly cleaned up.
Related Post: Illegal Sheimos Dump Sparks Legal Row.