A Satmar hasidic yeshiva that has operated illegally in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn for 20 years has been told get out and move to Williamsburg. "Many of my tenants [next door] keep their shades drawn during school hours so they won't get yelled at. The students can be aggressive.”
Above: Satmar UTA kids in Monroe, NY (file photo)
Illegal Satmar Yeshiva Whose Students Harassed Non-Orthodox Neighbors Told To Move Out
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
A Satmar hasidic yeshiva that has operated illegally in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn for 20 years has been told get out and move to Williamsburg, DNAInfo reported.
Community Board 2 turned down United Talmudical Academy's bid to continue to operate in a manufacturing zone, citing the school’s lack of permits while noting there are plenty of available locations in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn – Satmar’s worldwide power base – for the school to relocate to.
"The Yeshiva is a part of the Satmar community’s school system, a community geographically concentrated locally in present-day southern Williamsburg, not Wallabout or Clinton Hill," the board's resolution reportedly reads. It also says that South Williamsburg is "an area where hundreds of thousands of square feet of residential and community facility space was constructed during the 20 years that the school was in [illegal] operation [in Clinton Hill].”
Schools are reportedly allowed to locate in industrial districts, but only by special permit issued by the city's Board of Standards and Appeals.
But Satmar’s UTA Clinton Hill branch has occupied a building at 25 Waverly Avenue in an industrial area despite not having a permit, the community board noted.
But the community board only cracked down on UTA because a change of leadership at the school was problematic, CB2 District Manager Rob Perris reportedly said.
Neighbors complain the the K-12 boy’s yeshiva’s students throw furniture, food and garbage out the windows into the streets and yards of neighboring properties. They also say the yeshiva uses the area behind the building as a parking lot and for bus repair, and often clean bus engines with power washers, flooding the street with chemicals.
They also claim students throw furniture, food and garbage out the windows and into the streets and yards of neighboring properties.
The owner of a properly permitted mixed-use building adjacent to yeshiva complained that his female tenants are harassed by unsupervised children who yell at them out the windows.
"Many of my tenants keep their shades drawn during school hours so they won't get yelled at. The students can be aggressive,” Peter Noel Duhamel, who owns 66-68 Washington Avenure, reportedly said.
A representative from UTA did not respond to DNAInfo’s request for comment, and neither did the Board of Standards and Appeals.
The community board’s vote against UTA was reportedly unanimous.
[Hat Tip: The Lion.]