Shalom Lamm, the controversial Modern Orthodox developer building 396-unit Satmar shtetl in Bloomingburg, New York, speaks out against the vandalism that has plagued some of his properties.
Lamm makes no mention of his organized attempt to have about 100 ineligible voters vote in Bloomingburg's election or that Bloomingburg's population without those illegal voters is about 400 people, including children.
He makes no mention of his alleged attempt to hide the development behind a front man and a plan for a vacation home/retirement community with a golf course that likely was never meant to be built.
Lamm makes no mention that Satmar illegally advertised the development in its Yiddish-language paper Der Yid as a Satmar-only hasidic shtetl – a violation of fair housing law.
Lamm doesn't mention his previous frequent claims that opponents are spewing hate, or that some of those opponents are Jewish.
He also doesn't mention that the FBI raided his office and many of his properties in March and a criminal investigation is presumably ongoing.
And most of all, Lamm doesn't mention that bringing in 2,000 or so Satmar hasidim will mean that Bloomingburg will no longer be, well, Bloomingburg as anyone has known it since it was first settled. Satmar hasidim – who proudly and openly bloc vote – will control the village from the first election after they move there.
All in all, it was a typical Lamm performance. It will play well to haredim and to a handful of local sympathizers (some of who were allegedly bought off).
As for everyone else, for those who know nothing about Bloomingburg, to me, Lamm seemed sympathetic and a true victim.
But for those who know Bloomingburg, Lamm still is what he's been for several years – the big city wheeler dealer who is trying to take over their village and change their lives by hook or by crook, and he's done nothing to disabuse them of that frightening notion.
[Hat Tip: OCR.]