Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on May 18, 2014

What are they, meshuggeneh?

As part of its controversial plan to annex 507 acres of land upstate, the ultra-Orthodox village of Kiryas Joel commissioned a map highlighting Hasidic Jewish landowners surrounding the town a move that angry sect members have compared to Hitlers record-keeping.

It reminds all of us of the 1940s, when the Nazis did exactly this an account of every Jew, and their businesses, said one source who grew up in the Orange County village founded in the 1970s by the Satmar Grand Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum.

Why do they need to know whos a Hasidic Jew and whos not? Why does it matter?

The map was posted this month on the Orange County Web site. Residents whose homes fell within areas identified as Hasidic recoiled particularly in light of the villages powder-keg land-grab petition, which came last December when 141 property owners in Kiryas Joel submitted their request to annex land from the surrounding town of Monroe.

The landowners claim the move is needed to accommodate the insular villages exploding population and presumably crafted the map to better understand where the Jewish properties are, so that it should help them decide what to annex, a source said.

Opponents in Monroe argue that a land grab will ruin their quality of life and lower property values.

Most of us bought our homes here because of the rural character, but this would immediately result in high-density development and a tremendous strain on our natural resources, said Emily Convers, chair of the opposition group United Monroe.

Chaim Rolnitzky, a Monroe resident and member of the Satmar sect, blasted the map.

My reaction was disbelief and concern, he recalled.

Go here to read the rest:

Outrage as Kiryas Joel orders map of Hasidic landowners

Category: Hasidic
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