Lakewood Vaad Seeks AG Probe Of Threats Toward Jews: Report

LAKEWOOD, NJ — The Lakewood Vaad is asking the state attorney general's office to investigate comments on social media it says are urging violence against the Jewish community, according to a report.

The Lakewood Scoop reported the Vaad, the rabbinical council that provides guidance to the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, made a public request to Attorney General Christopher Porrino this week, specifically citing comments posted on Facebook by a former member of the Jackson Township zoning board, John Burrows.

The report said the comment by Burrows was posted on the Jackson NJ StrongFacebook group in response to an article about a Jewish community in New York state. Referring to local conflicts, Burrows wrote: “Or we can fight them in the streets, they are chickens and will fall easy if they push us to violence, which is what they seem to want to do,” the Lakewood Scoop reported, with a screenshot of the comment.

The comment has since been deleted; a message sent to Burrows on social media seeking comment for this article was not immediately answered.

The administrators of the Jackson NJ Strong page posted a response to the Lakewood Scoop article, saying in part: "Jackson NJ Strong does not censor the comments made on this page unless it is a direct threat to someone specifically. There is something called 'The first amendment' and although we may not agree with everything posted, we will respect every Americans right to express their feelings."

The administrator went on to criticize the report and the Lakewood Scoop, saying, "They never give anyone a chance to respond to things that they don't agree with. Nor do they allow anyone outside of their community to post AND they knowingly post comments in the name of people who never themselves commented, in an attempt to defame them."

A call to Porrino's office for comment on the matter was not immediately returned.

Tensions have been rising for more than two years between the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community and surrounding communities. Angry comments on social media formed part of the basis for a federal civil rights lawsuit filed in 2016 by the Chabad Jewish Center of Toms River over a decision in December 2015 by the Toms River zoning board requiring the center and Rabbi Moshe Gourarie to seek a variance to hold religious services at the property. That lawsuit has not been settled, and Toms River is the subject of an investigation by the federal Justice Department in the wake of the lawsuit.

There have been conflicts in other towns as well, including friction over parking issues at a business in Brick Township that led to a street parking ban in part of the Lake Riviera development.

More recently, the arrests of more than two dozen Lakewood residents on charges of defrauding the Medicaid program — and a subsequent announcement by the state comptroller's office of an amnesty program to allow Ocean County residents who received Medicaid they weren't entitled to receive to pay it back and not face criminal charges — have stirred anger further, with dozens of residents from across the county bashing authorities and accusing them of favoritism toward the ultra-Orthodox community.

Requests for pretrial intervention in the Lakewood fraud cases have been put on hold while the cases are presented to a grand jury by the Ocean County Prosecutor's office, according to a report by the Asbury Park Press.

In 2016, repeated incidents ofanti-Semitic graffiti at Riverwood Park in Toms River sparked a declaration from Toms River Mayor Thomas Kelaher that the incidents were being investigated as a bias crime and that such behavior would not be tolerated.

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