Lakewood
Dion Marsh faces life in prison and $1.5 million in fines for driving a car he stole from one Orthodox Jew into four others, one of whom he stabbed.
Synagogues in the town, with a growing Orthodox population, now need just one acre, not two.
Nevertheless, “his menacing behavior caused fear of imminent injury or harm,” according to a captain in the Lakewood Police Department.
In a video, driver Donny Klarmann and his friend, Brandon Ebbs, can be heard laughing as the snowplow is turned in the direction of two Jewish men walking during Shabbat.
Justice Department reaches agreement with New Jersey town after accusations of religious zoning bias
Toms River, which was accused of placing unreasonable burdens on its growing Orthodox population, will modify its zoning code to reduce the “minimum acreage” for a house of worship from 10 acres to two.
Hundreds of participants took part in an outdoor expo in Lakewood, hosted by the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce, to provide new opportunities for businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
The threats came less than four months after the deadly attacks on Jews in Jersey City, N.J., and in Monsey, N.Y., in December 2019, and during a time of significant uptick in anti-Semitic activity online.
It “seems to be part of a broader trend in this instance. The ‘anti-other’—anti-Semitic, anti-Chinese, racist, xenophobic—rhetoric is everywhere,” says Jennifer Rich, executive director of the Rowan Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies in New Jersey.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy slammed the plan, saying, “Listen, I want to gather as much as the next guy, but we can’t allow that to happen.”
The security summit took place as anti-Semitic incidents and vandalism continue to be reported in Ocean County, N.J., particularly in the towns of Lakewood and Jackson.
Surveillance footage showed a woman exiting her vehicle and walking behind a trailer on the business property, which was later vandalized.
“You have this situation where there is demographic growth, but that is being used as an excuse to scapegoat the Orthodox community for all the trouble that the particular community has,” says Alexander Rosemberg of the Anti-Defamation League New York/New Jersey.