Haredi protesters with opposite stances on Israel clashed on Monday night when rival protesters, including young boys, shouted at each other outside a synagogue in Monsey, the Haredi news outlet Yeshiva World News reported.

Yehuda Alon, a farmer and veteran of the Israeli Defense Forces, was scheduled to speak at Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim, also known as Scheiner’s, about the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, according to the Yeshiva World News. The news outlet said that the resulting anti-Zionist protest in turn prompted a large pro-Israel counter-protest.

Videos from the news outlet show the protesters yelling at each other, one person at one point can be heard telling an anti-Zionist protester to “go live with the Palestinians.” The Ramapo Police Department and New York State Police were both present, the Yeshiva World News said.

The Yeshiva World News described the anti-Zionist protesters as being part of the Neturei Karta, a small Monsey-based Haredi group religiously opposed to the existence of any Jewish state of Israel before the arrival of the messiah. 

The group’s public-facing activism puts it at odds with others in the Haredi community, including those that share its anti-Zionist views. In December, a leading Chabad rabbi Y.Y. Jacobson denigrated the group, claiming that its members are not “really Jewish” and calling them “very sick people.” Jacobson later wrote in an email to Shtetl, “I have no real knowledge on this.”

Monday’s clash was only the latest in a series of public disputes in Haredi enclaves since Oct. 7. In early May, Neturei Karta members faced off with pro-Israel Haredim at a town meeting near Lakewood, New Jersey, disagreeing over a billboard that said “Stand with humanity. Stand with Palestine.” 

Within Monsey, Jewish business owners recently blamed anti-Israel Haredim after the Israeli flag outside their business was repeatedly vandalized.

And the Town of Ramapo, where Monsey is located, is fighting back against a lawsuit by a man who identifies as a member of the Satmar Hasidic sect, which is known for its anti or non-Zionist views. The man, Leibish Iliovits, argued that, by displaying the Israeli flag outside its town hall, Ramapo violated his religious liberties. According to a source close to the litigant, Iliovits is also connected to Neturei Karta. Iliovits declined Shtetl’s request for an interview.

In April, the Town of Ramapo responded in court, reaffirming its support for Israel and arguing, among other things, that the Satmar Hasidic sect “comprises a very small percentage of the population of Ramapo.” Considered the largest Hasidic sect in the world, the Satmar community has large bases in Orange County and Brooklyn, and smaller ones elsewhere in the region. 

Congressman Mike Lawler, a Republican who represents Rockland County, will receive an honorary doctorate degree from the Orthodox Jewish-affiliated Touro University, and be the commencement speaker at its upcoming graduation, according to a press release from the university. 

The press release praised Lawler’s stances on education and Israel. “A champion of school choice, he has publicly defended and protected Jewish education on both the state and national levels,” it said. “He has also fought against antisemitism and the BDS movement and is an outspoken supporter of Israel.”

“In the wake of the anti-Israel demonstrations at colleges and universities across the nation, Lawler has shown that the safety of Jewish students is of paramount concern,” Touro president Alan Kadish said in the press release.

In 2023, Lawler aimed to add a non-binding resolution to a bill in Congress saying “local educational agencies do not have the authority to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum” at private schools, Hamodia reported. 

“In New York,” Lawler said at the time, “this is of great concern, as the current governor and her administration have attempted to impose severe restrictions on private schools.” Lawler’s resolution came months after the New York State Education Department passed regulations outlining requirements for private schools, after reports showed that many Hasidic boys’ schools offered little to no education in math, science, English, or social studies.

More recently, Lawler introduced the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which passed the House of Representatives earlier this month. If signed into law, the bill would instruct the U.S. Department of Education to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism when investigating allegations of anti-Jewish discrimination on college campuses. Among many other things, the IHRA definition considers it antisemitic to “[deny] the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”

Touro University, the alma mater of notable graduates such as Judge Ruchie Freier and City Councilmember Kalman Yeger, has multiple branches and programs that cater to Haredi students, including helping students earn GEDs in order to enroll in college degree programs. The congress member will speak at the commencement address for Touro’s Lander colleges for men and women on June 2 at Manhattan’s Lincoln Center.

Joel Eisdorfer, a Hasidic senior adviser to New York City Mayor Eric Adams and his liaison to Jewish communities, is reportedly eyeing a lobbying job after announcing on Thursday that he would step down from his role at City Hall, the New York Daily News reported.

Frank Carone, Adams’s former chief of staff and the founder of the lobbying firm Oaktree Solutions, told the Daily News that he was in talks with Eisdorfer and another Adams official, Kevin Kim, about potentially working at Oaktree.

“Anyone would be lucky to have either or both as they both have character, work ethic and loyalty,” Carone told the news outlet.

John Kaehny, executive director of the government watchdog group Reinvent Albany, told the Daily News it’s an ethical concern when government officials switch to working as lobbyists.

“What they’re doing is cashing in on their access to the mayor and City Hall,” Kaehny said. The Daily News said Oaktree is currently lobbying city agencies other than the mayor’s office on behalf of real estate and hospitality interests.

Eisdorfer and Kim did not respond to the Daily News’s request for comment, but Adams spokesperson Fabien Levy said the two will do “whatever is best for them and their families” and they will continue to support the mayor “in other ways.”

According to the Forward, which first announced Eisdorfer’s departure, he is leaving City Hall to improve work-life balance.

Eisdorfer told the Forward he would volunteer on Adams’s reelection campaign and continue to chair the mayor’s Jewish advisory council. 

While at the mayor’s office, Eisdorfer has also arranged briefings and other meetings for Jewish leaders. He is often seen at events in which the mayor meets with Haredi leaders, such as a recent celebration of the establishment of a Bobov Hasidic boys’ yeshiva, during which Adams reaffirmed his support for Hasidic schools dictating their own curricula, according to Hamodia.

“Joel has been an empathetic public servant during one of the most trying times for Jewish New Yorkers,” Adams wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “He's reached across communities to make them feel heard and seen. I'll miss him day to day, but I'm happy he'll keep working with us in new ways.”

Fellow high ranking Orthodox official, Richie Taylor, a deputy chief at the New York City Police Department, also praised Eisdorfer’s work for the mayor. "Joel is a consummate professional who has brought tremendous positivity to government and to all communities in New York City,” Taylor wrote. “I look forward to continuing working with Joel in his role as Chair of the Mayor’s Jewish Advisory Council and I know that the best is yet to come!”

Before working for the mayor’s office, Eisdorfer ran his own lobbying firm, the Daily News said. He has also served as a board member for the Borough Park Jewish Community Council and a member of Brooklyn Community Board 12, which includes Borough Park, according to Hamodia. Eisdorfer previously worked for the now-mayor during Adams’ time as state senator and Brooklyn borough president.

In March, Eisdorfer was the target of a lawsuit that claimed he failed to pay the broker’s fee after signing a contract to buy a restaurant in South Brooklyn. Eisdorfer’s attorney argued, among other things, that that contract was not fully executed by both parties.

He was recently added to a list of city employees with “substantial” influence over public policy, a list that includes employees who have “major responsibilities and [exercise] independent judgment in connection with determining important agency matters,” according to the city’s Conflict of Interest Board.

When Eisdorfer leaves the mayor’s office, his current duties will be shared among his remaining coworkers, the Forward said.

This article was edited to include comments by Richie Taylor.

‍

Read more in Shtetl:
‍Mayor Adams Jewish liaison Joel Eisdorfer sued over failed business deal
‍Two more reps of Orthodox organizations will join Mayor’s Jewish Advisory Council
‍‘Where’s our presence in the streets?’ Mayor Adams tells yeshiva leaders to get outraged

The New York City Police Department’s hate crimes unit is investigating an attack on Hasidic boys in Williamsburg that took place at 8:35 p.m. on Sunday night, after security camera footage of the attack was posted on X, formerly Twitter, according to the New York Jewish Week.

In the video, a small group of Hasidic boys appear to be playing on the sidewalk when a man slowly dismounts from a Citi Bike, approaches the boys, and runs up to one of them and punches him, knocking him down. The man then appears to push another boy to the ground, stomp on him, and kick him repeatedly before returning to his Citibike and riding away. The video was posted by Williamsburg365, an account that posts news about that neighborhood’s Hasidic community.

Police told CBS News that the two boys, ages 11 and 13, were taken to a local hospital with head injuries but are expected to be OK.

"It's just absolutely awful. I cannot believe that somebody would attack children," City Councilmember Lincoln Restler, who represents the area, told CBS. "I am hopeful and confident they will identify this person and hold him accountable."  

“We are very alarmed by this assault,” wrote the Anti-Defamation League, which combats antisemitism, on X.

According to the New York Jewish Week, 285 antisemitic incidents have been reported to the NYPD since October.

Yeshiva principals in Lakewood, New Jersey are proposing changes that they hope will ease the “shidduch crisis,” a phenomenon in some parts of the Haredi community in which women struggle to find husbands because of certain features of the dating and marriage system.

It’s unclear exactly why the so-called “crisis” exists, but it may be partly attributable to the fact that women usually date men who are several years older, whose education takes longer. In some parts of the community, men are not allowed to date while studying in post-high school Yeshivas, which contributes to the age gap. According to recent articles in the Yeshiva World News and Matzav, Lakewood principals plan to address the crisis by adjusting the ages at which young men and women are allowed to begin dating.

At a meeting on Tuesday, the principals unanimously agreed to modify dating rules so that women will soon need to delay the age at which they begin to date by one year, as opposed to starting to date shortly after graduating from seminary.

Meanwhile, men will start dating earlier. The logic goes that by beginning their studies in Israel sooner and graduating sooner, they will also begin dating sooner, and be closer in each to their female counterparts. 

The YWN said the implementation date for the new rules is yet to be determined.

The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James sent a letter last week asking the supervisor of the Sullivan County town of Forestburgh to change a recently imposed zoning ordinance that might illegally discriminate against a Hasidic Jewish development, while also warning that the process that led to the law’s adoption might have violated government transparency rules.

The zoning ordinance, Local Law 3, created requirements for religious institutions that are stricter than the requirements for buildings used for secular purposes, wrote Jill Faber, the Chief Deputy Attorney General for Regional Affairs. The letter cites the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, a federal law that, among other things, prohibits zoning laws that discriminate against religious institutions.

“Local Law 3 appears to violate state and federal law by discriminating against religious uses,” Faber wrote. “And the adoption of Local Law 3 raises concerns about Forestburgh’s compliance with the Open Meetings Law.”

The letter comes amid a yearslong legal battle over Lost Lake Resort, a proposed development that seeks to house 2,600 homes in Forestburgh, a town near the Catskills, in an area where there is a growing year-round Haredi community. The Hasidic owners who bought the land in 2020 have sued the town twice, arguing in both cases — with support from the Haredi organization Agudath Israel of America — that it made changes purposely designed to keep Hasidim out. The lawsuits are both ongoing.

Dan Hogue, the town supervisor, to whom the letter was addressed, told the Albany Times-Union he believed the zoning law was not discriminatory. He said Lost Lake Resort has been the subject of 13 lawsuits, “nine of which have been judged in the town’s favor.”

“The zoning does not specifically call out any race, religion or anybody,” Hogue told the outlet. “To call it that (discriminatory) it just reeks of political undertones given the current lawsuits brought on by this developer. ... I believe it’s just politically motivated by a developer.”

The Attorney General’s letter also warned Hogue that, before the ordinance was passed, a copy of it should have been made available to the public at least 24 hours before town leaders discussed it.

“We request that you promptly review Local Law 3 make any amendments needed to

comport with state and federal law,” Faber wrote. “We further ask that you provide our office with any proposed amendments resulting from your review before their enactment.”

Matis Rutner, also known as Abe Rutner, a leader at the Sullivan County Jewish Community Council, told Hamodia he was happy to see the letter. 

“We are glad that the New York State AG has looked into the what has transpired in the town of Forestburgh,” Rutner said. “Together with the Justice Department, who has written to the judge concerning the Lost Lake law suit, we expect the township to conduct themselves in compliance with the law and treat us without any discrimination.”

The judge overseeing a criminal trial of former president Donald Trump contradicted a claim that he scheduled proceedings on Jewish holidays in order to prevent Orthodox Jews from serving on the jury, NBC News reported.

Right-wing pundits accused Judge Juan Merchan of scheduling proceedings on Fridays and Passover in order to prevent Orthodox Jews from serving on the jury, Newsweek reported.

Merchan said on Monday that there would be no trial on any day that conflicts with the religious observance of any juror — including Passover.

Jury selection began on Monday and is expected to take one to two weeks. The trial itself is expected to last six to eight weeks and will take place every weekday except Wednesday.

“Leftwing anti-Trump Democrat judge in phony case against Trump starting tomorrow has purposely scheduled trial days to include Fridays to prevent more conservative pro-Trump Orthodox Jews from serving on the jury,” Fox News pundit Mark Levin wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Dan Schneider, vice president for the Free Speech Alliance at the Media Research Center, a conservative organization, posted a similar comment, writing in part that the judge sought to “exclude all Orthodox Jews from the jury pool.”

The court closes at 5 p.m. Between now and June, Shabbat will begin after 7 p.m., though, for many observant Jews, preparations begin much earlier.

Trump made history on Monday as the first former president to face a criminal trial. He pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records during his 2016 campaign, punishable by up to four years in prison. 

Prosecutor Chris Conroy said that Trump attempted to “undermine the election” by making hush money payments to three people: porn star Stormy Daniels, Playboy model Karen McDougal, and Dino Sajudin, a former Trump Tower doorman who claimed Trump had a child out of wedlock.

Prospective jurors will have to answer 42 questions, including what news sources they follow and whether they’ve ever attended any Trump rallies or anti-Trump protests. The prosecutor and Trump’s attorneys can each ask additional questions. The trial will have an anonymous jury.

Many Haredi New Yorkers support Trump. In both the 2016 and 2020 general elections, the former president won a vast majority of votes in the largely Haredi neighborhood Borough Park. According to an online survey conducted during the summer, ninety percent of Haredi respondents said they planned to vote Republican in the 2024 presidential election, compared to only 39% of Modern Orthodox respondents.

A Rockland town’s insurance carrier paid a Haredi school $200,000 to settle a discrimination lawsuit, Lohud reported. As part of the settlement with Ateres Bais Yaakov, members of the Clarkstown land use board must also take classes on the Religious Land Use and Institutional Persons Act, a federal law from 2000 meant to prevent discrimination against religious organizations.

The Haredi girls’ school had sued the town of Clarkstown and the advocacy organization CUPON, alleging religious discrimination after the town prevented it from purchasing a former church property. The Anti-Defamation League, which fights against antisemitism, filed an amicus brief in support of Ateres, arguing that the case represented a trend in which zoning laws are used to discriminate against Orthodox Jews.

In 2022, a district court dismissed Ateres’s claims, saying that it didn’t have standing for its argument. But in December, a federal panel of judges reversed that decision, saying that Ateres did have standing. Now, the case against Clarkstown is settled, but the case against CUPON is ongoing.

Clarkstown Deputy Town Attorney Kevin Conway told Lohud that the settlement includes no admission of wrongdoing. 

Yehudah Buchweitz, an attorney for Ateres, said the school was satisfied with the settlement. "We are pleased with the outcome of the case with respect to the town as we continue the case against the CUPON entities," Buchweitz told Lohud. 

Since suing Clarkstown, the school has established itself at a different location, in the town of Ramapo.

Many Monsey residents will soon welcome Shabbos with music each week, according to Haredi news outlets.

Thanks to a new Satmar synagogue being completed in the area of Remsen Avenue and Route 59, Monsey residents will get to hear “warm songs and harmony” that spread “the true peacefulness of Shabbos,” Rockland Daily reported. The new sounds will come from what is described as an “innovative bell” installed at the new synagogue.

Until now, Monsey had a siren that went off each week, once 15 minutes before the start time of Shabbos, and another to signal the actual start time. It is unclear if the new musical “bell” will replace the shrill siren heard in the past, or will be in addition to it. The Monsey community has grown significantly over the years, and the current siren is not heard throughout the entire area.

Many Haredi neighborhoods have long had sirens announcing the beginning of Shabbos, following a custom originally initiated in Jerusalem and which goes back to Talmudic times, when the sound of shofar blasts would signal the onset of the day of rest.

In recent decades, sirens have been installed in Haredi neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Monsey, though not without controversy. In Brooklyn, a Shabbos siren installed near Bedford Stuyvesant drew complaints from neighbors, who said it was unusually loud and sounded like an “air raid siren.” One neighbor said the siren was “loud and painful” and gave her “headaches for days.” 

A Shabbos siren was first instituted in Monsey during the 1990s, originally leading to tension between some Haredi groups over differing customs for the start time of Shabbos, though the tensions have dissipated over the years.

The new musical sounds in Monsey will play for the first time this Friday evening.

Results from one largely Haredi district in Brooklyn showed that about one in three Democratic voters rejected President Joe Biden in Tuesday’s presidential primaries. This contrasts with results from the city as a whole, which showed that over 90% chose Biden.

The results do not include blank ballots.

Democratic primary election results for Simcha Eichenstein’s Assembly District, which includes most of Borough Park and part of Midwood, showed that 20% of voters chose businessman Dean Philips, even though he dropped out of the race in early March, and another 12% chose longshot candidate and spiritual guru Marianne Williamson.

The votes don’t necessarily reflect whom these voters favor as president. Some Haredi leaders have been encouraging voters to register as Democrats even if they intend to vote for Republican candidates in the general election, as this allows them to participate in Democratic primaries — in which many New York City elections are decided.

About half of voters in the district are registered Democrats, and only about 15% are registered Republicans. But in 2020, a vast majority of voters in the area chose Trump over Biden, according to an analysis by the New York Times.

In Tuesday’s Republican primary, results showed over 88% of voters chose former president Donald Trump. 

These results are unofficial. They may also skew the real results, as some pro-Palestinian activists in the state encouraged voters to submit empty ballots in the Democratic primary, but the New York City Board of Elections did not immediately include those in the elections results.

A recent online survey found that 90% of Haredi respondents planned to vote Republican in the 2024 general presidential election.

State Assemblyman Sam Pirozzolo is proposing a new bill that would exempt matzah bakeries and pizzerias from a new city rule meant to reduce restaurants’ carbon emissions, the New York Post reported.

Pirozzolo, a Republican who represents parts of Staten Island, including growing Haredi communities in Willowbrook and Manor Heights, told the Post that the city’s Department of Environmental Protection rule constitutes “discrimination against ethnic restaurants.”

The DEP’s rule, set to take effect on April 27, requires existing coal- and wood-fire restaurants to install expensive air filtration systems that significantly reduce emissions.

DEP spokesperson Ted Timbers explained the rationale for the rule in 2023. “All New Yorkers deserve to breathe healthy air, and wood and coal-fired stoves are among the largest contributors of harmful pollutants in neighborhoods with poor air quality,” he said, adding that the agency consulted members of the restaurant industry when drafting the rule.

“Commercial cooking is a common source of PM2.5 — which is the most harmful urban air pollutant,” Timbers said. “It is small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream, which can worsen lung and heart disease and lead to hospital admissions and premature deaths.”

At the time, Alter Eckstein, a Williamsburg matzah bakery manager, told the Haredi news outlet Matzav that he opposed the rule. “This is how we bake for the past thousands of years, and we don’t want to change anything,” Eckstein said. He told the outlet his business had put $600,000 toward mitigating the ovens’ environmental impact. 

City Councilmember Justin Brannan has proposed a tax break for restaurants affected by the rule.

Joel Eisdorfer, a senior advisor and Jewish community liaison to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, is being sued for failing to pay a $355,000 broker’s fee on a restaurant deal, the New York Daily News reported. The deal to buy a restaurant in South Brooklyn was effectively canceled after Eisdorfer’s $300,000 deposit check bounced, but the real estate agent who brokered the deal is still suing for payment.

Several months after he began working for the mayor, Eisdorfer signed a contract to pay $3.55 million to buy Tamaqua Marina, a restaurant and dock in Gerritsen Beach, according to the lawsuit in Kings County Supreme Court. But when Eisdorfer later backed out of the deal, he allegedly failed to pay the agreed-upon broker’s fee to real estate agent Danny Odato. Odato’s suit says a judge should order Eisdorfer to pay the 10% broker’s fee.

The Daily News said there was no indication that Eisdorfer violated any laws by trying to buy the restaurant while working for the mayor. City officials like Eisdorfer are allowed to own private companies while in public service as long as they don’t do business with any municipal agencies.

Eisdorfer, who has worked in City Hall since early 2022, was added on Wednesday to a list of city employees with “substantial” influence over public policy. The list includes employees who have “major responsibilities and [exercise] independent judgment in connection with determining important agency matters,” according to rules from the city’s Conflict of Interest Board. 

In an email, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office said that there are over 3,000 individuals on the substantial policy discretion list from across city government, and argued that someone’s inclusion on the list “does not reflect whether they are actually making policy.” The spokesperson did not say why Eisdorfer was not previously on the list, or whether Eisdorfer consulted the COIB about the deal. 

Eisdorfer did not respond immediately to Shtetl’s request for comment. The COIB deferred questions about the reasoning for the addition to the mayor’s office.

Eisdorfer has previously served as a board member for the Borough Park Jewish Community Council and a member of Brooklyn Community Board 12, according to Hamodia. He started working for Adams when Adams was a state senator. When Adams became Brooklyn borough president, Eisdorfer was also part of his senior staff.

In 2022, Eisdorfer described his work for the mayor in comments to JTA, saying, “I ensure that the needs and concerns of the many different Jewish communities of New York City are addressed.”

This article has been updated to reflect comments from the New York City mayor’s office.‍