Rockland County, NY – A special election being held tomorrow in the Town of Ramapo that would potentially change the size and composition of the Town Board could have significant ramifications for Rockland County’s Orthodox Jewish community.
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Voters who head to the polls tomorrow will be faced with two referendums: one would change the size of the Town Board from four to six members, while the other would divide the town into six separate geographical areas, known as “wards”, with one board member to be elected from each ward. Currently, board members are elected from within the entire Town of Ramapo and represent the entire town, not specific areas.
The attempt to shift the balance of power away from Ramapo’s Jewish community has been openly touted as the reason for tomorrow’s referendum.
According to a report at Rockland County newspaper The Journal New, supporters say that the ward system is specifically designed to “represent the needs of Ramapo’s diverse populations, countering the influence of the growing Orthodox community who block vote can decide an election.”
The Vote6Wards.org website states that the proposed system is intended to “increase the probability that we won’t have a board in its totality beholden to any one group, developer or political party.”
Agudath Israel of America came out with a statement three days before Rosh Hashana urging Ramapo voters to vote “no” on the ward referendum.
“This is classic minority vote dilution, only this time the victims are Orthodox Jews. A minority is intentionally being shoved into a small district to limit its ability to affect the outcome of elections in the community at large.”
The statement by the Agudah goes on to note that both the African American and Jewish communities in Ramapo will be negatively impacted by the ward system.
“A ward system is generally proposed to help minorities who can’t win town wide or citywide elections. Here the opposite is true. Both Orthodox Jews and African Americans have been elected town wide multiple times. In the ward system, all of the African American and Orthodox communities are forced into their own districts, making it unlikely for either group to ever have the same level of representation they enjoy under the current system. Under a ward plan, African American voters could not constitute a majority of a single council district, risking the council seat that has been held by an African-American since 1987.”
Two of the current town board members, Yitzchok Ullman and Daniel Friedman, are Orthodox Jews. The other two members are Brendel Logan, who is African-American, and Patrick Withers.
Logan, together with three other minority leaders, Spring Valley Trustee Anthony Leon, former Ramapo Town Board member Fran Hunter and former Hillburn Mayor Bernard Jackson, sent a letter to the Department of Justice asking for a meeting to discuss the referendums. In the letter, Logan charged that the ward system would undermine minority representation on the Town Board and violated the constitution by consolidating minorities into one area.
The boundaries of the actual wards have yet to be determined and will only be decided if the ward system is voted into place, with the board of elections using population and voter registration to divide the town into six ward with an approximately equal number of voters in each.
“This is totally unfair,” Yosef Rapaport of Agudath Israel of America told VIN News. “People are voting without realizing what they are voting for. We don’t know how the lines will be drawn and even the people pushing for this say that they don’t know how they will proceed if they win this referendum.”
While the Agudah is a national organization, Rapaport noted that the organization does get involved in local issues whenever they identify an unjust legal threat to the Orthodox Jewish community.
“Who are the people who are agitating for this change?” queried Rapaport. “These are people with a long history of doing anything and everything to fight anything that might be of perceived benefit to the Orthodox community, even if it is good for other people. They want the ward system so that they can shunt the Orthodox Jewish community into one or two words, making them into an instant minority.”
Spring Valley resident Yoel Falkowitz, who is actively involved with the movement to vote “yes” on the ward referendum, disagreed that the new system would be detrimental to Ramapo’s Jewish residents.
“This is private interests trying to take control, imposing their own rules and directing politicians to do what they want for their own benefit,” said Falkowitz. “This is the best thing that could happen. Divide the town up, give everyone their fair share and stop the fighting. This is a first step to mending the problems of the past and the fights just keep getting bigger and bigger, for no good reason.”
Falkowitz also charged that any community leaders who have urged their constituents to vote “no” have been misled.
“The rabbonim and askanim don’t know, they are trusting blindly,” said Falkowitz.
The special election was ordered by Supreme Court Justice Margaret Garvey in July, and comes after an almost two year battle waged by activists Michael Parietti and Robert Romanowski, who filed petitions asking Ramapo’s town clerk to call for the vote. Residents had objected to the petitions, saying that they didn’t meet state requirements, but after reviewing the petitions, Judge Garvey found that they had a sufficient number of valid signatures and that both Parietti and Romanowski fulfilled the necessary residency requirements.
Tomorrow’s election will be the fourth attempt to create a ward system in Ramapo, with previous failed attempts organized by the group Preserve Ramapo defeated in 2003, 2004 and 2005.
We should vote NO but we (the Orthodox majority) need to understand that the minority’s interest needs to be included in the majority’s decisions Look what happened in Iraq and Egypt when the majority totally ignored the minority.
To be expected.
The Jews abused their power and now they are finally getting the backlash.
The Jews also took power over the education system in the Five Towns, but there they not only saw to it that the Yeshivas got their due, but they also improved the public system as well.
I would like to hear more regarding the position of Yoel Falkowitz, explaining why we should support the referendum and not just assume what some organizations tell us, that what’s bad for the developers is bad for the rest of us.
This article gives us his opinion, but not the reasoning behind it, which I am open to listening to.
I Don’t know who this “Falkowitz” is, but I can imagine that he never earned more than 25K a year and is most probably younger than 25 years.
These statements that the Rabbonim and Askunim are misled and thinking about self interest, is ridiculous at the least.
So only “Falkowitz” can’t be misled?!
I have been involved in Askunes in Monsey for over 20 years, and I don’t have my own real-estate except for the house I live in. I remember when the people who lead the “preserve Ramapo” group were in charge, and how we all suffered then.
Isn’t it sad that a huge percent of “Preserve Ramapo” leaders don’t even live in this town, yet they think they should be entitled to their opinions while those who actually live here should not?
Some people are upset with many developers, I may add, that some of the issues are correct, but most of those who argue against developers are just envious on the “so called rich developers who make lots of money on our backs” yet I am still trying to find those rich developers in Monsey.
the Truth is that everybody tries to make the most money in their line of business and builders need local town approvals.
Just grow up, come to your senses and vote NO!
I don’t get it. Doesn’t it logically make sense to vote yes? This way those non frum/ jewish areas will control their schools within their budget and the frum areas will have its control over its schools under the frum budget. Won’t it stop all fighting?
You should also know, that most of “Preserve Ramapo” group are self hating Jews and not gentiles. they try to make it look like a fight between Jews and non-Jews so they can achieve some votes, but in fact, we have been living in very good terms with most of the non-Jewish communities but those politicians who didn’t bow to their agenda are being ridiculed time and again with the help of the antisemitic newspaper “Times Herald Record” which has proven to cover only negative information on our community.
The same people who are supposed to have our interest in mind, have been undermining our long effort to change the formula of how the state distributes funding for the School Districts. There has been major efforts to change it so the Public School children can get what they ask for, yet the burden should not be so much on the taxpayers. “Preserve Ramapo” is against this effort even if it means lower taxes and better schools, just because this is better for our community.
The bottom line is, if you vote YES, you may may hurt some developers, but you are hurting yourselves. Please don’t use your envy and hatred to punish all of us.
Vote NO!!!
I don’t want the New Square Satmars to decide how I should live in Suffern. I want my Suffern Frum to decide how I should live. It’s that simple. Why should Satmar have all the votes and none for the rest of us who work and pay taxes?
I hear #2 and #3. But. The board doesn’t have a Jewish majority. So even if it stays as is, the Jews can’t “block” anything. They just may be a strong swing vote, like a strong third party is in other countries, like Israel and the UK. And even if they’re in the back pocket of a developer, what’s the alternative–to have the town under LESS Jewish control? How would that help?
I’m not sure I understand why this is necessarily bad for the frum community. The key is where the boundaries of the wards are drawn. The Jewish community in Rockland county is very widespread so I’m not sure why the assumption is that dividing the community up into wards won’t actually INCREASE Jewish political power.
Right now there aren’t any each council districts; each member runs town wide. A YES vote will create six council districts. Each council person will only run and represent his or her district. It will probably weaken the “frum” control because central Monsey will only have two representatives. But so what? Do we Chareidi Jews need to control all of the residents Ramapo – including, non chareidi, modern Orthodox, gentiles, etc? Don’t the residents of Sloatsburg, Suffern, Pomona Chestnut RIdge, Ramapo Hamlet, Wesley Hills, etc. have a right to their own representation?.
The unstated goal of the referendum is to weaken the political influence of Orthodox Jews in the town by permitting them to vote only for candidates from their immediate neighborhood rather than the town as a whole, which is the current system. The bulk of the Orthodox Jewish community would be concentrated in only 2 of 6 districts under the ward system. The Jews in smaller Villages like Airmont or Chestnut Ridge would totally lose their representation. This is classic minority vote dilution, and the victims are Orthodox Jews. A minority is being intentionally shoved into a small district to limit its ability to affect the outcome of elections in the community at large.Both Orthodox Jews and African Americans have been elected town-wide multiple times. In the ward system, all the African American and Orthodox communities are forced into their own districts, making it unlikely for either group to ever have the same level of representation they enjoy currently.Under a ward plan, African American voters couldn’t constitute a majority of a single council district, risking the council seat that has been held by an by an African-American since 1987 It’s in our best interest to vote NO
I love the voices crying over the list African American influence. As if….
This headline is a scare tactic!
I don’t want new square to control Airmont.
We don’t need additional one thousand resident developments.
Ramapo is not Williamsburg. Vote yes to control your own town and keep Ramapo honest!
Funny how small changes like this, so innocent-looking, can have huge impacts. Generally I am opposed to electoral districts. I like the Israeli system.