Middletown, NY – A Hudson Valley newspaper has apologized for running a letter to the editor decrying the continued growth of the Chasidic population in the Hudson Valley, saying that the letter contained inflammatory speech.
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The letter, titled “Hasidic community growth detrimental” appeared Wednesday on recordonline.com, the Times Herald Record’s website. Written by Kate Payne of White Lake, the letter warned that the growth of Kiryas Joel is a precursor to similar expansion throughout Sullivan and Orange counties.
In her letter, Payne noted that Bloomingburg is proof that Chasidic growth will not be confined exclusively to Kiryas Joel.
“These subsets of Hasidim are popping up all along our beautiful counties without regard to the obvious decimation of our communal lands. The Stevensville Hotel, Day Top, it just never ends what property they will accumulate to their end, which is, of course, tax exempt.”
Payne also scoffed at the notion that Chasidim need more land to accommodate their intentionally large families, whose size is intended to replace those murdered in the Holocaust, and dismissed claims that there is virtually no teenage pregnancy in Kiryas Joel.
“I don’t know how to phrase this properly, but if they marry off teenagers to propagate their population, duh, they don’t have unwanted/unplanned pregnancies.”
Further throwing barbs at Chasidic customs, Payne had harsh words about the age at which Chasidic women begin bearing children.
“Their teenage girls get married to further enhance their ‘inevitable growth.’ In my lifetime, it would have been considered statutory rape.”
Payne further blasted the Chasidic custom of marrying within families, saying that the practice only breeds “mentally deficient children” thereby creating a greater need for taxpayer funded schools for special needs children and bemoaned a potential plan to create 30,000 square feet of Chasidic housing in White Lake, saying it was too large for the small community.
Taking aim at the high incidence of welfare, Medicaid and food stamps within the Chasidic community, Payne called Chasidic marriages into question.
“I have recently learned that since their marriages are not recognized by New York state and occur within their strict community, they have legal rights to welfare and Medicaid and food stamps as each family is considered with an ‘unwed’ mother, of teenage years to begin having children throughout child-bearing years, into the thirties. Welfare fraud, to say the least, is a serious situation in this area. They’re killing us!”
The Times Herald Record issued a formal apology on its website at 12:17 this afternoon, approximately 20 hours after Payne’s letter was first posted.
Barry Lewis, executive editor of the Times Herald Record, acknowledged that the letter should not have appeared on the paper’s website, which regularly screens letters to the editor for grammar, spelling, length and content.
“It was a letter that really should not have been posted which is why we took it down,” Lewis told VIN News. “It was inadvertently put on when it should not have been.”
Ari Felberman, government relations coordinator for Kiryas Joel, praised the Record for removing Payne’s letter.
“It shows responsibility on their part and I hope that now that they see that there are those who will use their publication to stir up hatred, they will be more diligent in the future and vet letters that come in, not after the fact, but before the fact,” said Felberman.
Yossi Gestetner, Co-Founder of OJPAC, a News Commentator and PR service provider in the Orthodox Jewish Community who alerted the Record about the rousing letter, said that the letter was, surprisingly, on the Record’s website for more than eight hours and its content is correctly described in the apology as “inflammatory speech.”
Going forward, the newspaper should implement better editorial standards for in house and submitted content alike., Gestetner said.
I disagree with their decision. I think it is important for the haters to be public, not hiding like insects under a rock. The proper action would have been for the paper to print an editorial with the letter explaining that, while the author has freedom of speech, the article is full of factual inaccuracies, bigotry, and does not reflect the opinions of the paper. I guarantee there would have been a flood of letters decrying her comments – even from people who are not big fans of KJ or Chassidim, but whose opinions are not based on prejudice. Bigots do not go away when they are prevented from speaking – they just go underground and multiply in the dark.
I am not sure where this lie about having non-legal marriages comes from – 75% of marriage licenses issued in the Town of Monroe come from KJ – here in White Lake, where the author of this rant lives (as do I), the Town Clerk could tell anyone how many marriage licenses she makes all summer long for the Hasidic community
Kate Payne wrote, “They’re killing us.”
She is the only person I ever heard about who feels that we are killing them because their properties have gone UP in value as a direct result of our offers to buy.
Kate Payne, relax, and look at real data, and do some research, before resorting to crass slander and gossip. We don’t complain about, or criticize the social values of your community.
Is it true?
Do people actually file as unwed to receive goverment help?
there you have it for all the world to see, need i say more?
wow! if this was done to another ”group” with a strong leader that speaks up on behalf of his people this writer would now be unemployed.
Bigotry suffers from a problem with ants – ignorANTS and arrogANTS. (I know – ignorance and arrogance.) Kate Payne (k’shmah ken hi) should call the Orkin man to get rid of that infestation of the mind.
And most of us believed this is the “Goldene medinah” heh?
Thank you Mrs. Eller and Vosizneias for following up on that awful letter and importantly preserving its contents on the internet, (the Times Herald Record has taken down the original letter).
Unfortunately, in spite of its apology the Record appears to frequently uses hatred of Chasidim as a means to generate circulation for their newspaper, and it calls the authenticity of the apology into doubt. If you go to their website and search their coverage of Bloomingburg , Kiryas Joel and Orthodox Sullivan County vacationers many stories are slanted with a bias against Orthodox and Chasidic Jews. For example In a recent story about arrests made for alleged cheating on welfare applications, available here, http://bit.ly/1MiGPYN , 30 people were arrested from all over Orange County. To a neutral observer this would be viewed as a county wide sting against welfare cheats and not something centralized in Kiryas Joel. The Record implicated Kiryas Joel as a separate entity, presumably to enflame their readers preconceived notions about welfare cheating in Kiryas Joel, in their headline by stating “Welfare fraud sweep nabs 30 Orange County residents, 2 corporations in Kiryas Joel”.
Unfortunately much of what is in the letter is true. The community has to stop having the entitlement mentality and have to start acting like Mentchs. The lack of a secular education and barely passable English skills only makes them more dependent on the government handouts. The “Goyim” are aware of the the shtick that has been perpetrated for years.
#4 – the answer is yes they do. There are also incidences of happily married couples getting divorced but continuing to live in adjacent homes “for the benefit of the children so that they have close contact with both parents”. Of course there is no get, the two “divorced” parents see each other regularly, no doubt only to discuss their children’s welfare and life goes on as before but with increased benefits for both the single parents, as of course the children are legally split between them to maximise the amount they can draw from the government and state.
This machasheufah belongs in prison for spreading a hatred to US land!
Yes, they do marry young, but they don’t go around doing znus like most of the teenagers.
Yes, they receive different programs like most of the U.S. Citizens do!
Yes, they do speak different language, like many US citizens do!
Do I want to live in their neighborhood? No, so I buy or rent my house where I like!
Maybe she is upset at them because if they move in – she won’t have drugs on their street, they won’t have znus on their block, there won’t be night alcohol drinking on their properties, so she will get board!
So, what’s the problem here? Where are all the posters on this site who so often and so vigorously defend “free speech”? Or is that defense only of speech critical of other groups?
Don’t they marry cousins?
Best enter shouldn’t say a word. He called all the secular Jews in Ramapo nazis in his videos. Many of us had our entire families wiped out.
Marriage with a marriage license is legit. She’s disgusting.
The so-called ‘unwed mother’ myth has been so thoroughly debunked, it amazes me how often it is spouted online.
Not only is it a lie, it is a stupid lie, since thee ARE NO BENEFITS to being an unwed mother!!
So first, they have to invent a pretend benefit, and then make up a way that the Chassidim lie to get that non-existent benefit
Ladies and gentleman. If non satmar frum jews stop talking so negatively about their fellow jews, which ultimately chasidim are than perhaps non jews wont be so nasty either. Id like to make a few observations to this woman 1. I dont have a big family to replace anyone. I replace my socks when they get holes, each child is a precious neshama valued appreciated and parented. 2. The USA is a free country meaning I can choose to live my life as i see fit, benefitting from the largesse offered by the govt. Is not a crime or unseemly. 3. being very literate in a second language, working blue collar jobs and having some difficulty with english is hardly a disgrace as second languages are routinely accomadated. Lets celebrate a moral family centric hard working, though flawed group of people with out chas vesholom agreeing with the malshinim
Boycott Paynes Boat Rental in White Lake, don’t spend your money there, they hated you for years before all of this KJ crap