Lakewood, NJ – Thanksgiving might be just another day on the road for school bus drivers in one New Jersey town.
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Lakewood is asking drivers to work in order to transport 18,000 Orthodox Jewish students to and from their private schools in the township.
The schools previously waived their right to busing on Thanksgiving.
But Lakewood school board attorney Michael Inzelbuch tells the Asbury Park Press (http://on.app.com/rJkBDz ) no such waiver has been offered. Inzelbuch says he continues to see whether the schools would be flexible about busing on the holiday.
Rabbi Moshe Weisberg told the newspaper carpooling has become a safety issue because the Orthodox community has grown.
Inzelbuch says he would personally pay to provide a pumpkin pie or dessert to the bus drivers who work on Thanksgiving.
Why should they work on a holiday? Jews get off on all their holidays and they add up more than non Jewish holidays. Parents should figure out a way how to get their kids to school and let the drivers take off. Will Inzelbuch work on his holiday if someone were to offer him a free cholent?
Pumpkin pies? Really ? Why is he making fun of them by offering them pie? Let him pay time and a half
Why can’t the parents carpool on this day? Are they too spoiled by busing? Every community outside NY and NJ does not get busing from the city and they must either pay for private busing or carpool. Just because they have a high population??? So on these secular holidays make all the families leave for school 10 minutes earlier to be prepared for traffic. Or hire your own private bus at parent’s expense. It is a legal holiday and like it or not, you are in a secular country. Are they going to make the drivers work on december 25th? January 1st? what chuztpah!
Why aren’t the Lakewood Schools closed on what is a non-religious American holiday….are the schools open or closed on Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day? I can see Christmas being an issue but we are in the USA..time to teach and celebrate the meaning of our holidays when religion is not an issue.
Time and a half is a good start, but it doesn’t solve the problem. It should be voluntary.
Not everyone has family or a destination on Thanksgiving, and maybe those people should be invited to drive. (and given a breathalyzer test first).
You can’t take Thanksgiving away from the American public; This is a mistake and is *NOT* a kiddush Hashem. Quite the opposite.
It’s one of those times Yidden need to remember that this is Golus and adjust the yeshivah day accordingly. Maybe organize bigger carpools, maybe decentralize the Yeshivah learning.
Maybe have kids call in.
And maybe think about the problem much earlier in the year, next time.
Sad that he doesnt realize how offensive he sounds, offering some pie to the drivers.
Immensely disrespectful.
It is the law in NJ, all children are entitled to busing whoever school is in session. The bus drivers will work just like all retail employes, cops etc.
They should stop whining, they knew this b4 they took the job and they should be thankful that they are employed.
This is not right, the same way the city school bus transportation does not provide transportation to Yeshiva students on Legal Holidays in Brooklyn and every other city in America, they should not have to in Lakewood. The same way they deal with Sunday, where there is no city transportation, they should deal with Thanksgiving.
Such a chillul Hashem. I’ve never understood it. We demand off for every yom tov and their two or three days they want off, they need to work. How do we excuse it to them?
At my husbands job, the workers protested to get off EARLY, for new years and were denied.
And we, are the ones that are forever screaming “discrimination”. !?
I can just imagine the screams if Jewish employees were asked to work on a Jewish holidays especially if offered just a piece of kuge; for their efforts
Frum arrogance apparently knows no bounds. What would frum Lakewood parents say if they were asked to work chol hamoed? Unfortunately, we create anti-semitism with our daily actions. Respect and we’ll be respected.
very insensitive. Will increase antisemitism
Let the Jewish community be flexible – this is a national holiday and they should not be asked to work. And the truth is it is not a religious holiday and if you live in this country and take advantage of everything in this country, perhaps the Yeshivos could close and show their appreciation and respect.
I stand with my brothers and sisters on almost all issues. This particular one, however, nauseates me. The sense of entitlement, the mentality of laziness and irresponsibility to one’s own self and family, the notion that select others should be coerced to work on a holiday but a different group should have their holidays respected (then again, who works in Lakewood?), and perhaps most offensive of all the condescending statement about the pies. Go ahead call me a self-hating Jew. You disgust me.
There is no issue of bitul torah when you are honoring the golden medinah and giving thanks for all the wonderful things the yidden of Lakewood have been given. They should close the yeshivot and tell the parents to spend time with their children teaching them a bit about American history and religious freedom (which was the origin of the Thanksgiving holiday).
Wow, and we wonder why the world has the idea that the jews rule the world! This just feeds into it. If it’s a child welfare issue JUST CLOSE SCHOOL! That would be a bigger Kiddush Hashem then turning off even one driver who now has to work on his holiday.
Such hypocrisy. There was a time when Agudah would serve TURKEY at their annual convention that takes place on Thanksgiving Day Weekend.
What next? Lakewooders will demand that bus drivers drive their kinderluch on X-mas and New Years Day?
Frum nonsense.
Carpooling a safety issue?
Let people learn the rules of driving instead of cheating their way through drivers education and exam.
This mentality abounds when a frum community has little or no proffesional employment outside the ‘Shtetl”. They assume they will be given time off for Yom Tov because they are in chinuch or work in Jewish institutions, if they work at all.
For those who work, (especially outside of frum circles) one knows the difficulty and struggels of taking off Yom tov not to mention Chol hamoed. It is the height of impudence to demand Jewish holidays off, parking rules suspended, and demand the goy work 24/7/365.
Simple solutions: 1) Make school half a day on thanksgiving (limudei Kodesh only)
2) Give the girls time off- less carpooling hazards
3) Give everybody off, after all if it’s Sakana to drive to school, people can lean to be useless and arrogant at home.
4) hire Yiddishe bus drivers for a day.
5) Learn Derech Eretz …
All this hatred of Lakewooders is misplaced. Unfortunately, its the larger mindset of frum yidden of an entitlement that is so pervasive wherever there are large blocks of chareidi families who insist that there own minhagim must take priority over anything else, even if it offends and inconveniences others. The Lakewood and BMG tzibur’s behavior on many issues is unfortunately the norm. Since so many of the stores are staying open on Thanksgiving this year, why not take the yinglach to the stores and do your chanukah shopping early.
And the saddest thing about all this is that they are shameless and see nothing wrong with it. Bishvil Lakewood Nivra Ha’olam. Inzelbuch, I can tell exactly where to stick that piece of pumpkin pie.
Perhaps we ought to learn from this Holiday. We should be overwhelmed with emotions of gratitude, thanking the USA for the freedom and opportunity it has afforded the Jewish people. Indeed, Our Rabbis call this Hakaras Hatov – a lesson quite obviously lost on Inzelbuch. Shame on you all!
You want to know the chillul hashem? Look at the comments in the Nov 15 Asbury Park Press. Sadly, many are correct.
Why are all you benchkvetchers attacking the Lakewood parents???? It’s NJ law that they work on thanksgiving. Did a Jew write the law? The busdrivers can go protest the legislator to chage the law, or get a different job!
Thanksgiving is a Federal holiday, just like President’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day (X-mas and Jan 1st) how do the folks in Lakewood handle the bus situation on those days?…it’s really no different. If the goyische drivers are offered enough “Turkeyday gelt” they will work (…of course the question then becomes why should the town have to foot the bill?)
#37
It’s not all about the money.
People expect to have thanksgiving off!
What about if people gave you Shabbos Guelt, would you work on Shabbos?
What’s your price? time and a half? double time?
Although I do feel bad for my children’s driver, it is not my fault he is being made to work on Thanksgiving.
Does the 110 bus run on Shabbos?
what a disgusting thing to do,trying to force gentiles to work on their holiday’s,
unfortunately we frum jews have absolutely no respect for our non jewish neighbours and their holydays
and then we wonder,how come we are disliked and there is antisemitism,
being that thanksgiving day is a national and not a religious holyday,us jews should celebrate it together with all Americans,we realy have what to be thankful for, this wonderfull country,that took us in,and gave us all the rights and opportunities,this is a MALCHUS SHEL CHESED.
the spanish and potuguese synagogue,which is an orthodox shul,years ago had the MINHAG to say HALLEL (without a bracha) on thanksgiving day,in my opinion they were 1000% right,we should all do it
I saw this story on the 11 pm news last night where several locals were interviewed. I did not come away with the feeling that there is respect for an American holiday created to give thanks for all that we enjoy here. Remember ..as with other major holidays (except Christmas) they are American celebrations and not religion based. As I asked on post #4 why are the schools open on such an important day?
This is being reported on more and more local and non-local news media. The comments by non-Jewish residents are not kind, and rightfully so.. The general gist is “they demand their holidays off, but dont feel they have to respect other’s”
I monitor hate websites and was dismayed to see the story picked up by a Neo-Nazi website. The neo-nazis need no reason to hate us, but this situation gave them more fodder for their hatred