New Hempstead, NY – As racial tensions continue to escalate in Ramapo amid allegations that local officials show favoritism to the Jewish community, a local yeshiva lost its bid to continue operating in one of the incorporated villages that make up the town of Ramapo last night, as the village board, which includes several Orthodox Jews, voted unanimously to deny the yeshiva’s special application due to numerous building code violations.
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The school in question, Yeshiva Torah Ohr, has been occupying a former synagogue located at 360 Route 306 in the village of New Hempstead, just north of Monsey, for the past two years.
“They managed to get into the building without the approval of the board,” New Hempstead village board member Michael Koplen, told VIN News. “They don’t have a certificate of occupancy and they were asking for a huge amount of variances. They have about 90 students, many violations and in case of a fire, it is a very dangerous situation.”
“Without a certificate of occupancy the building is not deemed safe for people, putting anyone who enters the building at risk,” added volunteer firefighter Shlomo Pomerantz.
Koplen is just one of three Orthodox Jews on the village board, all of whom were against allowing the yeshiva a special permit that would allow them to continue operations. He is facing off against the beleaguered Christopher St. Lawrence for the position of Ramapo Town Supervisor in the upcoming November election and hopes his message of leadership, integrity and experience will resonate with voters of all religious affiliations.
“The heimish approach in Monsey has been to build first and then seek approvals, but we will not follow that backwards approach in New Hempstead,” said Koplen. “The owners have probably spent about a million dollars fixing the place up and I feel bad for them but they should have made their applications first, before they opened up the school.”
New Hempstead was one of several neighborhoods that seceded from Ramapo over twenty five years ago. According to a 1997 New York Times story documenting the culture clash in Ramapo, the village was founded in an effort to prevent the high density housing that typically characterizes chasidic neighborhoods. Today New Hempstead continues to enforce its zoning regulations but is home to numerous synagogues and a large population of Orthodox Jews and, according to Koplen, the village board granted a special permit to a yeshiva one month ago, allowing for construction and operation of a boys elementary school, after addressing the potential problems of parking, traffic, conformity to the surrounding area and impact on local real estate values.
“I think New Hempstead is an example of how to do it right,” said Koplen. “I believe that our local government has to accommodate the needs of the Orthodox community, as we have done in New Hempstead, but we have zoning codes for a reason and we have legal procedures for a reason. They have to be applied across the board to everyone, irrespective of religion or group affiliation.”
Koplen described the almost four hour long village board meeting, which ended just before midnight, as “pretty intense” and “one of the longest village board meetings I have ever seen,” with the village board finally ruling that the yeshiva, which is currently not in session, must vacate the premises until they have completed the proper application process.
“If they move in anyway, they will be evicted,” warned Koplen. “I am not against yeshivas, but we have to be fair in the way we administer the zoning codes. There are mechanisms in place to apply for variances and variances should be granted when it is reasonable to do so. But the law has to be followed in these cases. You can’t have a viable system of government if people are allowed to simply ignore all zoning laws and permitted to do whatever they want, with a wink and a nod from the politicians.”
Kol Hakavod!! We must all follow the laws of the land I don’t care who you are .
I feel bad for Mr. Koplen.
Very shortly, he will begin to receive telephone calls from the community “askanim”.
Then, he will get home visits from the community rabbanim.
And the Rav of his shul will ask to speak with him privately.
Then, before we know it, the well-intended Mr. Koplen will, lo-and-behold, change his opinion and come out in favor of the illegal Yeshiva.
Such is the matzav of Klal Yisrael in Rockland County. Woe to us.
We should be making things easier for Yeshivos, not more difficult.
If he is really as unbiased as he sounds, then fine, work with him. I don’t know what Koplen is really like. It sounds like he wants to make everyone play by the rules. Question is, is he treating the Jews less favorable than other people in his district or is he fair in enforcing the rules across the board? If he is a reasonable person then the orthodox community should work with him and get the necessary approvals. Without knowing more it is hard to say what is behind Koplen’s motivations.
anyone know if that means both parts of the yeshivah? will it effect the yeshiva gedola which is in a diff building. which is also set to begin next week!
Clearly from the photo that is a HOUSE converted to a school.
I don’t understand one thing–the gemoro in Bava Basra talks about zoning rules–what is permitted and what is not? Why do rabbonim and yeshivas think they are above these rules. Or they figure they’ll do it and then try and make me abide by the rules.
Dina DeMalchusa Dinah
Mistahkurtz your comments are so out of line and incorrect. Were you at the ZBA or Trustee meetings to hear the issues ? Do you even know what the applicant is seeking to accomplish with this building ?
Usually when a city denies a permit, they just deny it, period. His lengthy speech has only one purpose, to get him publicity.
it was a house that had a shul attached to it, and I believe they were zoned for that only
I don’t get it:
How do they spend “about a million dollars fixing the place up” and still have numerous code violations? How strict is the code, anyway? Surely they didn’t spend a million bucks on amenities like marble washrooms, in a yeshiva!
There is an illegal yeshiva on my block and they have electric wires connected to a house a few houses away so that they don’t have to pay for electricity! No one cares and the kids step on the wires every day. Parents are aware of the situation and don’t seem to mind that one of their kinder can be electrocuted. There are no smoke detectors or carbon monoxide. Again, parents know this and don’t mind whatsoever. The town doesn’t care, the parents don’t care, so I guess I shouldn’t care. I will mind my own business and if there is a tragedy I won’t care either.
New Hempstead is filled with ‘Heimishe’ Yids. This “addition” was put on the house with no permits or inspections.
I feel sorry for the yeshiva. However, they purchased property zoned residential and a building with no C/O. They paid probably 4 times what the property is worth.
Truth is, the building should have been knocked down. It should have been rezoned and rebuilt to code with permits and inspections.
This contractor should have his license pulled for working illegally. When the honest contractors build even a deck and the deck is one half foot too long, the building inspector in Ramapo makes them remove the half foot. When the Hasidic contractors build, they are not required to follow any plans or even have architectural plans, as long as they pay off the building inspectors. Same is true for Chasidic electricians–they don’t need to have their work approved and there is no inspection to be passed. It’s a real shame how dangerous these buildings are, but the building inspectors are lining their pockets to look the other way.
There was a precedent set many years ago in New Hempstead, allowing a certain commercial entity to get many variances approved on buildings knowingly built without permits or C.O.s years before. It is there. Look it up.
The yeshiva has been approved for fire safety. This is about variances and politics not about safety violations.
#42 : the fire inspectors closed this building down shortly after the yeshiva acquired the building two summers ago. Then the. yeshiva worked to fix all violations and they were allowed back in. (I believe there was an argument back then, but bottom line was that they were allowed to be there. There are fire maximum occupancy signs in the building. Don’t just listen to one side.
You are wrong. The fire fighters came to the meeting on Thurs. nite by the dozens and were outraged that the school was still being used. I was there. They said it is UNSAFE to be used as a school. I live in New Hempstead. Mr. Koplen did the right thing, and G-d forbid there would be a fire in that building, with 90 people crammed inside and the fire trucks couldn’t reach and then what would you say? You would blame people like Mike Koplen for letting a tragedy happen. G-d forbid! Maybe it should occur to some people that we have rules and regulations and laws about safety and zoning for reasons. And maybe you should think that sometimes a politician does the right thing after listening to both sides.