Lawrence, NY – She’s 10 feet tall, not wearing much at all, and as of Tuesday night, despite the combined efforts of community activists, government officials, and local lawmakers to apply pressure, apparently not going anywhere.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
‘She’ is the billboard that for the past month or so has been heralding the Platinum Club on Rockaway Turnpike. It has not been taken town and immediate plans to have it removed have stalled.
“The more first amendment research I do the less optimistic I get,” said Legislator Jeff Toback. His original hope was that the billboard, which is on the Rosedale, Queens side of the border, had been put up without permission from the New York City Department of Buildings and could therefore be ordered to be taken down.
Toback has since learned that the Building Dept. only regulates the size of billboards, and not their content. So far as the city is concerned the billboard is permissible. Toback’s next option, a legal battle against the club on the grounds of freedom of commercial speech, is a process he is not excited about, though he has assembled a team of lawyers to work on it, he said.
In addition to the billboard itself, two signs with similar images are posted alongside Rockaway Turnpike.
Sheila Selig, a Lawrence resident who said that she has looked into the matter on behalf of a group of women who found the sign offensive, said that she had spoken with the owner of the building, whom she described as “a very fine individual,” and whose attorney she said was attempting to find a resolution with the owner of the club. However, she said, the owner cautioned that if the billboard and the signs are legal, which they appear to be, there is not much that can be done to force their removal.
Genaro Morales, who identified himself to The Nassau Herald as a spokesperson for Dominica O’Neill, the owner of the Platinum Club, said that the billboard was protected speech and would not be taken down.
O’Neill, of Yonkers, was identified in the Westchester County Business Journal as a vice president of Casanova Entertainment, which was sued in 2006 by the city of New Rochelle for having a gentleman’s club, in violation of that city’s zoning ordinances. The club, which was located opposite a Planned Parenthood day care center, lost the lawsuit and was forced to close.
Morales is a former New York City police officer, and a partner in real estate properties in Massachusetts with Selim “Sam” Zherka, according to The Journal News, a Westchester daily newspaper.
Zherka, according to the New York Post on Nov. 5, is the owner of the VIP Club and Cheetah’s, two gentleman’s clubs in New York City. He is also the publisher of a weekly newspaper, The Westchester Guardian.
Zherka has denied that he is the owner of Casanova Entertainment, the company behind the defunct New Rochelle club, and the company that O’Neill of the Platinum Club has been associated with. The chairman of the Yonkers Republican Committee, John Jacono, claimed last year that Zherka, through Casanova and other companies he owns, was a major supporter of a Democrat candidate for Yonkers mayor.
Five Towns residents seem to be adapting and dealing with the billboard’s unwanted presence. Earlier this month the sewer construction on Rockaway Turnpike shifted to an evening schedule as planned, so drivers won’t necessarily be stuck at the Rockaway Turnpike and Brookville Boulevard intersection near the billboard. Some residents say they have taken to using a different route to bypass the sign completely when practical.
Rabbi Hershel Billet of the Young Israel of Woodmere calls the billboard offensive to a morally healthy society.
“But just removing the poster is not the solution,” he told The Jewish Star. “There are other posters all over the place. Censorship is never a solution. Our kids are exposed all the time when they walk in the street or surf the Internet. The challenge for parents and educators is how to strengthen our kids internally so that they are not affected emotionally or morally by what they see. Parents must set a good personal example in the way they dress and in the way they spend their leisure time. There should be parental controls over Internet use. We must provide each child with the strength and knowledge of how to resist the temptations of our very open society.”
Let’s face it – being in a medinah shel chessed is a double-edged sword. The same freedoms that allow us to practice our religion freely allow others to post these billboards. I’d rather it be this way than how it was in Europe.
How would Willi deal with this?
this is most likely a test to see who will continue traveling past this ugly billboard and Chas V’Sholom be Over a Luv in the Torah, and who will be STRONG and careful.
Our children are being taught by example, dont think for one minute if a parent continues driving by this Toavah it wont effect the Noeshomas of your family.
The Yatzer Hora is being horrible to us, he is testing us much to much, his final day is almost here, when Moshiach arrives his mission will be over, Klall yisroel hold on a little bit longer, dont give in to the Yatzer Hora, and you will be saved together with your family. Amen
I am a proponent of free speech. I believe that the Platinum Club owners have the right to have their sign.
I also believe that we have the right to photograph and/or videograph the “gentlemen” who patronize the Platinum Club (and their automobiles and license tags thereof) and post those photographs/videos on our own billboards and web pages.
The remedy for free speech is more free speech!
finally a rabbi with his head on straight, Billet, way to go
Economics works better than censorship. If people stop driving there, i.e. stop shopping in that area-Kas Carpet, KMart etc.-pressure will be brought to bear by these store owners on their neighbor.
Looks like this will be a fact at least for the immidiete future. We better get used to it because with such opponants even Williamsburg & Flatbush wouldn’t be able to do anything.
When it suits them, Democrat legislators have no problem censoring the free speech of conservative talk-show hosts, like Rush Limbaugh and Mike Savage. Senator Shumer calls this “Pornographic Speech.”
However, Shumer would never censor real pornography, like this billboard.
Rabbi Billet is a very nice gentleman, but he doesn’t understand the cold realities of living in a Sodomite society, where children are at risk every day.
“Self control” by vulnerable, inexperienced young children is no substitute for government protection of their right to walk the streets, without being assaulted by this pernicious filth.
To #4 Why would you shop at Kas Carpet owned by arabs when you can shop at Pearl Carpet owned by Shomrei Torah U’mitzvos????
If the sign bothers people but it is leagle than the resonable thing to do is for the people who are upset to pay the club for a change. Instead of spending mony on a lexus use the savings toward paying off the club. Instaed of all the jewlary, use the money to pay off the club. instead of the 10 peice band use the money to pay the club… ect. ect. ect. let your money talk and show what you really think is important
The club has been there for years, but the kids had no idea what it was because the signs, and marquee werent this graphic. The current poster, leaves virtually nothing to the imagination.
Using the threat that #6 advocates would be a lot more effective in getting the owner to use a more toned down version of the billboard. Even if there was a valid legal challenge it would take too long to go that route.
“‘Morals’ is [indeed] a FORMER … polic(e)”y and values.
all you guys are crazy. this is america kuk nisht vu vdarf nisht, (if it bothers you) go live in a 15 century hut in the middle east (like iran ect.) c’mon!!!!!
Dear Avraham:
In the 1950’s, before the Liberals took over this country, the police would arrest you for “indecent exposure” on the street, and a radio station could be shut down for using obscene language.
All of this is permitted today in our “anything goes” Pagan society
So let me get this straight. You are mad at the club so lets possible ruin the patrons lives? Destroy marriages (which are, in my guess, already on shaky ground if the men are frequenting such a place)? Destroy reputations of men who might be there for no reason other than delivering a package, fixing a sink or repairing a floor?
Ok, the sign is a bother. I agree I would not want my child looking at it on a regular basis. However destroying innocents is not a torah mentality. The idea to pay off the club maybe on to something. There is a mitzvah to ransom captives. If you truly feel that this sign is making you or your families “captive” in an unsafe environment, pay the “ransom”. Whether you like it or not, money talks!
In fact, why stop and getting the sign moved? Make a huge offer on the building that the owner can not refuse and get rid of the whole club. Solves the problem, and then you can open a new Beit Midrash instead.
There are a lot of wealthy people in the five towns. Let them get a ton of money and pay the guy to take down the sign.
Unless the OrthodoxJewish community can gather support from other religions and their spokesmen this attempt to stop the club from using the sign will fail. This should not be a Jewish only issue if they feel it is wrong. Without the support of other religious leaders that may feel the same as the Jewish community does this won’t work and will certainly breed more anti-semitic feelings.
Lawrence is not Ocean Grove NJ. which, years ago was closed to vehicular traffic. Lawrence is NOT Seagate, which is private property.. It is an incorporated village in th county of Nassau in the State of NY. If Davis could finance HALB & Shor Yeshuv and a chocolate business he could buy the building and do whatever he pleases with it.
Easy and cheap solution.
Buy 50 paintball guns and plenty of pellets. Hand them to some kids and make it a project for target practice.
There is NO Mitzvah Yishuv Eretz Lawrence. Many of us had parents and/or grandparents who went hungry even here in America rather than work on Shabbos.
Is moving worse than starving?
Is exposing your kids to pornography less of a problem than Chilul Shabbos? dont for one second think its not effecting you your wife children and grandchildren, the Rabonim teachers,etc.
Maybe you people can focus on actually driving instead of spacing out and looking at Billboards. No one in the 5 towns knows how to drive. It’s pathetic.
I am so happy I live in Brooklyn, keep my head down, go down the street to shul, to shop, avert my eyes from the signs, dont look at any of the women ( even the frum ladies ) etc…, my own little gehtto. Its a big FREE world out there, and I’m not in it – thank G-D. Out there its the free, socially liberal, anything goes America, where people can do and say what they want. Not here in Brooklyn. BTW: there are at least three other ways to get into and out of the 5 Towns if you want to – just burn some more gas.
#6 , if they have unlimited freedom of press (which you misunderstood as speech) then there should be no reason for a ban on pornography to minors as well. Do you agree to that?