Rockland. - South Nyack residents voted yesterday to dissolve their 142-year old village in Orangetown in response to a Hasidic Yeshiva buying the Nyack College property. The village has 1,982 registered voters per @LoHudLegal and 800 voted in a split of 508 vs. 292.
Many villages in Rockland - such as Airmont - were created decades ago to keep Orthodox Jews out. This village is being dissolved due to a Hasidic Yeshiva buying a property and potentially having enough votes among staff and students to swing village elections.
When Orthodox Jews in suburban NY and NJ “overdevelop” in areas largelgy populated by Orthodox Jews, some oppose it. But when Orthodox Jews want to move into new neighborhoods - rather than overdevelop in existing ones - it is opposed by many of the same people.
Those who oppose when Orthodox Jews create tax-base-expanding developments in predominately Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods but also oppose when Orthodox Jews move into new areas, then it’s clear that the opposition is not policy-based.
A few years ago, an Orthodox Jewish Yeshiva wanted to buy a Church property in Clarkstown (in Rockland) which was perfect for the school without any need for construction. The school only needed a use variance. The town did not give it so the school could not get financing. As a
result, the Yeshiva was unable to close. The deal collapsed and days later the town - the same entity that caused the deal to collapse - bought the property. To add insult to injury, town leaders announced that they will, get this, develop housing on part of the property!
If the real concern about the school buying the church is bus traffic and/or changing the property, the town would not announce its own traffic-causing housing. Clearly, the opposition is not what will happen with the property. Instead, it is who will use the property.
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