There are hate crimes and there are hate crimes. Swastikas and cemetary desecration make the news. Housing discrimination doesn’t.
“911 WHAT’S THE EMERGENCY?” asked the dispatcher.
“There’s a woman who looks like an Orthodox Jew in the park. Please send the police” the caller implored.
That call was received this past year by the police department in Mahwah New Jersey. You would think that the police just laughed at the caller. You would be wrong. This past June the Town of Mahwah which borders New York’s Rockland County passed a law intended to stop Orthodox Jews from visiting their parks. You don’t have to take my word for it. According to the New Jersey Attorney General who filed a law suit against Mahwah six weeks ago these were “unlawful and discriminatory actions” targeting Orthodox Jews.
Technically the law bars all non-Jersey residents from using Mahwah’s parks. However during the Mahwah council hearing resident after resident testified that the law was meant to target Orthodox Jews. One resident encouraged the council to pass the law because “the Hasidics have been making themselves very comfortable in our town parks.”
