What triggered the state's takeover of the Lakewood school district?
Like a speaker with only one good vort, there’s an unfortunate subculture of haters who seek to twist every story to somehow be about the Jews. When “Minnesota” became a code word for “Somali immigrants ripping off honest taxpaying Americans,” these people immediately began working on a new dog whistle meaning for “Lakewood” or “Kiryas Joel.”
When NJ Governor Murphy took over control of the Lakewood Board of Education, just six days before his term was over, they gleefully identified their chance. “Murphy Administration Files Attempt to Take Over Lakewood BOE,” the headlines announced. The sound of it smacked of a dad wading in to a scuffle, or a mom cleaning up her kids’ mess. New Jersey pundits up and down the state cried “Minnesota!” and hurried to tick off the similarities they could find between Lakewood’s Jews and Somalis in Minneapolis (spoiler: none, really).
But what does the state’s unorthodox decision to parachute into an Orthodox town and commandeer the reins of the public school district really mean? What triggered it, what will happen going forward, and how will it impact those Jews in Lakewood?
“At this point, it’s impossible to tell,” Assemblyman Avi Schnall tells Mishpacha. “This takeover is unprecedented. We don’t know what the state plans to do or how. It could be a really positive step, or negative.”
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