Religion used as a tool for material wealth and abundance

angelburst29

The Living Force
I've placed this Post in "Religion" although it might, also qualify for the "Orwellian World" section. If it needs to be moved, Moderator's please feel free to do so. I also want to note, it's not my intention "to single out a certain religion," but to illustrate "a practice" where by, that "Religion" is used "as a tool" to build material worth.

The practice generally starts by canvassing an area of high-end-real estate and purchasing a large estate/home, which is then converted into a House of Worship and Community Center in a Residential area, regardless of the Cities Zoning Laws. When a complaint is lodged against the owner(s) of the House of Worship, in Court, the owner(s) will claim religious freedom and file a separate suit against the Court action, claiming "anti-Semitism" as a counter suit. In most cases, the original complaint and Court action is dropped, due to the additional costs in defending against the Counter Claim of anti-Semitism.

Additional housing "in the targeted area" will be purchased to establish a learning center, a boarding school, and dormitories. Eventually, home owners in the area will be approached - with offers to purchase their property - (unsolicited) above the estimated property value.
The next step involves Local and County Politics and inserting Religious Members into top positions in Township Committee's and Mayoral Offices. Federal funding and Grants are then guided to further housing, private schools, welfare and community (business) activities. What makes their activities different then in other secular Communities, is that this religious group becomes a self serving Community, while adhering to separation, within the larger Community around them.

Below are two examples:

Orthodox Jews Set Sights on N.J. Town and Angry Residents Resist
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-14/orthodox-jews-set-sights-on-n-j-town-and-angry-residents-resist?cmpid=yhoo.headline

Burgeoning religious community seeks new housing in Toms River

Agents' aggressive approach prompts cease-and-desist measure

March 14, 2016 - Every home is big on glass in a Toms River, New Jersey, neighborhood called North Dover. Windows let in the sun, or show off chandeliers in multistory entrance halls.

These days, though, most homeowners draw the blinds, retreating from brushes with a fast-growing Orthodox Jewish community that’s trying to turn a swath of suburban luxury 10 miles (16 kilometers) from Atlantic beaches into an insular enclave. The rub, a township inquiry found, is “highly annoying, suspicious and creepy” tactics used by some real-estate agents.

They show up on doorsteps to tell owners that if they don’t sell, they’ll be the only non-Orthodox around. Strangers, sometimes several to a car, shoot photos and videos. When they started pulling over to ask children which house was theirs, parents put an end to street-hockey games.

“It’s like an invasion,” said Thomas Kelaher, Toms River’s three-term mayor, who’s fielded complaints from the North Dover section since mid-2015. “It’s the old throwback to the 1960s, when blockbusting happened in Philadelphia and Chicago with the African-American community -- ‘I want to buy your house. You’ll be sorry if you don’t.’ It scares the hell out of people.”

Scholarly Community The upset has its roots in adjacent Lakewood, home to yeshivas including Beth Medrash Govoha, among the world’s biggest centers for Talmudic study. Scholars typically marry young and start large families that maintain strict gender roles and limit interaction with secular society.

Rabbi Avi Schnall, state director of Agudath Israel of America, which represents Orthodox Jews on political, social and religious issues, said a few sales agents “are overly aggressive and making a bad name for the others.” He declined to say whether anti-Semitism is at work, but said the “extent of the anger” in Lakewood’s neighboring towns is deep, fueling opposition to a learning center, a boarding school, dormitories and other proposals.

In 2014, Toms River accused Rabbi Moshe Gourarie of running a house of worship and community center in a residential area, an issue that in December drew more than 1,200 residents to a zoning hearing to raise concerns about traffic and property values.

“The residents are in an uproar not about the chabad so much, but about the real-estate canvassing,” said Gourarie’s attorney, Christopher Costa. Gourarie and his nonprofit outreach group have nothing to do with people looking for homes, and continue to seek permission to operate, he said.

“He’s been a little shocked to have 1,250 people object to what he’s been doing for 12 years,” Costa said. “Nothing has changed except for he’s suddenly being prosecuted.”

Separate World The friction reflects increasing insularity among the most religious Jews worldwide. In Israel, the Haredi inhabit a largely separate social world, according to a Pew Research Center survey this month. They share few connections even with their fellow Jews and there is scant intermarriage; 89 percent of the Haredim surveyed said all or most of their close friends belonged to their own community.

Though just 10 percent of America’s 5.3 million Jewish adults identify themselves as Orthodox, they have much larger families than others of their religion, and “their share of the Jewish population will grow,” according to a 2015 Pew survey. Their conservatism could “shift the profile of American Jews in several areas, including religious beliefs and practices, social and political views and demographic characteristics.”

Lakewood, once a rural destination for Rockefellers and other industry titans, is now a land of synagogues, religious schools, kosher groceries and residential neighborhoods in the grip of minivan gridlock. It’s also a place testing the limits of zoning enforcement for 95,000 people, at least half Orthodox, by Schnall’s estimate.

This month, after fire destroyed a single-family home, the Ocean County sheriff said that it was being used as an unauthorized dorm for as many as two dozen yeshiva students. Downtown, inspectors boarded up a commercial building four times, citing non-permitted use as a catering hall and Orthodox study center, only to see the plywood removed and the space reopened. The fifth board-up succeeded, backed by a planning-board ruling, said Steven Secare, the township attorney.

“The trend is going to continue into surrounding areas,” said David Holtz, 43, a Lakewood real-estate agent whose Orthodox clientele is drawn to low crime and sizable newer homes. Toms River residents who don’t want them, he said, are subscribing to “fear of the unknown,” and both Orthodox and secular communities need to abide one another.

Strong Campaign That’s unlikely, according to Michael Dedominicis, a 40-year-old construction company owner who leads a social-media group called Toms River Strong that urges the town’s 91,000 residents not to sell. His account of dropping by a neighbor’s open house and being denied entry by its Orthodox listing agent is included in a 16-page report on real-estate canvassing issued by township officials Feb. 5.

“Where is the law in this situation?” Dedominicis said in an interview. “I have homeowners calling me, saying, ’They’re converting a three-car garage into bedrooms!’”

The opposition, he said, has nothing to do with dislike of Jews, but with a fear that Toms River will become like Lakewood’s more tattered sections, with cars parked on lawns, overgrown landscaping, trash piled at curbs and residents crowding single-family homes.

The Orthodox dominate Lakewood’s school board. Though most schoolchildren attend private religious school, the township provides free, gender-segregated busing, which helps account for about half of a $12 million budget deficit. Some Toms River residents fear a similar drain.

“I don’t have a problem with you,” Dedominicis said. “I do have a problem with you buying your house, renting it out and bleeding my services.”

On March 18, Toms River will start enforcing a cease-and-desist ordinance, fining door-to-door real-estate agents who solicit owners listed in a “do-not-knock" registry. If the number of for-sale signs on front lawns is any signal, though, homeowners have little confidence in the measure.

Michael Mortellito, 50, with two children college-bound, said this was a good time to scale down from a 6,000-square-foot house, with a resort-like in-ground pool, outdoor fireplace and annual property taxes of $17,000. He acted as his own agent, he said, listing for $850,000, and is under contract with an Orthodox couple.

“They’re the only ones buying,” Mortellito said by telephone. “You’re not going to stop them. They’re going to take the town over no matter what.”


Lakewood, N.J.'s fastest-growing town, is defined by its diversity
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/02/lakewood_is_njs_fastest-growin.html

February 06, 2011 - Lakewood - The small mom-and-pop businesses along Clifton Avenue in Lakewood are bustling on a Friday afternoon, as shoppers duck in and out of the bakeries and eateries and clothing stores lining the street.

On one block are Gelbstein’s Bakery, Bookman’s Kosher Meat and Poultry, and Schreiber’s Shoes, all owned and frequented by members of Lakewood’s large Orthodox Jewish community.

Down the street are Puebla Travel and Latin Music, El Nuevo Mexico Records and Panaderia Mexicana, which cater to the town’s growing Latino population.

By 4:30 p.m. on a Friday, the tempo shifts, as the Jewish-owned shops close for the Sabbath, but the pulse picks up in the Latino businesses.

Clifton Avenue is more than Lakewood’s Main Street business district. In this Ocean County community — named by the 2010 Census as the fastest-growing town in New Jersey during the past decade - the street is a microcosm of how the town functions, and a portrait of the residents who have turned this onetime iron foundry and resort town into Jersey’s boom town.

To the surprise of almost everyone outside of Lakewood, Census data released last week showed the township’s population soared by more than 32,000, from 60,352 residents in 2000, to 92,843 in 2010. The increase vaults Lakewood into the state’s top 10 list of most-populated municipalities, at number seven.

The 54 percent population increase, according to residents and community leaders in Lakewood, was fueled by growth in the Jewish community, the Latino community and a third group, senior citizens. The town’s African-American population, meanwhile, dropped slightly.

A handful of towns grew more in terms of percentage change in their population count. Teterboro topped the state, according to U.S. Census data, by growing 272 percent, from 18 residents to 67. In percentage change terms, Lakewood ranked seventh.

"There was a time when I was the only pizza place in town," said Moseh Lankray, 46, who has lived in Lakewood for 20 years and owns Pizza Plus. "With the growth, seven other pizza stores opened up."

GROWING PAINS Like the two types of businesses on Clifton Avenue, the various groups largely go about their lives separately.
However, there have been occasional clashes in recent years, including more than 40 bias crimes in one year.

Bill Hobday, 69, moved to Lakewood 11 years ago, settling into one of the town’s adult communities in the 25-square-mile town. He said there are now 11 such communities, totaling about 30,000 residents, with community names like Leisure Village East and Four Seasons at Lakewood. He said four senior complexes have been built since he moved there.

There have been some growing pains because growth came so quickly and the groups within Lakewood are so different, said Hobday, who publishes a weekly newsletter for the senior citizen community. But he said residents have more understanding than a decade ago.
"Do we have differences? Sure we do. Do we argue? Of course. But that’s open dialogue that’s needed," Hobday said. "There’s been some difficult days, sure, but we all have a mutual respect for one another. … We’ve learned to live together."

BUILDING TRUST Monica Guerrero, who runs Latino Community Connection, an organization that provides immigration and tax services, said she worked with the Census Bureau, trying to educate undocumented Latino residents on the need to take part.

"A lot were afraid to give information, so when people came knocking on their door — the Census takers — there was a mistrust. You have to build that trust," she said.

In 2000, much of Lakewood was deemed a "hard-to-count" district by the U.S. Census Bureau, a classification used to describe towns where there was a high nonresponse rate on the Census.

To get a more accurate count, Lakewood civic leaders partnered with the Census Bureau in 2009 to form a committee that reached out to the different communities to educate residents on the importance of participating in the 2010 Census.

Lakewood was started in the early 1800s by settlers who carved hamlets out of dense forests, and established a sawmill, then a blast-iron furnace, to take advantage of the area’s natural resources.

In the late 1800s, the town was called "Bricksburg," after foundry-owner Joseph W. Brick, according to the Lakewood Township website.

Around 1866, the Bricksburg Land and Improvement Co. was formed. Engineers laid out village streets, and the firm advertised the sale of land in New York City newspapers. Prominent bankers invested in real estate there, and magnificent homes and hostelries were built.

Promoters, who wanted a fancier name for the town, changed it to "Lakewood" in 1880. The township was incorporated in 1893. The town’s largest lake, Carasaljo, was named after Brick’s three daughters, Carolina, Sarah and Josephine.

Lakewood attracted the well-known and wealthy, including Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, Astors and Arbuckles. President Grover Cleveland spent time there, and during World War II, the New York baseball Giants trained there.

In 1943, a change came that was to set the stage for the future of Lakewood. That year, according to the township website, Rabbi Aaron Kotler, dean of Beth Medrash Govoha, a school founded in Eastern Europe, bought a building in Lakewood and opened a yeshiva there.

That yeshiva, which first served 13 students, has grown and expanded and now serves more than 5,000 students, according to state Sen. Robert Singer (R-Ocean).

DRIVING FORCE It, in turn, attracted Orthodox Jewish families to Lakewood, said Singer, who singled out the rapidly growing Orthodox community as the driving force behind Lakewood’s growth. "We are attracting religious families to Lakewood in record numbers, and that growth will continue," Singer said.

Students move to Lakewood to study at Beth Medrash Govaha, which Singer said is one of the largest yeshivas in the world, then stay to raise families because Lakewood is more affordable than religious communities such as Crown Heights, Brooklyn. High birth rates for Orthodox families — typically five to seven children or more — contribute.

"There’s a minivan on every corner," Singer said, referring to a Jewish prayer group of 10 people or more. "Lakewood has become a Jewish mecca."

Private Jewish day schools, to which most Orthodox families send their children, multiplied, too. The Lakewood public schools serve only about 5,300 students, most of them minorities, according to Singer. He said about 17,000 kids go to private schools.

The differing population makes for a jigsaw puzzle of daily scenes in Lakewood. A young girl dressed in a long skirt — typical of Orthodox Jewish clothing — plays on the lawn at a large brick house one afternoon. On Clifton Avenue, tamales and tacos are on the menus in many restaurants and conversation at the tables is in Spanish.

Across town, meanwhile, at the Dunkin’ Donuts on Airport Road near Route 70, much of the clientele are senior citizens. Three white-haired men stood at the counter one recent afternoon, and three more sat at tables in the store.

Bonnie DeWitt, 66, sitting in a minivan outside the Dunkin’ Donuts, said she rarely goes downtown. "There’s no reason to go there except to pay taxes," she said.

While some say the growth in Lakewood has gone smoothly, others are less happy. Kelly Bragg, 38, who grew up there, said the population increase hurt the quality of life. She said Orthodox Jews have bought many homes; she said she was offered $50,000 above market price for her house, but did not want to leave. Others have, however.

"Everything’s crowded, the supermarkets, the parking lots," she said. "It’s turned into Little Israel."

[...] Lakewood politics has changed, too. The mayor and most of the township committee are Jewish. The Orthodox Jews create a voting bloc, according to Hobday, who described himself as a senior-citizen activist.

The seniors are a bloc too, he said, and within the past few years the Hispanic and African-American communities have become more involved in town politics. "They finally got the message, and now we have a good, positive dialogue," he said.

Lakewood’s growth may affect the bigger political picture in New Jersey, too.

Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth County Polling Institute, said Lakewood will likely have a major impact on the state’s redistricting process. Legislative District 30, of which Lakewood is part, now encompasses approximately 270,000 people — about 35,000 more than any other district in the state.

A CHALLENGE Back in the township, concern is more for the day-do-day effect of the population boom — and the boom Lakewood expects will keep on coming.

Committeeman Raymond Coles said even in the best of times the growth would be challenging, "but it’s particularly difficult now with the economy" to maintain services.

"It’s a challenge. It strains everything, including our police department," he said. "We don’t see any slowdown; we continue to see growth. There are some projections of doubling our population in the next 20 years."
 
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