Lakewood Police Chief Greg Meyer today said he is taking the recent anti-Semitic incidents in Lakewood very seriously.
Chief Meyer tells TLS he has been in touch with the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, New Jersey State Police and Homeland Security with regards to the anti-Semitic flyers placed on vehicles in Lakewood last night, as well as the memorial defacing this morning.
“We’re not going to tolerate this in our town, regardless of what’s going on,” Chief Meyer. “We’ll prosecute these individuals to the fullest extent of the law.”
The Chief says he has called for increased police presence around town, as well as additional resources for the fireworks event.
The Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office also responded.
“I don’t know what is more despicable, defacing such a sacred memorial or ignorantly painting a community with a broad brush,” Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Spokesman Al Della Fave said.
A $10,000 reward is being offered for bias crime info and conviction. See nj.gov/oag/bias/ or call 1-877-277-2427 with tips.
The APP is responsible for unprecedented rhetoric and vile comments. When I read the comments on their website and NJ.com I feel like we are in Nazi Germany. They allow anti semetic comments which are harmful. These comments and the hate they are spreading have to be stopped immediately.
The asbury Park Press, NJ.com and others need to be held accountable for every one of these crimes. When your comments section contains uncensored verses and diction that include Ghetto, Rothchild and oven, one cannot dare deny the direct intent behind their credulous facade. It is indeed a sad day when the very organizations that preach peace understanding and social tolerance are found to be the lackey and stooges for the minions who breathe and live hatred. Shame on all of them.
Let’s be honest, this is a direct result of “incitement” by the media. The media has created the atmosphere of animosity toward the lakewood Jewish community with their selective reporting and narratives. Let’s not be blind to whose at fault here.
I am not a resident of lakewood but an observer, and this is clear to me.
How can we start an effective boycott for advertisers from the APP, 101.5 ect….it worked for fox news.
APP = Der Sturmer
The authorities are to blame for a) charging the community as a whole and b) by tipping off the app in order to make a spectacle out of the town to instigate hate.
This would never pass if the “community” was of another race.
We don’t need more police on the street, we need more police arresting the people at the APP and others who incite violence!
Interesting to note that the Asbury Park Press and The Star Ledger have decided not to report the recent anti Semitic incidents in Lakewood.
NJ.com and the App started removing the terrible comments there. I took screen shots of all the atrocious comments they posted. Their day in court will come faster than they think
Good day investors and board members at Gannett (the parent company of Asbury Park Press), advertisers at APP, and community leaders:
On Friday afternoon June 30, 2017, the Asbury Park Press had a lead story online titled “Lakewood welfare: Half of Lakewood’s children on government assistance.” In it, APP staffer Payton Guion gave the numerical amount of children in Lakewood from married couples households who are on government assistance (18,200) and compared it to Newark the largest city in New Jersey who is second with the total number of children from married households on assistance (7,800).
Apparently, the goal was to show how bad Lakewood is compared to the next municipality in terms of children on assistance. However, 81% children in Lakewood live in married couples households whereas less than 40% children in Newark live in such households, so of course Lakewood will likely have more children in married couples households on assistance compared to Newark.
Using a category (married couples households) which has a large pool in Lakewood and small pool in Newark is brazen skewing of data. The accurate comparison to Newark would be the numerical and percent figures of how many children live in both places and how many of them benefit from government programs.
After the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council took to Twitter (via @OJPACNJ) and called out APP for the above dishonesty, APP added data of all children who live in Newark and who also data of how many children in Newark who have assistance. While this is a good start, 1) the flawed married couples household comparison stayed in the report. As of this writing, the report still reads, “There are 10,000 more children in households with married couples in Lakewood receiving food, income or state aid than the next closest town.” 2) While APP shows the percentage of all children on assistance in Lakewood, APP shows only the numerical figure for Newark. My guess is APP knows that showing the percentage of children on assistance in Newark (53.7%) dilutes the rational for dramatizing Lakewood where 49.6% children are on assistance.
Likely in an effort to hype the government assistance use in Lakewood, the report counts children who are on “some form of government aid” including apparently medical benefits despite the fact that children in a household of five that earns $99,000 a year are eligible for health care. Meaning, the high-level of eligibility for medical assistance in no way reflects the poverty level of Lakewood.
Thirdly, Newark in raw numbers (37,965 vs. 21,612) and as a percent (53.7% vs. 49.6%) has more children on government assistance than in Lakewood. However, the Asbury Park Press does not suggest – as it does for Lakewood – that the assistance use in Newark is based on mass scale fraud.
Fourth, the misleading data are in the first few paragraphs of the APP propaganda item; it is the premise of the whole item, not a side note. Furthermore, there is no editor’s note admitting that new data was added.
Finally, APP reporting focuses on Monmouth and Ocean counties in New Jersey but the paper seems much more interested in Lakewood than the drug abuse crisis which claimed the lives of 350 people in those two counties alone last year. A search on APP for the word “opioid” generates only 85 results; “overdose” has 200 results, “Heroin” shows 1,158 results, and “Lakewood” has 3,571 results.
In whichever way one looks at the propaganda item, it is clear that data-skewing (married couples households), journalistic malpractice (not showing percentages of Newark; adding medical care in the assistance use; treating Lakewood different than Newark), editorial dishonesty (omitting an editor’s note), and bias (an outsized focus on Lakewood) was deployed against a low-crime and mostly productive community of Orthodox Jews. This type of propaganda fuels anti-Orthodox rhetoric online and likely also fuels hate incidents in the streets. Investors in APP’s parent company Gannett and APP advertisers have a responsibility to demand that APP editors stop its bigoted fake news campaign against Orthodox Jews.
Yossi Gesterner,
Co-founder, Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council (www.OJPAC.org)
P.S. Lohud/The Journal News in New York is also owned by Gannett. They too resort to data-skewing and journalistic malpractice to malign Orthodox Jews. OJPAC latest video addresses one example. https://youtu.be/8n1UyYS6Hn8, and this addresses another example http://www.ojpac.org/latest/lying-about-dead-infants-to-besmirch-the-orthodox-jewish-community.
way to go R’ Yossi keep up the good work!
As a community we need to engage in debunking the unjust reporting by our local media outlets. We need to reach out to their sponsors and email the editors. Put the pressure on them and expose their lies. If this story happened in Brooklyn they wouldn’t get away with it.
Thank you Yossi !
I wish you would come to Lakewood, and help us fight this blatant hate !
How will we bring APP.com to justice for the “HATE” they brought on our community??
I think its time we step up and take legal action!!!
Can someone please explain why the prestigious Associated Press has an entire article about the anti semitic defacing of the holocaust memorial in Lakewood today and there isn’t a mention of it in the Asbury Park Press and NJ.com???
the Bismark Tribune (North Dakota) picked up the story before the local papers (if they ever will) . Shame on the APP, 101.5 and all their media buddies for their anti-semitic incitement.
I made sure to take screen shots of every full comment on the APP & their new friends at the Star ledger. They cannot try to hide (several days later) that which they have deliberately orchestrated. All this very open & blatant anti-semitism which they have continuously abetted will be coming back to bite them.
I feel people are giving too much credit to these newspapers when the real blame is with the officials targeting and threatening the community.
We dont know how far up this goes and If you listen closely they are saying: give me a Jew and I’ll give you the crime.
and its music to the ears and emboldens these media outlets. They are just cheerleaders standing on the supplies waiting to chear.
I’m in tears right now and am praying someone will take notice.
ps: i am not at all justifying any illegality on any level.
Thank you Mr. Gestetner for taking the time to put together such an articulate and researched letter. Thank you, thank you!
As a grandchild of Holocaust survivors, I am deeply hurt by these disgusting signs of Anti-Semitism.
My great-grandparents were killed in gas chambers and burnt in crematoriums.
I hope that those responsible will be found and at the least apologize for the hurt they’ve caused.
Can scoop post advertisers of the app so we can boycott them
lakewood person—that is a very good idea!!!
Nj.com had many many comments following several stories they published in the last few days, comments describing all Jews in Lakewood as needing to be eradicated, thrown in the ovens, describing all Jews as bloodsuckers etc. These comments ( and there were scores of them) were not moderated, rather they were allowed to spread their message of hate for hours and in some cases days. This was reckless and perhaps grossly negligent on their part and in no small part contributed to the harassment in Lakewood that hurt so many. Removing those comments now when they are being called out for it is too little to late. Someone must be held accountable for allowing the atmosphere to be poisoned to such a degree that every Jew in Lakewood is being harassed. This would never be allowed to happen to any other ethnicity or community without a host of people losing their jobs over it, both those with direct oversight of the comment boards, as well as those in a supervisory capacity. The Jews throughout Lakewood deserve no less.
Sad, but good for us to get a reminder that we are in galus. Maybe this will get us davening for Moshiach.
Its free speech if its a comment on app. If affended dont view its content
Hate speech is not free speech. Get your facts straight.
affended with an o – free speech must be spelled correctly
Legally speaking, you are incorrect. The First Amendment has no exception for “hate speech”. As abhorrent as hate speech may be, it is legally protected.
Asbury Park Press is the modern day version of Joseph Goebbels. They will rot in hell together
Every time the app website is looked at and an article is clicked it generates more interest to the articles. STOP CLICKING ON THE ARTICLES. may Hashem save us from this terrible time.
We as a community have not done enough to combat the terrible comments of NJ.com to our community. The Star Ledger attrocious comments that they allowed is inexcusable. They are spewing their hatred on the Jewish community today, and they will continue their racism and hatred with allowing negative comments against our brothers in the African American and Hispanic community next. Hatred has no boundaries. We have to do our utmost to stop their biased hatred.
All I can say is that we will have the last laugh.
וכאשר יענו אותו כן ירבה וכן יפרוץ
We will continue to grow and blossom
Guys please just ignore it and move on. It’s no chiddush that ppl hate us. Wake up and smell the coffee. Stop being so offended every time some low life has something bad to say about Jews. Move on.
Meir – it is incorrect to think that the same hatred starts with Jews and spreads to other nationalities. Hatred against Jews is a fact of life. Look at world history.
“Halachah hi b’yadua she’eisav sonei l’yaakov.” It doesn’t mean it will spread to other communities. Hashem sends us reminders when we need them, such as when we get too comfortable where we live. Again, look at how history has repeated itself over and over: we get too comfortable in a host nation, Hashem sends reminders and we don’t take heed. Then we are thrown out. The only answer is to remember our place, stay humble and focused, and care more about bringing Moshiach than about the beauty of our homes.
Over the past couple days, I flagged dozens of nauseating comments on NJ.com and they were deleted within minutes, but now I kind of wish I’d left them there as evidence of NJ.com’s guilt…This is so awful. They’ll pay.
Morai virabosai all of you are possibly right that we should do something about it whether it’s boycotting or something else. Maybe we should ask daas Torah how we go about this. However in any case you missed the boat the ultimate message is Yiden Yiden wake up it’s almost 17th of taamuz yearn for the Bais hamikdash for our father our king to take us out of this bitter Galus where our own so called Americans “friends” hate us. Yes Eisav sonah liyakov!!! How many Jewish people have fallen like flies to intermarriage and even us how pure are we? Let us get together perhaps an Asifa or at least get together with our own neshamos and call out to Hashem yes we had enough we want Moshiach now!!! Amein
Does anyone know, was the ADL informed about the antisemitism done by the APP ? Can they get involved? They are a very powerful organization, maybe they can help fight & press charges against the APP.
Ever heard of galus?????
Fake news.very fake news fraudulent fake news, lets sue these stations and editors and so on.
Wake up and smell the coffee people. Lakewood is galus.
No, this was not caused by the media, or prosecutors, or anyone else.
Maybe we need to take a good hard look at ourselves. Are we making every effort to make a Kiddush Hashem? Are we striving to be above board in our financial dealings? Are we careful to follow the rules of the road? Are we courteous and polite to every Tzelem Elokim?
This Chillul Hashem is on every one of us. Look inward before blaming everyone else.
To my dear children who live in Lakewood,
My parents lived with the memories of Pre-WW2 Europe. My mother forbade my father’s wearing his Bekeshe in the street because of fear of the Shkotzim. They also taught us that “just because someone else does it does not make it right “.
Your town is being attacked. Your town has allowed, by not protesting, bad behavior, and HKBH is reminding you that you can not allow such behaviors to sully your Kedushah.
Protest the bad behavior. Separate yourselves from the Tumah. Clean your souls.
Your Abba ,who loves you.
Fehtzermich the ADL is very different then what it once was,right now, more of a Democratic Social Justice organization than a Jewish one.
Regarding these papers APP has been anti-semetic for years. NJ.COM has been ripping Lakewood for months, Mike Diorio in particular.
He prints articles full of lies half truths an innuendo, and openly embraces some of the worst conspiracy comments
While some people will never change their minds, it is important to respond to these wild false comments with facts, otherwise, some readers, who are open to the truth, will accept their false accusations.
Who ever exclaim ” Party is over ! ” , what are they think and what they call for ?
BH! Now all of you that felt very comfortable here in Lakewood should know, whether it’s Lakewood Boro park or Berlin, It’s still Golus..
I humbly would suggest that when Jews hate other Jews then that provokes anti semitism which unites us to realize that we are one nation. When they lash out at us as whole when it’s just a few individual it’s supposed to remind us that we are one unit. So if we work on unification and loving each other then their hatred will cease and then we will hear good news….
No one, and by that I mean no rational person, will argue that yelling the word “fire” in a crowded theater is protected free speech. Hate speech is NOT protected under U.S. law.
Particularly if it incites or promotes violence or other illegal activity.
I would like to point out that it isn’t the APP’s responsibility to censor the words of others. You are in America where we have three beautiful rights according to the Bill of Rights:
1. Freedom of Religion
This freedom allows you to keep shabbas and practice Judaism. This right does not however guarantee a “theocracy”.
2. Freedom of Speech
You can state your beliefs till the cows come home, as long as it isn’t libel or slander. Everybody does not have to like everybody.
3. Freedom of the Press
The press is given the right to publish what they please or deem newsworthy. I read the articles and not one of them were anti-Semitic.
Please keep these rights in mind before blaming the APP for the actions of others.
Lion,
Please read the 2 comments before yours.
Hey Lion, you are partially correct regarding the comments. Hoever, if a website moderates and deletes some posts, then they can be held responsible, if they allow all comments they can’t.
The issues with the APP and NJ.com are not just their comments. It is the articles as well as the “letters” that they publish.
APP in particular, when someone writes them a letter that is to over the top even by their standards, they publish it as a “letter”
Amazing to see the difference of Lakewood Police & Toms River Police. Lakewood Police are literally there to protect all. That’s their goal. There was a charity event in Toms river tonight & that definitely wasnt the feeling when cops showed up & their reaction said it all.