VIDEO: Message from Agudah New Jersey Director Rabbi Avi Schnall

This content, and any other content on TLS, may not be republished or reproduced without prior permission from TLS. Copying or reproducing our content is both against the law and against Halacha. To inquire about using our content, including videos or photos, email us at [email protected].

Stay up to date with our news alerts by following us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

**Click here to join over 20,000 receiving our Whatsapp Status updates!**

**Click here to join the official TLS WhatsApp Community!**

Got a news tip? Email us at [email protected], Text 415-857-2667, or WhatsApp 609-661-8668.

68 COMMENTS

  1. He states many areas where Murphy failed us. Murphy created the lockdowns to begin with so loosening them is no favor. Lakewood board of education borrows millions every year because they are underfunded. And as rabbi Shnall stated correctly, your vote effects all areas of your life. Go out and vote for the candidate who won’t make vaccine mandates, will properly fund Lakewood, will lower your taxes, pay for private school tuition, widen the 9, and has Republican values. That candidate is Jack Ciattarelli.

    • “The funding for our busing comes from the government” strange, my tax bill says otherwise. I pay over $9k in the school district portion of taxes, and in exchange, I get busing for 1 kid, who has to sit on the bus an hour each way

  2. Larry B. – the entire country (and the entire world) was under lockdown. How on earth did Murphy cause the lockdown?! Murphy showed a clear understanding of the lakewood community’s needs and opened up accordingly. More than the majority of our counterparts can say in most other states

    • to clear up all misconception.

      We didn’t open up because of Murphy, We opened despite Murphy.
      There were arrests, lawsuits, Mosrim and the regular “askanim” were nowhere to be found, or worse.

      We don’t need to be in Jail, because we know the jailer. It would be far better to be free men.

  3. Rabbi Shnall quoted many issues and Murphy has failed on all. Murphy created the lockdowns to begin with so loosening them is no favor. Lakewood school district borrows millions every year and has no way of repaying them. Murphy is considering vaccine mandates with vaccine passports. As rabbi Shnall said, your vote effects every area of your life. Vote for a candidate who will pay for private school tuition, lower your taxes, no vaccine mandates, will widen the 9, WILL PARDON RABBI EISMANN, and has Republican values. That candidate is Jack Ciattarelli.

  4. Govorner Murphy’s advisor was caught on tape saying murphy plans to go full out with vaccine mandates after the election, because before the election it would turn away voters, but after the election “who cares”.

    This is not the attitude of a Democratic Representative Politician, bit the mindset of an authoritarian leader.

    Taken together with his statement “if you care about taxes, maybe NJ is not the state for you” we have all been warned.

    • There wasn’t ANY endorsement of WHO to vote for….there was a plea to GO OUT AND VOTE. I applaud Rabbi Schnall for doing his hishtadlus to get everyone out.
      I find it interesting that you heard him advocating for any one candidate!

  5. His point is simple. We are in Galus and face obsessive opposition about every part of our way of life. A working relationship with the state administration goes a long way in curbing all the hate that comes our way. Let’s not get stuck on the details.

  6. Rabbi- I noticed you didn’t mention who to vote for. why? are you scared to endorse a democrat? do you yourself wish you can vote republican but can’t cuz you’re tied to murphy??? I will definitely go out and vote….for Jack!

    • He didn’t say who to vote for because he works for Agudath Israel which is a non-profit organization. Non-profit’s aren’t allowed to endorse a specific candidate.

  7. Murphy killed more people then Cuomo! He is part of the Democratic Party that is destroying our great country!

    Property taxes are through the roof!

    What has he done for the middle class ?

  8. Thank you Rabbi Schnall for all the amazing work you do for all of us. I only saw small parts on occasion, and am awed. May you have the strength to continue your good work.

  9. I will go vote. For Jack.

    Say no to vax mandates (see project veritas video of Murphy’s plan)

    Say no to high taxes, unaffordable cost of living.

    Murphy basically IGNORED Lakewood. We are one of the largest towns (city!) in NJ. He should have fixed the funding formula & fixed the rt 9 issue.

    He failed.

  10. He dosn’t mention even once the name murphy. He’s just bringing out how important it is to go out and vote. Who should we vote for? obviously not for murphy, it’s a no braineir.

  11. I refuse to vote for Democrats Party anymore after what they had done to Trump foe 4 years. We will slap them back for their actions. Everyone should vote for Republicans not Democrats who care what the Vad said and they cannot control us.

  12. I refuse to vote for Democrats Party anymore after what they had done to Trump for 4 years. We will slap them back for their actions. Everyone should vote for Republicans not Democrats who care what the Vad said and they cannot control us.

  13. All these askanim have their hands tied and they can’t tell you what they really think. We have to read between the lines and vote for who they will vote for in the ballot box – Jack Ciaterrelli. The one and ONLY benefit Murphy has over Ciaterrelli is that his last name is easier to write without a spelling mistake. Sorry Jack if I got it wrong! 🙂

  14. There is NO WAY ON EARTH I would vote for Murphy….. I don’t care what he promises to our community- it’s blood money. He will destroy businesses her in NJ with his mandates …..

  15. The fact that Obama backs Murphy is a reason itself not to vote for him….however, democrats have a way of “winning” anyways, even without getting all the votes….so after doing your hishtadlus to go out and vote, the only One we can trust is Hashem and that he has a plan.

  16. The Eissmann family is telling people unequivocally that Jack is better for R’ Osher (he promised a pardon; t’s a politician’s promise, but at least it’s something. Murphy has ALREADY DEMONSTRATED that he won’t).

    Nothing else counts. I’m voting for Citarelli and so should everyone else in the community.

  17. Oh please – it’s time the Agudah start representing the frum community in the world of politics instead of representing politicians to the frum community. Murphy is on the wrong side of every single issue that is important to our community.

    He did not allow us to re-open… he had no choice. if he had a choice we would still not have re-opened. And enough of the two-faced politicians telling us to mask up and lock down while they are caught out with their families sans mask.

  18. I would like to thank all The askonim in Lakewood who worked tirelessly together with the governor Phil Murphy government to keep Lakewood businesses (including mine) open and safe through out the pandemic and while all NY businesses were closed and shuttered and issued fines every day and thru all the anti Semitic riotsarounf the globe and yet that they kept Lakewood safe and took such good care of our families especially the school children and pls don’t let the bitter negative comments get to you it had nothing to do with democratic or republicans it has all to do with who is hashems shliach may we all see mashiach soon

    • Glad yours stayed open, mine wasn’t so forttunate & neither were many many others including our SCHOOLS!

      How much of a yerida did that cause?? What’s stopping him from shutting us down again this winter??

      We now know that all he has to do is declare state of emergency & DICTATE whatever he wants -punishable by the penalty of law!

      Dont come crying after you vote for a dictator. All dictators are voted in, somehow none are voted out 🙂

    • You are 100% correct. It doesn’t matter democrat or republicans as it is all in Hashem’s hands. So let’s put Jack in as he deserves the honor more than Murphy.

  19. Schnall claims that Murphy recognized the community’s religious needs and allowed Lakewood to reopen.

    I must have missed something here.

    The law in NJ up until June 2021 was that all individuals in all public gatherings must be masked. Period. This was to ensure public safety. Only when a significant number of population had already had the opportunity to get vaccinated did he rescind that order. That is when many stores took down their mask required signs.

    There was never any exemption for houses of worship or religious schools.

    Did it say somewhere that it applied to everyone except frum Jews in Lakewood?

    I don’t live in Lakewood. There are many frum communities throughout the state. All we knew was the official gov’t regulations on the state’s COVID website.

    So what is Schnall actually saying? Was there a silent deal made for Lakewood? If so, we should we talk about it openly? Does that make me respect Murphy? Quite the contrary.

    • There was no silent deal. What happened is that Murphy was caught at a protest out in public, when confronted about it by the media, he said enforcement was up to local authorities.

      At that point, he stopped sending out the troopers, but left the mandates in place, and it was up to local authorities to enforce them, or not

  20. Everyone please vote republican!!! We all saw good and well what democrats are all about these past two years. Didn’t we??!! As far as Eisemann goes we already see what Murphy did for him. NOTHING.

  21. Organizations like Agudah have to look at the whole picture, including hakaros hatov and to back an incumbent who is most likely to win.
    I totally get the urge to vote for jack but as frum Jews we can’t just do what feels good or right, we have to follow our daas Torah. Nothing else matters. Which rav or gadol said to vote jack? None!!

    • Actually it is well known that the Mashgiach, he should be well, maintains you should vote whoever is better for your financial situation. Does that disperse the Jewish vote. Yes. But he holds that way.

      Secondly, do you see Rav Yerucham on any of these posts? If he wanted to agree he could. Did they just forget to put him on the paper?

  22. Let us hope the election is not stolen.
    אוהבי השם שונאי רע
    Democrats have no longer any respect for Biblical laws.
    In America and in Israel.
    Liberalism is destroying the world.
    Vote but vote for אמת.

    • There are 613 Biblical laws. How many of them are kept or respected by Republicans?
      Not too many.
      Both are equally anti-Torah. Some are against these halachos and some are against other halachos.

  23. All I know is that Murphy had Obama with him on Shabbos and Bernie Sanders will be campaigning with Murphy on Thursday. Judge a man by the company he keeps. Why does Murphy even think these people who don’t care for drum Yidden will help him win? Does he think we wear blinders and have no clue what goes on in other parts of the state. Can one person be more two-faced?

  24. All I know is that Governor Murphy had Obama on the stump with him on Shabbos and now Bernie Sanders will be campaigning with Murphy this Thursday. Judge a man by the company he keeps. Why does Murphy even think these people, who don’t care at all for frum Yidden, will help him win the Jewish vote? Does Murphy think we wear blinders and have no clue what goes on with him in other parts of the state. Can one person be more two-faced?

  25. Don’t vote for Murphy vote for Jack let not listen to VAAD they can’t control its on our Freedom . vote for Republicans and let end terrible Biden Rules !!! It our Freedom not VAAD ruling over us !!!

  26. We should vote for whoever is better for Rabbi Eisemann. This is our greatest histadlus for rachamei shomayaim. We must unite b’achdus to do whatever we can to help this tzadik and certainly HKBH will help us in return.

  27. We should vote for whoever is better for Rabbi Eisemann. This is our greatest histadlus for rachamei shomayaim. We must unite b’achdus to do whatever we can to help this tzadik and certainly HKBH will help us in return….

  28. It’s amazing how these geniuses miss the obvious. He’s busy telling us how great Murphy is because he allowed us to remain open even during lockdowns. What he fails to mention and probably even comprehend is that, had there been a republican administration, there never would have been draconian lockdowns to contend with in the first place. But understanding that nuance is probably above his pay grade.

  29. Reb Avi, let me teach you the first thing that you need to know as a citizen of the United States. The government has no money. It is the people that have money. The government can fund things but it’s not the government paying for it it’s the people, WE THE PEOPLE, that are paying for this and believe me we the people are paying a lot more than we should be!

    So yes you are right we need to vote! 1,000% correct that we need to vote. However, we cannot continue to vote for the socialist Democrats. The Democrats have been corrupted by the far left. These are not people who believe in our ideologies even remotely. Everything you mentioned in your 92-second video, would have been achieved far better with Republican leadership. Unfortunately Republican leadership in New Jersey is semi RINO but so far, that is better than leftist.

  30. This comment section is what happens when a community’s dominant newspapers (won’t name them here) just regurgitate talking points from Republican talk radio for decades. It turns people into mindless followers of the red party, like our kids playing color war.

  31. @lakewood scoop, can you reach out to both campaigns and ask them if they are willing to commit to sign an executive order allowing any individual municipality to opt out of the upcoming plastic bag ban.
    It would be very problematic for lakewood.

  32. What he is saying is to vote for
    The Republicans always, as you see the extreme left are breaking down everything in this country. It really can’t be a clearer choice.

  33. You guys seem to have forgotten anti semitism. That’s a republican white red neck issue. Did you all forget rise up ocean county? Don’t you remember playgroup moras closing for 3 days bec rumours had it that their crew was going around filming moras and posting it on Facebook? I was affected by them. And Murphys AG fought them and shut them down. I doubt a republican would have done that. And then there is all the Jackson and Toms River discrimination issues and giving problems to Shuls and mosdos. Also a republican issue.
    Look I dislike liberals too. I think one way or another we will work out this vaccine mandate issue. Let’s not become a people of one party

  34. Hakaros Hatov means giving recognition to the good that someone has done, but not to turn a blind eye to the evil that that person has done and will continue to do.

    Backing the candidate who would most likely win is not the Torah way; it is a cynical Machiavellian approach to politics. Should the Jews in Poland have voted for the antisemite Stawoj Skladkowski (who actually did become Prime Minister) because he was going to win anyway?

    No, a Jew must vote with his conscience, and leave the rest to Hashem. Bitochon means that you don’t lose anything by doing the right thing.

  35. Rabbi Schnall doesn’t say who to vote for ; but that we all must vote; every person over voting age must pick themselves up and go vote,, a very large voting presence gives us power in the state; if we sleep the state won’t care about us.

  36. The Rabbi can’t endorse but we need to vote Republican. Jack said he would Pardon Rabbi Eisman an honest and respected man who did nothing wrong. VOTE REPUBLICAN STRAIGHT DOWN

  37. 1. Jack is no Republican. Very questionable positions. Second. He’s not going to win, why vote for him, ur venting? Waste of vote. Third. The roshei hayeshivah of BMG said to. Case closed. Daas Torah. Bitul. Doesn’t matter how you personally feel.
    Not understanding some of these comments at all

  38. The Rosh Yeshiva never say who to vote for. I live in Lakewood over 30 years and not once did any Rosh yeshiva say to vote specifically for a candidate. Vote yes. Vote who is best for our values. Dont sell our children for a few dollars.

Comments are closed.