Mike DavisAsbury Park Press
JACKSON - More than six years after the opening salvo was filed in federal court, the township is close to clearing its deck of litigation claiming rampant antisemitic discrimination by local officials.
The township council on Tuesday introduced a set of ordinances setting new regulations for schools, dormitories, eruvim and houses of worship, a move key to the municipality's settlements with the Department of Justice, New Jersey Attorney General's Office, developer WR Property and, as of Tuesday, Orthodox Jewish advocacy group Agudath Israel.
The council authorized that settlement with Agudath Israel on Tuesday, bringing an end to the lawsuit that kicked off the town's legal troubles in 2017.
"This is an opportunity where all parts of the community can be taken care of," Avi Schnall, state director of Agudath Israel, said. "One of the main objectives in this settlement was to ensure that the character of the town is maintained, that people can't just build schools anywhere and everywhere or however they'd like.
"There are a significant amount of safeguards to ensure that schools won't be a source of traffic or ruin the character of the town. But simultaneously, there will be the ability to have schools where people live, which is how it's always been."
While the two sides have agreed to the settlement, it's not official until a judge signs off on a consent order.
Brent Pohlman, an attorney representing Jackson in religious land use cases, declined to comment on the settlement until it was approved by the courts. Mayor Michael Reina did not return a call seeking comment.
The ordinances regulating schools, dormitories, eruvim, mikvahs and houses of worship were also included as part of settlement agreements with the Justice Department and New Jersey Attorney General's Office.
Eruvim are ceremonial hung wires allowing practicing Jews to carry objects, including pushing strollers and carrying keys and inhalers, on the Sabbath. Mikvahs are religious bathing facilities.
The town's Orthodox Jewish community began growing nearly a decade ago, with many Lakewood-based families moving to the larger lots, quieter neighborhoods and less-trafficked roads of Jackson. Lakewood has long been one of the world's largest Orthodox enclaves, about two-thirds of the town's 140,000 people — but it's bursting at the seams, nearly 33,000 housing units and more than 5,600 people per square mile, according to Census statistics.
Jackson has less than 22,000 housing units and less than 600 people per square mile.
More: What's going on in Jackson? Here's the latest happening in your town
For three years, this community was at the center of nearly every hot-button issue facing the township. The council passed a "no-knock" ordinance regulating door-to-door salespeople after residents complained of real estate agents incessantly pushing them to sell their home, seemingly to one of the many Orthodox families moving to Jackson. It also tried to stop Lakewood Civilian Safety Watch — a volunteer neighborhood watch group — from operating in Jackson.
And when residents began emailing council members complaining of large gatherings at homes on Friday nights, code enforcement officials were sent to monitor them, essentially staking out Sabbath religious services.
More: Jackson held Sabbath 'stake out' of Orthodox Jews, lawsuit states
Each would eventually wind up in the pages of lawsuits filed by Agudath Israel, the New Jersey Attorney General's Office and the Department of Justice.
But the bans on schools, dormitories and eruvim changed everything. In those cases, the discrimination was clear, plaintiffs said: The only schools developers were looking to build were for Orthodox Jewish children. Some high schools require boys to board as a way of shielding them from secular distractions. And the eruv ordinance only came after a group of residents came to the township with a proposal for building one.
"These ordinances cannot be understood to accomplish anything other than to target the Orthodox Jewish community and were adopted for that very purpose," attorneys Donna Jennings and Sieglinde Rath wrote in a 2019 legal filing.
The Agudath Israel lawsuit and an amended complaint filed in 2019 was salacious. It had pages of social media comments (including comments on Asbury Park Press articles) and quotes from residents blatantly spouting antisemitic statements at public meetings. There were depositions of Mayor Michael Reina and sitting and former council members openly discussing discriminatory comments made in public by both officials and residents. It included email exchanges between officials, including Reina, and residents that set the Sabbath stakeouts in motion.
It would later form the basis of lawsuits filed by the Justice Department, in May 2020, and the New Jersey Attorney General's Office, in 2021. Similar points were also raised in lawsuits by the developer of the Jackson Trails housing development, who alleged a "rising tide of antisemitism" pushed the planning board to deny the project.
But for the better part of a year, township attorneys have been working to settle its outstanding litigation. The township settled with the Justice Department last year, agreeing to federal monitoring and a $150,000 restitution fund. And in August, the township agreed to pay $575,000 in penalties and restitution, as well as draft a new eruvim ordinance and new permitting requirements for sukkahs as part of a settlement in the Attorney General's lawsuit.
Sukkahs are temporary shelters constructed outside the home for use during the Sukkot holiday.
The township also agreed to approve Jackson Trails and pay $700,000 in damages as part of a settlement.
But the biggest blow came in May 2021, when U.S. District Court Judge Michael Shipp issued an injunction that essentially reversed the ban on school construction, allowing for those applications to proceed under pre-2017 zoning laws. Since then, the township's planning board has approved six applications for 12 schools that would serve more than 7,000 Orthodox students.
In many of those cases, land use board members openly stated that they felt forced to vote in favor of applications to avoid another lawsuit.
"It's unfortunate that I have to vote yes," planning board member Lisa DeMarzo said in March, when the board approved plans for a three-school campus on East Veterans Highway. "I don't believe you should be building campuses, but unfortunately I also took an oath. I take it very seriously, and I have to say yes."
Although the ordinances will cover most situations, Jennings — who represents most of school developers with Jackson projects — dismissed the idea that they represented any sort of an ending.
On Monday, one of her clients will appear before the planning board to propose a four-school campus with 2,500 students. The application fully conforms with zoning laws, Jennings said, including alterations included in the new ordinances. But the project is being formally opposed by a group of neighbors, who have retained legal counsel.
Five years ago, that might have been been a recipe for a denial and a lawsuit. And even today, it's still not certain.
"This has really been a seven-year battle and it may work for the majority of individuals looking to develop certain properties in certain ways, but there are still going to be instances where you'll have litigation," Jennings said. "You can't think of every situation.
"Nothing's perfect."
Mike Davis has spent the last decade covering New Jersey local news, marijuana legalization, transportation and a little bit of everything else. He's won a few awards that make his parents very proud. Contact him at mdavis@gannettnj.com or @byMikeDavis on Twitter.
