Jackson agrees to huge payout to settle antisemitism lawsuit

JACKSON - The township is on the hook for a seven-figure payout in its settlement with a religious group and developer who alleged rampant discrimination by municipal officials against the town's growing Orthodox Jewish community.

Jackson Township will pay $2.2 million to developer WR Property and Agudath Israel, an Orthodox Jewish advocacy group, to settle the litigation first filed more than six years ago, according to a consent order filed in United States District Court.

The settlement payment dwarfs the restitution funds established as part of the township's settlements with the Department of Justice (a $150,000 restitution fund), New Jersey Attorney General's Office ($575,000 in restitution and penalties) and Jackson Trails, another developer who said a "rising tide of antisemitism" led to the zoning board to reject its housing project ($700,000).

WR Property purchased a five-acre parcel on White Road with the sole purpose of building a private school for Orthodox Jewish students, according to court documents.

The latest: 'Discriminatory and derogatory' public commentary led to Jackson lawsuits, attorney says.

According to the consent order, the settlement centers on two terms: The seven-figure payout and new ordinances that will explicitly allow for schools, dormitories, houses of worship, eruvim and mikvahs. A public hearing on the ordinances is scheduled for the Jackson Township Council's Dec. 11 meeting in the Jackson Liberty High School auditorium.

If adopted, the township's zoning code would be rewritten to allow schools, dormitories, houses of worship, eruvim and mikvahs in numerous zones throughout the township. The ordinances don't provide blanket approval, as any proposed projects must still get the planning board to sign off.

An eruv is a ceremonial hung wire often hung from utility poles that allows practicing Jews to carry objects, including pushing strollers and carrying keys and inhalers, on the Sabbath. Mikvahs are religious bath facilities.

It was a pair of 2017 ordinances banning schools and dormitories — some Orthodox high schools require boys to board as a way of shielding them from secular distractions — that led to the Agudath Israel lawsuit. At the time, township officials argued that the municipality was within its right to curb development and protect the town's "character."

But the plaintiffs argued that the moves were thinly-veiled attempts to stop Orthodox Jewish families from moving into Jackson, which has seen its Orthodox community boom in recent years as families leave the crowded, trafficked streets of neighboring Lakewood.

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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.

Last week, the township's religious land use attorney even blamed the lawsuits — and the costly settlements — on residents' correspondence with township officials and public statements at meetings.

"The complaints contained quotes and emails that were received by the township which were very discriminatory, derogatory towards members of the Orthodox Jewish and religious communities," said Brent Pohlman, who has represented Jackson Township in almost every religious discrimination lawsuit filed against the town in recent years. "One of the consequences of these derogatory public comments … was that the township was sued."

Despite Pohlman's warnings, reaction to the new ordinances seems like déjà vu. A new "Jackson Strong" group has decried the moves as causing the "destruction of an American town" and the "unprecedented historical demise of an American neighborhood."

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.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Jackson NJ: Orthodox Jewish group, developer get over $2M in settlement