Catskills: Upstate NY Town “Forestburgh Discriminates Against Jewish New Yorkers,” AG Says

By FrumNews.com

As the flourishing Frum communities, Burech Hashem grows and expands, sometimes into neighboring towns and villages, some aren’t so pleased, and go to extreme lengths, bringing in the most atrocious anti-Semitic tropes, as we’ve seen in Jackson, Blooming Grove, Chester and other areas in the Tri-State area.

Enter Forestburgh, New York, population 808, a small town on the Neversink River of the Catskills Mountains in Sullivan County, near Monticello.

The story began in 2011, when the Town Board rezoned the 3.3 square miles of land owned by Double Diamond, a Texas developer, to authorize the building of 2,557 single-family homes, along with cottages and townhouse-style condominium units, for a total of 2,637 residential units, along with multiple recreational and community amenities. In 2013, the Town Board granted Double Diamond final subdivision and site plan approval for the first phase of the project, consisting of 400 single-family home lots and the first nine holes of the project’s golf course.

In 2020, a Frum group, Lost Lake Holdings, acquired the project from Double Diamond. They immediately encountered expressions of anti-Semitic opposition in the community. Then the town denied the application to develop that area.

Lost Lake Holdings brought a federal lawsuit against Forestburgh in 2023. The suit alleges that the town has engaged in numerous actions to block the construction of homes in the project, all in an effort to prevent Frum Yidden from moving to the town.

Recently, New York Attorney General Letitia James took an interest in the ongoing lawsuit. On Friday, the AG sent a letter to the town demanding that the Forestburgh Town Supervisor and the town board review and make changes to Local Law 3, which the AG office says imposes unfair zoning restrictions on houses of worship.

“The New York State Office of the Attorney General has received reports that Forestburgh’s recent rezoning ordinance, Local Law 3 of 2023, discriminates against Jewish New Yorkers. Based on our review of Local Law 3 and its adoption, the Office of the Attorney General has concerns about the ordinance’s lawfulness. Local Law 3 appears to violate state and federal law by discriminating against religious uses. And the adoption of Local Law 3 raises concerns about Forestburgh’s compliance with the Open Meetings Law.”

According to the AG, the town established unreasonable zoning requirements for places of worship. One provision of the law required houses of worship in residential districts to have 200-acre side and rear yards, double or even quadruple the requirement for other buildings that would accommodate the same amount of people. The AG also indicates that the town has failed to provide any reasonable justification or explanation for these zoning requirements.

“Based on our review of publicly available minutes from the Town’s meetings, the Office of AG has specific concerns regarding the Town’s compliance with its duties and obligations under the Open Meetings Law.” The letter states, “We encourage the Town to carefully review its obligations under the Open Meetings Law to ensure an open and accurate decision-making process between the Town and the public as required under New York law.”

Rabbi Yeruchim Silber, Agudah’s director of New York government relations, thanked the AG, “for putting on notice the clear discriminatory attempt by the Town of Forestburg to keep out orthodox Jews. This type of discrimination has no place in our state.”

The JCC of Sullivan County thanked the AG, “As a great man once said, Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, Thank you, Letitia James, for standing up to blatant and shameless discrimination perpetuated by the Town of Forestburgh aimed to prevent orthodox Jews from residing there.”