The Lakewood Vaad has posted a unsigned chest pumping self congratulatory article titled "Hakoras Hatov to Lakewood's staunch four Thousand" on its affiliated website, thanking the 4000 strong who voted for Phil Murphy while the Lakewood frum vote went 60/40 for Jack Ciattarelli.
The timing, anonymity and content of the letter is suspicious, is this part of a strategy? time will tell.
The Vaad blames anyone who did not follow them as creating in your face machlokes and ruining the achdus of the kehilla. More so, the tone of the letter subliminally mocks the 60 percent of Yidden in Lakewood who voted for Jack Ciattarelli. The letter claims it was siyata dishmaya that the 40 percent who did vote for Murphy will allow officials and askonim to pursue the vital interests of the kehila "without the sneers of a democratic governor". The article concludes with some more self Gratulation by backing a winner scoring a 2.5 on a scale of 3. The letter ended with a parting shot to those who voted for Ciattarelli as the vaad scored themselves a tiet on backing a candidate with values close to our hashkafa "as both candidates supported radical leftist social policies' and that as a kehilla we can all do better next time.
A glaring omission was the very fact that there was a split among the Roshei Yeshiva on who to vote for, as Rav Yeruchom Olshin specifically did not sign or support the Vaad for this election and told bnei hayeshiva vote for Jack as did many Rabbonim and Roshei Yeshiva.
The Letter omits the name of Rav Osher ben Chana Frumit and makes no mention of how it factored in the klals voting decisions.
In the year 2017, It was the Lakewood Vaad who put out public statements against President Donald Trump while he was in office, they should not be the ones lecturing about kicking politicians in the teeth, those actions were a potential sakana for the klal. The majority of Lakewood Kehila voted for Trump with the highest margins in NJ, yet the vaad attacked him.
As for Machlokes in the community, they are just as responsible, it was the Vaad spokesperson who publicly called Lakewood residents bad apples. They continue taking advantage of the community and not including the over 300 rabbonim in Lakewood nor have they set up a system of fair representation of the kehilla.
To continue to ignore the lack of trust and keep on blaming the community for the Vaad's lack of control and leadership speaks volumes.
The letter assumes that no one can vote with their own best interest which is also disrespectful to residents who have seen their property taxes go up, their quality of life go down, yet the vaad ignores it and expects people to accept it as the new reality and if you don't like it you can move out. The vaad made no effort to address all that went on in the transformation of Lakewood over the last 10 years.
The Vaad has yet to be open about who all the members are and failed to disclose the financial dealings of some with the local govt that may be seen as a conflict of interest to represent the community.
The Vaad should go buy a Mirror on Black Friday and take a good hard look, but it may be too blind to see that too.
Math Not Making Sense
ReplyDeleteBiden got 6,397 votes in Lakewood, NJ
Murphy got 7,112 votes in Lakewood, NJ
7112 - 6397 = 715
The Vaad got Murphy 715 votes.
They likely spend over 100k on promoting Murphy. That means they spend over $1000 a vote.
That is money well spent!!
Many more people vote for president then for governor.... so no.....
DeleteVaad doesn't mention how many voter they kept home that would've voted for Jack. Vaad also doesn't account for the "Lakewood" votes living in other areas of ocean county that voted for Jack.
ReplyDeleteDont fool yourself. The vaad helped Murphy very much by getting tens of thousands of potential Jack voters to stay home
ReplyDeleteWhoa. Thats the end of me reading hefkervelt.blogspot.com. goodbye
ReplyDeletedon't let the door hit you on the way out.
DeleteSo was that 'letter' from 'The vaad' or not?
ReplyDeletemight as well call themselves anonymous.
Yeah, where's the letter. Please post, I'd luv to see the letterhead, the names, address, phone, etc.
ReplyDeleteSeems to me like the owner of a certain website has had a falling out with the "vaad'. A year ago he never would have allowed negative comments to be published about them
ReplyDeleteWe ruined the achdus and created in your face machlokes. Bh there were $4000 sheep that followed orders hereby keeping the achdus and thanks to them Aguda and the vaad will be able to continue fighting against lockdowns just like they did in 2020.
ReplyDeleteIm asking the press: PLEASE FOLLOW THE MONEY IN REGARD TO VAAD MEMBERS. Thank you
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteLet's try something serious though this is hilarious
when Aguda first was founded they were attacked for ruining the achdus. Virtually every positive movement was attacked in the beginning for ruining achdus
Oh the irony
ReplyDeleteAguda has had little issue that many of its constituent groupings tear themselves apart with divisions and splits and that's okay
but they lose the Monopoly here in this town and they lose their cool
Furthermore,
Many of us years earlier debated whether,though that it was overdue, taking on the VAad for years because we were afraid a bit
of the chaos which would ensue following their collapse.
That was until the realization they're so far gone there is but little alternative
The time has come (honestly, the time came a long time ago) for a groundswell of voices to echo the same sentiment:
ReplyDeleteThe lakewood community is not a monolith. We all have our own interests and needs.
That said, unlike most other locales, we as frummeh yidden have far more areas of commonality than not.
The Venn diagrams of interest don't necessarily overlap perfectly, but they are pretty darn close.
If the Oilam were convinced of that, it would, de facto, break the stranglehold that this shadowy Vaad has on the kehillah.
People would vote their consciences and pockets, and the candidate(s) who seemed most appealing would win.
The Vaad has successfully convinced a large portion of the electorate that they aren't intelligent or savvy enough to make their own decisions.
That's;
1. Not true
2. The Vaad isn't in it for the common man. They're in it for their own interests or to whomever they answer.
It's time for the average voter to have faith in themselves.