Weather: 85° Scattered thunderstorms developing this afternoon Chance of rain 50%.There is a marginal risk of severe weather today.
- Mark Zuckerberg, in a letter to Chairman Jim Jordan and the House Judiciary Committee, writes that he "regrets" working with the Biden-Harris administration, which "repeatedly pressured" Meta's teams "for months" to censor COVID posts, including satire and humor, among other major subjects. Zuckerberg: "I believe that government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it."
- UPDATE: The levaya of Rav Boruch Dov Ziemba Z"L will take place tonight 10:30 in BMG inside the Yoshon beis medrash in Lakewood. Live hook up 712-432-4305
- The levaya of Rebbetzin Mattel Zaks a"h almana of Hagaon Rav Gershon Zaks zt"l R"Y Chofetz Chaim Monsey will take place Tomorrow Tuesday August 27 from her home 97 W. Carlton Rd. Suffern N.Y. at 1:30 PM
- BDE: Petirah of R' Boruch Ber Ziemba ZTL who passed away after he was pulled under water after he jumped in to rescue his child while boating in the poconos. Rav Boruch Ber was a choshuva youngerman at BMG and a rosh Chabuta. He leaves behind his wife Mrs. Temi and 7 children. He is a son of Reb Moshe Avigdor and rebbetzin Sara Zembeh menaheles of Bais Yaakov of 18th Ave in Boro Park and a son in law by Rav and Mrs. Moshe Shimon Luria shlita the rav of Khal Ohr Yechezkel in the Ridge neighborhood of Lakewood.
Levaya details TBA
- Tehillim: Baruch Dov ben Sara A 39-year-old father of 7 from Lakewood is in critical condition after being pulled from the water he was initially reported missing in a lake in Lehman, Pennsylvania in the poconos. Initial reports suggest that he entered the water from a boat to save a child and then went missing. Rockland Chaverim is en route to the scene, while Haztalah has dispatched members from Monticello to assist.(Belaaz)
- DWD pre Yom Tov clothing sale this Wednesday in Tiferes Bais Yaakov 613 oak street 1-5 selling shabbos clothes for girls and sweaters for boys robes weekday clothing socks yarmulkas and tzitzis
-Tehillim: a name has been added to the R"Y rav Avrohom Zucker name is Refoel Avraham Nesanel ben Masha Leeba
- The average tax hike in Lakewood has jumped from $5873 in 2014 to $7908 in 2023 a 34% increase in 10 years.
APP reports on how more development and residents in Lakewood results is more spending by township who are increasing their salaries and taxing more. Here
No mention of loss if revenue by tax abatements
- Should Lakewood have a new form of govt? Several New Jersey local government experts say Lakewood's government set-up is unusual for such a growing, highly populated municipality. “If you are a town over 100,000 people you should have a full- time mayor,” said Alan Zalkind, director of the Center for Government Services at Rutgers University APP
- In response to the Township's threats to file a Fair Housing Act lawsuit against Prime Apartments, the landlord is now seeking to bring in non-Jewish black and Hispanic tenants to every floor to avoid any litigation. The building contains 100 apartments over 4 floors. To ensure compliance with the Fair Housing Act, the landlord is seeking to fill 25 apartments across every floor with non-Jewish black and Hispanic tenants. This could be coming to other multi housing developments in Lakewood see full story at Faanews
- Texas Governor Greg Abbott has ordered the removal of one million ineligible voters off the state's voter rolls, including 500,000 dead people
-Russia launches massive missile and drone attack on Ukraine: hitting cities of Kyiv,Lutzk, Lvov and others
- It’s been more than a month since former President Trump’s near assassination, yet the FBI has still not offered Congress or the public any real insights into Crooks’ motivation,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told The Post.
“The FBI ought to stop dragging its feet and provide a serious update on their investigation. Every day the FBI, as well as the Secret Service, keep the American people in the dark is another day wasted.”
Upon the 106th Yahrtzeit of Reb Chaim Brisker zt"l there was a special Shiur given last night by Rav Michoel Sorotzkin in which he shed some light on the unique derech of Reb Chaim in approaching any sugia and topic.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/tgl7OhYvM-0
moiredik! Nobody could deliver the vort the way R' Michoel does.... a real artist
DeleteNobody?
DeleteWhat are we doing about the crazy tax increases? Lot of is is related to the Board of Ed out of control spending. We need accountability...
ReplyDeleteDo people on HUD like myself get impacted by the tax increases?
ReplyDeleteWhat do YOU think?
DeleteCumulative general inflation over the past decade in the US about 33%. So the increase in Lakewood tax was pretty much the same inflation as the inflation for everything else
ReplyDeleteThe vaad and local officials are personaly responsible for the tax increase that has become a burden on lakewood mishpachos. The officials have no accountability since the vaad backed them and they took big salaries while raising taxes
ReplyDeleteThe chazal speak very harshly against those who do that.
Let’s get something VERY straight.
DeleteWhen you have people ‘meesheluni’ who keep on suing the BOE for the tuition of their ‘Kaddish zuger’ who goes to out of town Yeshivah because this guy couldn’t be mechanech him or her because he busy learning or claiming that he’s learning, and the board keeps on losing in court, then your taxes will keep on rising by 35
% on a yearly basis.
Reb Yaakov Kaminetzky is known Not to have put his o
House on the tax free rolls even though he had a legit shul in the basement, and was entitled to a tax free house, because he said if my house is tax free everyone else’s tax will rise on my cheating.
Maybe if you have a shul etc you have to go down that road. But to have BOE pay extra full tuition to yeshivas, especially the out of town ones is a classic selfish ingrained logic which costs this towns tens of million dollars.
AnonymousAugust 26, 2024 at 3:26 PM It's difficult for me to get this straight because I'm not sure I understand what you are saying (and claiming) If there was some internal Lakewood dynamic causing Lakewood taxes to be so high then bordering cities like Jackson and Toms River would pay MUCH less real estate tax. That isn't the case.
DeleteAnon 3:26 - your ideas are small. If people wished to help the town, they would support the lawsuit of Reb Aaron Lang. Not taking a tax abatement you are eligible for, helps hardly anybody.
DeleteI am not sure if Lakewood can be fixed because few learn English after sixth grade. Yet these same boys that made their seventh grade teachers go stir crazy do not disqualify themselves from public affairs years later when they begin to look like men. They will never think like men. They will forever not understand the duties of citizenship, first among which, is taking responsibility for the actions of your community by learning the issues and casting a thoughtful vote in November without someone else making the decision.
DeleteFor myself, working 21 for the Lakewood BOE was a dead end. Go West, Young Man (not). Return to corporate America, Houston, oil and gas, wind and solar. The headquarters of the most important industry of the past, present and future, is looking more and more enticing. I have both skills in both law (essential for business and government) and math (essential for science and engineering). IY"H we'll make business connections between the energy capital of the world and little ole Lakewood, NJ. I can only do histadlus. If I have to commute cross country, I guess I will. It is not in my hands where opportunity will present itself. AL
If a few dozen start operating like that, it will cause a push on others & it will make a nice difference.
DeleteAlthough it's too much probably for people raised on corruption.
Don’t know you Mr AL but you sure sound bitter and hateful
DeleteReb Aaron, don't leave us. We need you. There will always be fools who think that saying the truth is 'bitter and hateful.' Yirmiyah Hanavi also had such detractors.
DeleteBut you need to learn in Lakewood, and we need you here to help us. Otherwise we will stay captives under the incompetent.
And remember everybody else. You might think you are so smart by claiming corruption. But the truth is, it is mere incompetence that is to blame for everything in this town. The corruption is relatively minor, it is the fact that nobody knows his head from his toes, and they still are in charge, that we have ended up with such a mess.
The yechidim in Lakewood are the best the world has, Bnei Torah who give up on everything the world has to offer just to learn, baalebattim who spend hours learning and give away millions to people they don't know. It's the leadership that is the only problem, and as always, scum rises to the top.
Thank you. I used to believe Lakewood was the ideal. That was when I was in BMG. I always said that there is no corruption, just incompetence. The bizarre reality is that people believe there is corruption and they are scared (cowards) to rock the boat. They all rely on favors but no one care about the big picture. I have 3,000 pages of discovery from the state. There are audits and reprimands that show mismanagement but not a single instance of anyone pocketing money for himself.
DeleteAt any rate, you nailed the issue on its head. And I believe it all goes back to schooling. I taught 30 years in yeshivas and 21 in Lakewood public schools. I identified the problem of why the state does nothing to fix our financial infrastructure (use to be the smokescreen of courtesy bussing, now it is corporate mismanagement), got my licenses to be superintendent, principal, supervisor, have math and history instruction by 2008 , all without advancement, and became an attorney at law in 2012, largely so that I could move up the company ladder. Then in 2014 when I had the solution to the school funding nailed down on paper that a court would hear, the Igud, Vaad, BOE and Township Committeemen, all at a single political meeting in one of the schools, made fun of me and raised $40,000 to get another lawyer to do the case right in front of me, malbain panai chavero. Did not deter me or my efforts to get them on board. They said they did not trust me. Don't know what that means. I was going to do the litigation for free as a public employee.
Rabbi Weisberg sent out several emails to everyone that they should resign their positions if they opposed me. He stayed on my side since then but he is not the overall boss. Not even the R"Y was able to help me get a promotion. Rabbi Weisberg held meetings over the years with Inzelbuch and Balsam to try to get me a raise. As it turns out, the final straw was last year when those the naysayers and Avi Schnall spoke out their opposition to me. Then after the Vaad hid their discussion from me with governor, about me, I told them to "take this job and shove it." They were going to bring tenure charges and I resigned.
So there you have it. I can't get another school job because I am all over the internet, wear a yarmulka at interviews, and no one wants to hire a lawyer ad a teacher. As for disgruntled, yes, I don't hide it. Hate is not good. That is why I am looking for other opportunities.
Nothing will change until people are less afraid of the consequences of bucking the system than they are of the consequences of continuing to play along.
DeleteThe consequence of playing along is that they will lose all influence and power. Just wait and see what happens. We have $400 million a year corporation owned by the people of Lakewood that is mismanaged. The state is not going to fork out $100 million a year and forgive the debt is the same people remain in control. Sure, they are friends with the governor, but the governor is not going to protect them. He will just say that he can't interfere with the DOE when the court order comes down. They are just stupid people. Had they told me about their meeting with the governor, ostensibly over Schnall and the vouchers, I would have told them to play hardball, get him to settle for $80 million a year, forgive the debt. Instead they, like the losers they are, got circles run around them.
DeleteProbably being naive. They got private personal benefits for themselves like property access hush hush
DeleteWhatever the case may be. The public good comes before personal interest. I sacrificed my job, career and standing for the sake of securing a stable fiscal infrastructure for Lakewood into the next century. Big mistake. Should have never started in the district. My reward was not a promotion to assistant superintendent or even a supervisor, but as reported in the Asbury Park Press, a demotion.
Deletehttps://www.app.com/story/news/education/in-our-schools/2019/08/02/lakewood-nj-school-funding-students-protest-math-teacher-moved/1883364001/
You don't have to like someone to have him run your business. If I make the district money, where does this lack of trust come from. The only other person that I heard a BOE president say he does not trust was William Andersen, former LHS principal, assistant superintendent, and probably one of the best educators the district has had. So here we go again; it is the mediocre and subservient that move up, while the visionary and innovative move down. Lakewood has so many unique problems that it should be the opposite, like every other business organization in America.
If you learn the issues, bottom line, management is not important when dealing with the double gap between cost and revenue. Let the state takeover the district if they want, but they gotta start paying for it rather than this Ponzi scheme trick that ultimately make Lakewood and its kids pay. Takeover and fork up!
DeleteThe board of Ed has said that Lakewood didn't raise taxes enough. Buckle up for the wild ride ahead. Oh, and remember to vote for the incumbents.
ReplyDeleteThe Gedolim forbid women voting.
DeleteExcept when their preferred candidate,then?
DeleteWE need serious cahange on all levels in Lakewood.. Commitee is very comfortable they dont even have any respect for the public and have open meetings, only on zoom!
ReplyDeleteLevaya of Rebbetzin Zaks is at 1:00 PM. In Eretz Yisroel on Wednesday from Satmar Shul on Rechov Yonah at 8PM to Har Hazeisim
ReplyDeleteAll attempts have-so far-gotten nowhere
ReplyDeleteHow is the change gonna happen