Facing criticism, town drops ban

MAHWAH, N.J. — Facing state and federal lawsuits alleging it used local ordinances to discriminate against Orthodox Jews from nearby New York state, a northern New Jersey town rescinded one of the measures that stoked the controversy.

By a 6-1 vote, Mahwah’s council on Thursday night amended an earlier measure that would have restricted parks and playgrounds to local residents. The ban was prompted by some town residents’ complaints about overcrowding at the parks and their use by Orthodox Jewish families coming from towns across the nearby New York border.

Earlier this month, the council reversed part of an ordinance that effectively banned eruvs, pieces of plastic piping attached to utility poles that serve as boundary markers delineating areas where Orthodox Jews can carry items and perform some activities during their Sabbath.

A lawsuit filed by the state in October sought to block the ordinances and to secure the return of more than $3.4 million in state grants the town has received from the state Department of Environmental Protection. It characterized the town’s actions as resembling “1950s-era white flight suburbanites” who sought to keep blacks out of their neighborhoods.

Thursday’s meeting wasn’t as contentious as previous council meetings, but there was no shortage of passion on both sides. A young man who said he is Jewish said he never experienced anti-Semitism in Mahwah. But 23-year-old Mahwah resident Susan Steinberg, who also is Jewish but not Orthodox, said she “has never felt anti-Semitism in this town until this year” and said the tone in the town has turned ugly.

“This is a wonderful, sharing, lovely community, but it’s taken a turn that’s not good,” she said.