New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal addresses the media as he announces the Immigration Trust Directive, at the Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal at Liberty State Park in November 2018. Photo: USA Today Network via Reuters Connect

The attorney general of New Jersey announced Tuesday that the state has filed a civil rights lawsuit against Jackson Township for discrimination against its Jewish community.

The complaint, filed by Attorney General Gurbir Grewal and the Division on Civil Rights in state Superior Court in Ocean County, names Jackson Township, the Jackson Township Council, the Jackson Township Zoning Board of Adjustment, the Jackson Township Planning Board, and Mayor Michael Reina as defendants.

According to a press release from the state’s Office of the Attorney General, the defendants used zoning powers to prevent an influx of Orthodox Jews from establishing residency in the township and to make it more difficult to practice their religion, violating New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination.

Jackson is located next to Lakewood, New Jersey, which is home to 50,000 Orthodox Jews and the second-largest yeshiva in the world. Beginning in 2015, the complaint alleges, township residents began expressing opposition to Jewish residence to local officials. They also engaged in antisemitic rhetoric on social media, saying things such as “we need to get rid of them like Hitler did” and referring to Jews as “filthy f***ing cockroaches.”

As a result, says the complaint, township officials sought to use their powers to stop what one former zoning board member described as “the tsunami of orthodoxy that is mounting at the border.”

Four strategies were allegedly used, according to the suit. One was surveillance of the Jewish community, monitoring their homes in order to ascertain if they were engaged in religious activities.

Another was discriminatory application of land use laws to prevent Jews from buildings sukkahs after non-Jewish residents complained about them.

Officials also used zoning laws to prevent the establishment of yeshivas and residences for yeshiva students, and enacted a zoning ordinance that prevented the erection of eruvim, symbolic enclosures used to permit certain activities on Shabbat.

Attorney General Grewal said, “We’ve filed this lawsuit because bias and hate have no home in New Jersey, and we will not allow some vocal residents’ intolerance to drive local government decisions.”

“Like all public servants, municipal officials have a duty to uphold the law, not weaponize it against specific groups because of what they believe or how they worship,” he asserted. “Today’s lawsuit should send that message to anyone in New Jersey who needs to hear it.”

Aaron Scherzer, Chief of Strategic Initiatives and Enforcement at New Jersey’s Division on Civil Rights, commented, “This lawsuit shows that the Attorney General and the Division on Civil Rights stand ready to address discrimination in all its forms, whenever and wherever it occurs throughout the state.”

“We will not allow municipalities to discriminate against residents because of their religious beliefs or to take actions based on residents’ intolerance,” he added. “Instead, as we confront a rising tide of bias across the state and around the country, we need our local leaders to set an example for how to address intolerance and persistent othering.”

A federal lawsuit is also pending against Jackson Township regarding the discriminatory use of ordinances against the establishment of yeshivas.

In May 2020, US Attorney Craig Carpenito said of the federal lawsuit, “No religious community should ever face unlawful barriers or be singled out for inferior treatment. This complaint reflects our continued commitment to combat discrimination and unequal treatment.”

Eric Dreiband, assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, said at the time, “to target Orthodox Jewish individuals for intentional discrimination and exclude them from a community is illegal and utterly incompatible with this Nation’s values.”

“The Department of Justice will use the full force of its authority to stop such antisemitic conduct and prevent its recurrence,” he said.