by Jeremy Dys • 2 minutes
First Liberty recently filed an amended complaint in federal district court to stop the Village of Atlantic Beach, New York from continuing its discrimination against our clients, Chabad of the Beaches, a small Jewish congregation.
Chabad of the Beaches purchased a property in 2021 with the intention of turning into a center for Jewish worship, education, and outreach. But ever since making the purchase village officials have been on a mission to keep Chabad from living out its faith.
The property sat vacant for at least three years and for sale for more than a year. The village made no effort to purchase the property when it was available. It showed no interest in acquiring the property until after it was purchased by Jewish residents. Within days of the purchase, village officials announced plans to take the property, claiming they needed it to build their own community center and a lifeguard operations facility.
Chabad tried to work out a solution with the village, but to no avail. First Liberty filed a federal lawsuit and a federal district court ruled in favor of Chabad, halting the village’s eminent domain claim. The two parties reached an agreement to settle the case in late 2023.
Earlier this year, Chabad submitted a special permit application so it could use the property to fulfill its religious mission.
But, the village’s zoning board rejected their application in November—including denying a permit to use the building for religious purposes. Despite efforts to resolve the permit denials, the village left Chabad with no choice but to terminate the settlement and return to federal court.
The amended complaint provides evidence that support previous suspicions that claims by village officials that they had to seize the property in order to build a lifeguard operations center were merely pretext. In reality, the amended complaint makes clear, village officials appear motivated by blatant anti-Semitism.
In private communications, village officials freely and frequently engaged in anti-Semitic sentiment.They wrote vile and hateful tropes, including that Jews are “buying the world,” “procreate” too much, and “don’t tip.”
In one text message, a village judge told the mayor that “most people don’t want the Chabad and just don’t want to say it. Any secular Jew doesn’t want them”—to which the mayor responded, “Very true.”
Other village officials expressed their animus towards Chabad of the Beaches more colorfully.
An email by one of the village’s trustees to the mayor read: “There is a pending contract by Habbad [sic] of LB to buy the property. We cannot d*** around anymore. We need to move fast.”
Other trustees described Chabad’s presence in the village as a “nightmare.” One of them said that Hassidic groups like Chabad of the Beaches must be stopped from “buying the world—a town by town, city by city…they have the numbers—they procreate.”
Anti-Semitism has no place in America. Houses of worship should not be subject to this type of discrimination and repulsive treatment. It’s time for Village officials to stop targeting Chabad of the Beaches and leave this religious community alone so they can worship in peace.
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