In Mahwah, NJ, Council President, Robert Hermansen and Councilman David May are trying to find an infraction, to what they demand, must be illegal.
Justice Robert Jackson warned about this kind of abuse back in 1940 in his famous speech entitled, “The Federal Prosecutor” (if you haven’t read it, you should). Read More
Tensions are running high in Mahwah and a meeting was scheduled to foster open dialogue and negotiation on August 15th, between the Eruv Association, the Mayor, members of the Town Council and Mahwah Strong (a resident group).
Two choices were presented.
If you are going with option 1, you are Robert Hermansen and the Town Council in Mahwah, NJ.
You can listen to the vote to issue the summonses here: Read More
This post is a bit more personal than the others I’ve written, about the situation going on in Mahwah, NJ.
You can find my previous posts here and here.
In this post, I’d like to talk about the civic violations taking place in Bergen County, where I live. How my rights and the rights of others have been and continue to be violated, and exactly what that means for society when these types of infringements go unchecked.
On July 27, the Town Council in Mahwah held a hearing (the video for a portion of the meeting can be found here and here) in which the public portion of the meeting, which by statute is “for public comment on any governmental… issue that a member of the public feels may be of concern to the residents of the municipality” was censored for several speakers. Nylema Nabbie, Mahwah’s attorney from the law firm of Gittleman, Muhlstock & Chewcaske, LLP stated:
“I do not want a situation where I sit here and I allow comments to come in to create a record that can then be used against this body in a subsequent litigation. That is the purpose of restricting comments.”
With that, she cut off comments that were disapproved of by the governing body and wouldn’t allow people to voice comments on several governmental issues that they felt may be of concern to residents of the municipality. If she felt it may lead to litigation or problematic outcomes, it was verboten. Read More
Fear has gripped the areas of Mahwah and surrounding towns in Northern Bergen county. As was mentioned in my previous post on the unconstitutional actions taken by Council President Robert Hermansen, the township has restricted public comments in their meetings (in violation of statute) on topics of public concern, they have attempted to ban certain groups from public parks and they have taken the extraordinary step of even subordinating their top police official (to the ire of the law enforcement community as can be seen in a post by the local PBA here) when he refused to put nefarious political moves ahead of public safety.
Comments at the local town council meetings referenced “invasions” and harassment of residents (although Open Public Record requests indicate no complaints were lodged with township police or officials). Allegations of “blockbusting” (and worse) permeated Facebook posts and online forums, as residents scrambled for answers and all the while, “leaders” such as Robert Hermansen, the Council Preisdent of Mahwah, stoked fears and resentment. Read More
On July 27th, 2017, I attended a public session of the Mahwah Town Council. These were the ground rules: no mention of religion and no mention of the Eruv. The claim was seemingly simple – the meeting is about ordinances and enforcement, not antisemitism or Eruvs, so there is no reason to permit comments that may reflect poorly on the Township.
Mahwah’s Council through their lawyer stated that not only council members, but even members of the public, were not permitted to utter such comments. Regardless of whether an issue was one of public concern or related to items on the agenda, mentioning such topics as religion, the Eruv, a letter received by the Bergen County Prosecutor and several others, was verboten.
When questioned as to why this policy was created, Nylema Nabbie, Mahwah’s attorney from the law firm of Gittleman, Muhlstock & Chewcaske, LLP stated: “I do not want a situation where I sit here and I allow comments to come in to create a record that can then be used against this body in a subsequent litigation. That is the purpose of restricting comments.” Read More
On August 1st, Dean Obedallah interviewed Keith Kaplan, a member of the Teaneck Planning Board about the actions of the Mahwah Municipal Government and the surrounding Bergen County Towns restricting Orthodox Jews from attending parks and erecting Eruvin
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