Engagement key to understanding Lakewood's Orthodox Jewish community: Bergmann

Randy Bergmann | Asbury Park Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Preserving Lakewood's Past The year-old Sheldon Wolpin Lakewood Historical Museum offers a treasure trove of artifacts from the town's former days as a rural community and popular resort.

Of all the nasty, misleading campaign literature generated during the run-up to the recent elections, the most offensive appeared in mailboxes in Jackson, where competing slates tried to outdo each other in branding the opposition as being in the pockets of Orthodox Jews.

In an attempt to woo votes, the two sides exploited anti-Orthodox sentiment in the community, playing into residents' fears that an influx of Orthodox into the township would turn it into another Lakewood. It was disgraceful.

Disingenuously, both mayoral candidates agreed: "How is that anything but anti-Semitism?" incumbent Mayor Michael Reina said, accusing his political opponents of "spreading more misinformation about me than I've seen in the 12 years I've been doing this."

Said Reina's opponent for mayor, Tracie Yostpille: "It is truly the most disgusting dishonest campaign using the Jewish population in Lakewood to scare voters." Both said they weren't responsible for the ads. Yeah, right.

Ironically, Reina, who tapped into anti-Semitic sentiment to produce a winning margin of nearly 2 to 1, was one of the original members of Lakewood Neighbors, a group whose mission includes improving relations between Lakewood's majority Orthodox population and the non-Orthodox in neighboring towns — including Jackson.

Fortunately, some "listening sessions" I held in Jackson, Toms River and Lakewood in the past few weeks helped remove some of the bad taste in my mouth left by the Jackson election. It also reinforced my belief in the importance of conversation, engagement and interaction in improving relations between the Orthodox and non-Orthodox communities.

As part of an outreach effort being made by the Asbury Park Press to ensure we are writing about issues our communities think are important, not just what we think are important, we have been appearing at restaurants, libraries and other venues to hear first-hand from readers.

Last month, at my first listening session at the Jackson branch of the Ocean County Library, I fielded complaints about perceived bias in our opinion and news pages and praise for our newspaper's investigative reporting and commitment to holding public officials accountable. I also heard concerns about illegal immigration and what was characterized as our ill-informed eagerness to jump on the renewable energy bandwagon. But much of the discussion centered around what a number of Orthodox Jews in attendance perceived as an imbalance between positive and negative news about Lakewood and the Orthodox community.

It wasn't a new complaint, nor one without some validity. We have come down hard on corrupt and self-serving public officials in Lakewood. Holding public officials accountable, no matter where they live or govern, has always been an important part of what we do. Lakewood has had more than its fair share of corruption in recent years. But at every opportunity, we urge residents in the Orthodox community to pass along positive stories that reflect well on themselves and the town. It is a message I underscored at a subsequent listening session in Toms River and another one this past week in Lakewood that grew out of the first two.

The Lakewood meeting may have been the most important of all. It was organized by an Orthodox woman who had attended one of the earlier sessions. When she joined in the conversation, which earlier had focused on some of the negative stereotypes of Lakewood and the Orthodox, the tenor changed. Her story and her experiences dispelled many of the myths, and helped shed light on many of the commonalities.

We need much more of that. At a meeting she arranged in Lakewood last week, we were treated to more of the same — a positive exchange between three Press staffers and a diverse group of Orthodox that included a psychologist and educator, a commercial real estate agent, a journalist and a software developer, They all had two things in common: they were well educated and they were interested in improving the non-Orthodox community's understanding of the Orthodox Jew and to find ways to facilitate more interaction. All have indicated a desire to further that goal through continued dialogue between the two communities.

The Lakewood Neighbors group was formed a year ago to address Lakewood’s regional growing pains and foster improved communication and better understanding of the Orthodox community. The organization recently hired two outside professional mediation firms to study Lakewood's issues. They will soon begin interviewing residents, community leaders, critics and officials with the goal of developing goals that can help solve some of the problems confronting Lakewood and the broader region.

We're on board with that mission. We hope to complement it with more listening sessions and Facebook Live conversations focusing on issues. But it will take a concerted effort on the part of political, religious and lay leaders in Lakewood, Jackson and Toms River to move things in the right direction.

One of the biggest takeaways from last week's meeting was the importance of building trust between the Orthodox and non-Orthodox communities. It won't come easily. It is one reason the Orthodox are gun shy with the media and the non-Orthodox community. They have confronted bigotry, hatred and worse for centuries. That has contributed to the distrust of the non-Orthodox and the insularity of a large segment of the Orthodox community.

That insularity is one of the biggest challenges that will have to be overcome in improving relations. There is no excuse for the anti-Semitic bigotry that has been on display at various times at public meetings in Lakewood's neighboring towns and much of the time on social media. Most of it stems from ignorance. The best way for the Orthodox to counteract it is to engage with the community, to explore opportunities to interact with the non-Orthodox and to seize every opportunity to educate the ill-informed.

Lakewood Mayor Ray Coles, speaking of the Lakewood Neighbors initiative, said there is one simple tactic to bridge the divides in Lakewood and neighboring towns: conversation. "People getting to know each other is the easiest way to get over the obstacles in front of us," he said.

That will continue to be part of the mission of this newspaper.

Randy Bergmann is editorial page editor of the Asbury Park Press: 732-643-4034; rbergmann@app.com; @appopinion.