De Facto South Blooming Grove Mayor Joel Stern Has Epic Public Temper tantrum
The first, but not the last, round of consequences have come to De Facto South Blooming Grove Mayor Joel Stern's doorstep, and he responded like the giant baby that he is.
Above: Joel Stern reacting to the Town of Blooming Grove suing the Village of South Blooming Grove, and the DEC, over the Clovewood development.
What did you get for Christmas / Hanukka / Kwanzaa this year? Hopefully, it wasn't the Norovirus. That bad boy is back across America, including in Southern Orange County.
I hope you know what that means for the next couple of months: Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds and be careful about where you eat. Personally, I'd avoid that local bar and grill where the Nazis like to hang out, but the virus is everywhere. You don't need to order a burger from a White Supremacist in Woodbury to get it, you know? Anywhere that's serving food is going to be dicey until the virus passes.
If you work in the food prep business, please consider staying home if you're sick since that's the primary way the Norovirus spreads. I know that's not feasible for everyone. America is a hellscape where the majority of us live paycheck to paycheck, but do what you can, if you can. You can always wear a mask and wash your hands. That little effort goes a long way to protecting yourself, your family, and your community during the Winter when flu, COVID, RSV, and Norovirus spread.
Speaking of viruses that cause gastrointestinal distress, did anyone read the latest edition of the Yiddish-language United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove (UJCBG) newsletter? If you live in South Blooming Grove, even if you don't speak Yiddish, this newsletter is the only way to get news and information concerning what's happening in your village. You'll notice that the first part of this week's newsletter is about Code Enforcement issues in the Village of South Blooming Grove and is addressed directly to village residents.
Above: The December 28th, 2024, United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove (which you can read in its original Yiddish here) began with a note to South Blooming Grove residents with a headline that loosely translates into “Important Reminder - Code Enforcement.”)
Above: The UJCBG newsletter informs South Blooming Grove residents to collect their garbage bags for pickup on Monday and Thursday, and not to park cars on the road. It concludes by saying if your mailbox fell over, to call the Village Clerk and that the Village of South Blooming Grove will fix your mailbox “free of charge.”
We've talked about this before, but here's a reminder: The UJCBG is a not-for-profit that had its status revoked by the IRS in 2022. They removed the English language version of their website this Spring after I wrote and asked them for their three most recent Form 990s. This organization is not part of the South Blooming Grove Village Government. However, if you look carefully at the Clovewood Permit Approvals, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation suggested that the UJCBG is part of the Village Government. A judge needs to rule on the issue of the not-for-profit's entanglement with the Village government. I'm working on this.
(And if you're thinking, "Wait. Wouldn't using the UJCBG newsletter as the only official communication by De Facto Mayor Joel Stern to Village residents violate the New York State and federal Constitution's Establishment Clause? Yup. It does. I'm glad you asked, too. I've been discussing this issue since March and am thrilled you noticed. That's the good news. The bad news is that finding a 1st amendment attorney to take on this case has been easier said than done. For example, despite multiple attempts, I could not get the New York City ACLU, the Anti-Defamation League, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State interested in South Blooming Grove. The reason would take more space than I have today to explain, so let's move on.)
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Clovewood Lawsuits Are Coming
Above: Mr. Stern reacts precisely how you think he did to the news that Clovewood’s developers, the Village of South Blooming Grove, and the DEC are being sued by the Town of Blooming Grove.
After the New Year, we will discuss these lawsuits and how you can help in greater detail. Right now, I'm just going to share enough to give you the context behind Mr. Stern's hilarious temper tantrum. Reading it made for a wonderful Hanukkah gift.
So, here's the short version: As much as Town of Blooming Grove attorney Brian Nugent sucks, and he does suck for all the reasons we've detailed so far — and many more reasons to come soon in 2025 — the Town went ahead and filed a lawsuit against the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Village of South Blooming Grove, and all of the associated companies behind the Clovewood development, including Keen Equities. (The lawsuit should have named Ziggy Brach and the other shareholders of Keen Equities, since they were all identified in the 2013 bankruptcy filing, United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove, Joel Stern, and South Blooming Grove's other de facto mayor, Yitzchok "Isaac" Ekstein, but again. Nugent is going to Nugent things up.)
Mr. Stern is not used to facing consequences for his actions, which is why I keep telling residents in South Blooming Grove and Blooming Grove to sue him. It's the only avenue you have to hold him accountable because the New York State government—and Congressman Pat Ryan—will bail him out at every possible opportunity. I promise you that you will see a real-time example of this involving the New York State Division of Election Law's investigation into South Blooming Grove not having a duly elected mayor.
(Just an update on that story: I wrote to Governor Hochul's press office asking if she would commit to not interfering in that investigation. I, and Blaise Gomez at News 12, have also been in touch with Senator Skoufis, Assemblyman Brian Maher, and the New York Department of State for clarification on what's going on due to the Village's failure to hold an election, as required, back in March of 2024. To nobody's surprise, the politicians have all been really quiet.)
One reason Nugent should have named the original Keen Equities investors in the Town of Blooming Grove's lawsuit is that Stern's response immediately discusses the project's fifteen-year gestation. He's referring explicitly to the 2013 bankruptcy, in which the Keen Investors told the court that "new management" (Stern and Ekstein) was coming to smooth things out with the Village.
Stern says*, "In a desperate and desperate move, after spending our tax dollars delaying the project for fifteen years, and after trying every trick and move to stop the Dobri Haim development, the Town tried again." Well, no. Remember: The Keen Investors sued the Village of South Blooming Grove. The Town had no involvement with that. Mr. Stern is attempting to rewrite history, which shouldn't come as a surprise, given that he's a compulsive liar.
Stern continues, "After they have bled and killed the developers and after the developers have followed every madness and every little thing that someone could come up with and think of, of all the bullshit and madness, this time they are trying a new move by calling the very DIC [sic] from New York State to the court, that they may have the audacity and the audacity to give the permits for the development that, with the help of God, will serve our brothers Israel." Now, as you know, Keen Equities was subject to near-record fines by the DEC for multiple non-compliance with stop-work orders. One of which led to the permanent disability of a man named Guilmar Montufar, which followed after those near-record fines.
And just as a fun fact, not long after the Clovewood permits were recently granted, the DEC fined the Clovewood developers AGAIN. So what Mr. Stern calls "Bullshit & Madness" is just, you know, properly following the law. This is, sadly, typical among some of Hanhallah's machers in the Satmar community. If they don't get what they want, it's antisemitism. When they do get what they want, but face consequences for not following health and safety regulations meant to protect themselves and the larger community, "it's bullshit and madness."
(For those of you who are new here: Hanhallah refers to the leadership caste in the Satmar community. Machers refers to the people who enact the leadership caste’s will.)
The tragedy is that these intentional acts of deception don't benefit anyone. It fuels antisemitism among the secular residents, and it endangers the lives of their brothers and sisters in the Satmar community. For example, if you were to come and buy a lovely house in the country after living in Boro Park, you'd expect that lovely house to provide you with clean drinking water and safe roads to travel on. But that's not what you get. Instead, you get brown drinking water, hazards, half-built roads built on a whim, and a lot of secular residents looking at you like you're the one who caused this. You're not. It was Hanhallah's fault. Hanhallah serves only themselves at all of our expense. That's an important point to remember here. Mr. Stern wants the Town of Blooming Grove's actions to appear like an attack on all of our Haredi brothers and sisters, but it's only an attack on Mr. Stern and the wealthy men funding his operations.
He continues, "The anakdana is ridiculous, laughable, and silly, but it is still in a desperate attempt to succeed, maybe we will be able to delay the development a little longer and at least briefly keep it from being able to become a reality. Thank God, in the past, the owners of the houses of the development followed every little thing that was asked of them." Yeah. That's categorically false. It continues to be false, according to the DEC, who, as mentioned, just issued another notice of violation following the granting of the permits.
"... things that really did not come to mind, and it is expected that this time, too, the blockage will go away and will not stop. Stop the expansion of the sacred boundaries here in the city." Again, for the umpteenth time, South Blooming Grove is not a city. Also, you'll notice the language here to frame what a housing project is built by a bunch of multimillionaires — only 94 of the 1,200 units are marked as affordable housing — as part of some holy crusade.
If all 1,200 units were marked as Affordable Housing, Mr. Stern would have much firmer ground to stand on here, but he doesn't. Because remember: Mr. Stern does not care about his Haredi brothers and sisters. He doesn't care about you either. He cares about the money he and his wealthy friends stand to make from this housing development. Religion, like Communism in the movie "Clue," is a red herring.
But here's where it gets good. If you recall, one of the numerous lies I had to fact-check from Mr. Stern was that he accused Town of Blooming Grove Supervisor Robert Jeroloman of committing a felony. He didn't, but Stern made this claim to explain why the Village of South Blooming Grove refuses to provide any information concerning building permits to the Town. So, Stern couldn't help himself going after the Town Supervisor. Yet again, this is another reason for Nugent to have named Stern personally in the Town's lawsuit.
"Wicked even at the gates of hell do not return!" I guess Mr. Stern didn't pay close attention to the Torah because we Jews don't have a Hell. So ...
"It should be mentioned that the one who is condemning the DI [sic] is none other than the infamous Blooming Naron Town Supervisor, Robert Jeroloman, who was the architect of the master plan, how to keep the Bnei Yisrael from the surrounding area, when he was the very founder and the first mayor of the Village of South Blooming Grove." Note the use of the phrase "master plan" because when you don't have a leg to stand on in your arguments within the Satmar community, you use the Holocaust to justify your actions. I wish my brothers and sisters in the Satmar community would stop using the Holocaust as a "Break in case we don't get what we want" tactic. Still, here we are in 2024 with another Nazi reference. Bravo Mr. Stern.
That said, Stern may or may not be correct about Jeroloman's role in forming the Village of South Blooming Grove. The Village of Woodbury and the Village of South Blooming Grove were explicitly created to stop the expansion of Kiryas Joel. I haven’t met anyone who can say with a straight face that this is untrue.
But. It's equally hilarious for Stern to play this up because his plan is precisely to stop the expansion of Kiryas Joel as well. That is what Mr. Stern, Mr. Avraham Bur Jackobowitz, Grand Rebbe Zalman Teitelbaum want to do. They want to use all of Blooming Grove to surround Kiryas Joel and limit the power and influence held by Grand Rebbe Aaron Teitelbaum.
So we've got a severe case of the pot calling the kettle black here.
Stern concludes by bragging about all the progress he's made in South Blooming Grove. "A God blessed everyone can be sure that the Village that this young man founded is doing growing an flourishing every day spiritually with midrash houses, yeshivas, and mikvahs. Torah students, and physically with new Jewish Houses, Jewish businesses, ect, and this will also come through n no time. And in the name of God, we will succeed. A happy Hanukkah!" He didn't sign the letter, but if you study Stern's writings and how he speaks at South Blooming Grove meetings, you know who wrote this.
One last thing: New York State and America have a housing crisis. So, the specific use of the term "Jewish Houses" is worth noting here. Housing discrimination in Rockland County is a real problem. It's also been a documented problem throughout New York City when Satmar landlords are involved. So, I want to flag some things here as we wrap up.
For someone who is trying to wrap everything up in biblical language, it's really convenient that Mr. Stern repeatedly fails to remember that Judaism is based on a foundation of justice. So, building housing and making it only available to fellow members of the Satmar community? That's not quite what the Torah and Talmud preach. It's also illegal.
But once again, New York State — usually the Democrats, but not exclusively — have repeatedly failed to intervene in many of these houing discrimination cases.
So, when (it’s not a question of if, but you already know that) Clovewood goes online, everyone should watch this story unfold. Because you will have 1,200 units become available in a state where housing is desperately needed, and those units are not at all going to be made available to non-Satmar residents of New York State.
There is a ticking time bomb here in the form of a housing discrimination lawsuit involving Clovewood. It’s inevitable. I suggest residents be ready and document every such instance carefully.
Lastly, the fact that Mr. Stern has specifically used the term "Jewish houses" lends further credence to what I've pointed out to you for a while: The United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove is a hate group, as defined by both the FBI and the Southern Poverty Law Center. It may not look like the Proud Boys hanging out in Woodbury, but its leadership in the form of Mr. Stern's repeated statements (see the video below for more) shows a clear pattern of contempt and disregard for the secular residents in South Blooming Grove.
In the following video, back in 2021, you’ll hear Mr. Stern’s plan to discriminate against the secular residents upon taking over the Village of South Blooming Grove:
Recently, I saw Mr. Stern's name on a letter featuring others in the Satmar community asking Governor Hochul to veto a bill, Senate Bil 7533. One of the signatories with the City of Kiryas Joel’s administrator, Gedalye Szegedin. I am still looking into this bill and why the Satmar community wants the governor to veto it, but I did speak to Mr. Szegedin about it. What I didn’t mention to him was that the reason I was even looking into the story was because Mr. Joel Stern’s name was on the letter. I am not the only journalist watching him carefully.
So, I just want to put this out there: If I were Mr. Gedalye Szegedin in Kiryas Joel and some of these other Satmar leaders, I'd want to put as much distance as possible between myself and Mr. Joel Stern. Every time his name appears in the news, we’re all going to be watching because of everything I just shared with you.
The future of Southern Orange County is going to rest on peace and cooperation between the City of Kiryas Joel and its neighboring municipalities. With Mr. Joel Stern's repeated discriminatory statements and actions against the secular residents of Southern Orange County, no peace can be sustained as long as he continues to be involved as a representative of the Satmar community.
*The above story is based on a Google Translated version of Mr. Stern’s recent newsletter. Typos, spelling errors, and other crazy bullshit belong to him and Google.