Hate Group Continues Lawsuit Against Washingtonville School District

If the United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove is successful, taxpayers across New York will need to pay the steep cost for busing children on whatever schedule religious groups want.

I reached out to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) yesterday.

They monitor hate groups and anti-government extremists throughout the United States.

I asked the SPLC whether or not United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove qualifies as a hate group given their consistent messaging that state:

1. Jewish people who oppose them are “half-Jews.”

2. Non-Jewish people who oppose them are bigots and anti-semites engaged in a “conspiracy of hate,” in addition to the use of Yiddish slang attacking non-Jews in official statements and online postings in places such as Ivelt.com and their WhatsApp channel.

Here is how SPLC defines a hate group, and for your information, I also added some helpful links that demonstrate UJC’s hateful actions.

A hate group is an organization that—based on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities—has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics. We do not list individuals as hate groups, only organizations. The organizations on the SPLC list vilify others because of their race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity—prejudices that strike at the heart of our democratic values and fracture society along its most fragile fault lines. The FBI uses similar criteria in its definition of a hate crime: [A] criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity. [Emphasis and links added.]

Under both the FBI’s definition, and the SPLC’s, United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove is a hate group.

Hence the headline: Hate Group Continues Lawsuit Against Washingtonville School District

So today, I’m going to briefly follow-up on the court case of United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove vs. Washingtonville School District. If you live in New York State, the actions of this hate group could have a tremendous impact on your wallet.

I want to remind everyone of a few key points about United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove (herein just UJC.)

First, it is not a registered non-profit organization.

I requested the three most recent Form 990s from the UJC, and not only did I not get a reply, they deleted their English language website after receiving my request.

However, the Yiddish language version of the website is still active:

Despite not being a registered non-profit, the UJC continues to hold fundraisers, as we see here from March:

There IS a United Jewish Community of Orange County non-profit registered and active with the IRS.

And Mr. Yitzhok Ekstein, aka Isaac Ekstein, who is the founder of the United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove, also operates this second group.

But it’s not clear what the distinction between these two groups are, if any, since Mr. Ekstein is using his home address in the filings.

So, it’s possible the money made from UJC is going into the UJC of Orange County accounts, but that needs to be further investigated.

(Note: I have requested the 990s for UJC of Orange County, and wouldn’t you know it, I never received a response back on that either.)

However, to be clear, there is no registered non-profit known as the United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove, which is the name of the plaintiff suing the Washingtonville Central School District.

Paid Town & Village Employees Suing School District That Serve Constituents

Second, Mr. Ekstein is the president of the UJC.

He is also a paid employee of the Village of South Blooming Grove, which is served by the Washingtonville School District.

Mr. Ekstein serves as Mayor Kalaj’s Legislative Aide and is paid nearly as much as Town Board members in Monroe make, despite South Blooming Grove being much smaller than the Town of Monroe.

Mr. Stern, who serves as the de facto mayor of South Blooming Grove, is also a paid employee of the Village and often identified as a founder of the UJC. He is paid as much as Mr. Ekstein by Village taxpayers.

Although not a named plaintiff in the lawsuit against Washingtonville, Blooming Grove Town Councilman Simon Schwartz gave sworn testimony in this case stating he is also a member of the UJC.

That means an organization, the Town Councilman is involved with, is suing the school district that services the children of the Town he represents.

If the lawsuit is successful, Mr. Schwartz’s organization will cost local school district residents a fortune in additional busing costs.

So just to be clear then:

The plaintiffs in the court case against Washingtonville are two paid village employees, and one elected Town official, suing the school district that serves all of their constituents.

And as already highlighted at the start of this post, you have two paid village employees of South Blooming Grove, and one elected official from Blooming Grove, actively involved in a hate group under the definition of both the FBI and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The Lawsuit

Third, and finally, the lawsuit has ramifications that will impact taxpayers across New York State.

The UJC has, once again, put out false statements explaining that the cost of providing busing for students attending yeshivas is minimal. (You’ll need to use Google Translate to read the announcement.)

A key highlight from that page read:

“The transportation for these days does not even have any additional costs for the school district.” (This is a lie.)

“Because it is balanced with the days that the institutions are not open. […] The school district is fighting tooth and nail not to pay for the 21 days, which it does by costing the local residents Ahino Bnei Israel, hundreds of thousands of dollars in collections per year.” (Also a lie.)

I have some pretty extensive coverage coming of the UJC v. Washingtonville Lawsuit. But in brief, the court case comes down to this:

-Stern, Ekstein, and Schwartz want Washingtonville to provide busing to their children, and other children attending yeshivas, on days when the school district is closed.

-Currently, New York State law provides for busing of all children in their school district, regardless of whether or not they go to public school.

Except on days when the public schools are closed.

If the hate group’s lawsuit is successful, it will mean that school districts have to provide all children busing, even when school districts are closed.

This would include providing busing during Winter Recess, Spring Break, and Summer Break. It would also mean providing busing on Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and other holidays in New York not recognized by religious groups.

It would also mean providing busing throughout the evening, or during any other time dictated by religious groups.

This isn’t hyperbole.

I spoke with Jay Worona, who is the general counsel for the New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA), and he described the cost to all taxpayers across New York as “astronomical” to pay for busing that would be dictated by religious groups throughout the state.

Mr. Worona also sent me a 30 page legal brief that NYSSBA has sent to the court concerning the UJC v. Washingtonville that lays out what I briefly explained here.

I’ll have more on this legal brief soon.

For now, if you know someone with children in the Washingtonville school district, you should alert them to this story.

The case is about to get underway before New York State’s highest court later this month.

Blooming Grove and South Blooming Grove residents, serviced by Washingtonville School District, have a right to know what their elected (and unelected) representatives are doing through their fake not-for-profit/hate group.