One Final Letter to the DEC

One additional letter you can send to the DEC in advance of the public hearings on Keen Equities LLC and the Clovewood property.

This is a long post, so we’re going to jump right into things. I am sending this letter to the DEC on Monday morning, and will share parts of this during the 2pm public hearing on Wednesday, April 3rd. I don’t know how much time I will have to speak, so I’m providing the entire letter for you to read here.

If you live in Cornwall or downstream from Clovewood, you can send this email to the DEC.

If you live in Blooming Grove, Monroe, or Woodbury, you can send this letter.

And, of course, you can copy and paste the letter below and also send it if you prefer. Remember: The deadline to send your email is April 5th at 5pm.

Send to: DEP.R3@dec.ny.gov

Subject Line: Keen Equities LLC Broke The Law

Dear Mrs. O’Malley,

I realize that you have already heard from me on the subject of Keen Equities LLC and their DEC permit requests.

Since I wrote to you, some new and troubling information has come to light. I feel it’s imperative to share this information with your office ahead of the public hearings to be held on Wednesday, April 3rd.

Specifically, I want to make you aware of claims and statements made by an organization known as United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove (UJC). This is an organization where Confidential Assistant to the Mayor of South Blooming Grove, Mr. Joel M. Stern serves as a board member. This is also an organization where Legislative Aide to the Mayor of South Blooming Grove, Isaac Ekstein, aka Yitzchok Eckstein, serves as the chairman. Both men are currently paid employees of the Village of South Blooming Grove.

After requesting the three most recent Form 990s of the UJC — which they are obligated to provide under federal law — the organization’s website was taken down and my request was ignored. After several weeks without reply, I filed IRS Form 211, to formally report this organization for non-compliance.

Due to the length of this email, I’ve broken it into two parts.

First, I’d like to share with you what I’ve found on Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein. Then, I’d like to discuss the comments made by their organization, United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove. Most likely, you will hear these exact talking points echoed from associates of the UJC during the virtual hearings on Wednesday, April 3rd. I’d like to show you in advance why these claims are false.

Regrettably, Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein’s extensive disinformation campaign has touched members of both the Haredi community and non-Haredi alike in Southern Orange County. It’s time for the record to be corrected.

It is at all of our expense, Jew, and non-Jew, that these two men and their associates have fattened their wallets.

Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein

In the case of Mr. Joel Stern, he is self-identified as the Chief Operations Officer of Windsor Global. This is a company claiming to do business out of 601 Lehigh Avenue in Union, New Jersey. However, since April of 2021, Windsor Global and Mr. Stern’s Enterprise Realty Associates were evicted from this building by the township of Union for the following reasons: Violations include the outdoor storage of tractor trailers and permitting trucks to park on the property without applying for the proper approval; maintaining dangerous conditions liable to cause or contribute to the spread of fire and the obstruction of fire escapes, stairs, etc. liable to interfere with egress in case of fire; hazardous conditions arising from defective or improperly installed electrical wiring; improperly installed equipment for handling combustible, explosive material, and a dangerous amount of combustible, explosive or otherwise hazardous materials.

Windsor Global is operated by a man named Jacob Gold, who is self-identified as the president of this company. Mr. Stern is his Chief Operations Officer. Mr. Y.C. Rubin, who’s name appears on all filings with the DEC as Keen Equities’s manager, is also an employee of Windsor Global. In 2010, Mr. Gold and a group of real estate investors lost in court to have the Village of South Blooming Grove dissolved. They requested this on the grounds that claimed the creation of the village was driven by bigots and anti-semites. After Mr. Gold and the developers lost in court, Mr. Gold, the Clovewood developer Zigmond Brach, and other participants in that lawsuit formed Keen Equities LLC. The company whose permit requests you are now deciding on.

After the Greene family attempted to foreclose on the Clovewood property — which they owned until the sale of the land to Keen Equities, and Keen was required to make regularly scheduled payments on — Keen Equities filed for bankruptcy protection in 2013. Mr. Y.C. Rubin informed the judge that the company would send “a new team to negotiate with the Town” and find a solution that would get the development of the property going. It is clear now that this new team was Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein.

As you are well aware with the numerous DEC fines and violations, things did not proceed smoothly. That is when Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein relocated to South Blooming Grove from the Village of Kiryas Joel, now known as the Town of Palm Tree. One of the first acts committed by Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein was to form the UJC. Then, they proceeded to sue the Washingtonville School district so that the school district would be required to provide busing to children attending yeshivas when the school district was otherwise closed. This request would violate the laws of New York State, and the court later agreed when ruling in favor of Washingtonville. The cost to local taxpayers in Blooming Grove, South Blooming Grove, and Washingtonville to fight this lawsuit is not yet known, but was no doubt substantial.

Then, Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein began an extensive lobbying campaign, including a meeting with former LT. Governor Brian Benjamin, to veto a law passed by both houses of New York State government. This bill would have allowed for a tax to be placed on real estate purchases that would then be used to preserve open space in the Town of Blooming Grove. They were successful in their efforts as Governor Hochul vetoed the bill at the end of December in 2021. In a statement to The Jewish Press, the UJC representatives, Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein stated, “Everyone in today’s day and age in this geographical area knows that the term “Preservation” and “Comprehensive Moratoriums” is the 21st century code word and dog whistle to keep Chasidic Jews out from an area.” Throughout 2020, 2021, and 2022, Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein described the residents of South Blooming Grove and the surrounding area as anti-semitic. A practice both men continue to do to this day whenever they encounter even the slightest hint of opposition. I have no doubt that you will hear this claim repeated during the public hearing.

Mr. Stern served as the campaign manager for Mayor George Kalaj. Mr. Kalaj had previously tried to sell his home, but suddenly pulled it off the market just before his run for mayor in September of 2020. Earlier that year, on April 13th, 2020, Windsor Global — using the company’s original name of Arenburg Electronics Corporation — received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan from the federal government in an amount ranging between $150,000 and $350,000. How that money was spent is not yet known, but it is possible that the money found its way into the coffers of UJC to be used for this election, which may be why the organization will not willingly disclose its Form 990s. Regardless, given that the old name of the company was used to access these funds, this PPP request is now a matter of investigation by the IRS Criminal Investigation Unit, FBI, the Small Business Administration (SBA), and the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division’s fraud unit.

The following year, Mr. Stern, Mr. Ekstein, and the UJC organization orchestrated a case of alleged election fraud that Orange County District Attorney, David Hoovler, reported to the FBI for further investigation. The case concerned the registration of over 700 voters to a single address in the Village of South Blooming Grove. Although there are other reported attempts at election fraud, I cannot speak to those claims at this time. What I can say is that after Mr. Stern was successful overtaking the South Blooming Grove Village Board, Mayor George Kalaj fired the entire Village of South Blooming Grove Planning Board. Not long after, Mr. Kalaj’s home was sold for 890% of its market value in 2022.

As you know, the Village of South Blooming Grove and the Village of South Blooming Grove Planning Board shared lead agency status concerning the Clovewood project. In August of 2022, at a meeting held at 12pm in the afternoon and with little public notice, the Village and Planning Board voted to move ahead with the Clovewood project.

During this time, Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein became subject to two lawsuits. Blooming Grove Realty LLC, 815 UC LLC, BNB Management LLC, and John Liebermann v. Rapid Properties LLC, Preferred Estates Realty LLC, Five Star Medical Group Inc., Joel Stern, and Isaac Ekstein and Gina Cappelli and Forme Medical Cneter, Inc. d/b/a Forme’ Medical Center and Urgent Vare v. Joel Stern and Yitzchok (Isaac) Ekstein.

The first lawsuit accuses Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein, while working as Village of South Blooming Grove employees, of duping John Liebermann out of $125,000. This money may have been used to pay off fines accrued by Mr. Stern’s business in Union, New Jersey that he had to pay to that state. Sworn testimony provided in the lawsuit also accuse Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein of harassing employees of Mr. Liebermann’s Rapid Care Inc. business located in South Blooming Grove. This harassment includes tampering with medical specimens created by patients of Rapid Care, which is a crime.

The second lawsuit against Mr. Ekstein and Mr. Stern involve false, damaging, claims made by both men to employees of Forme’ Medical Center while they pretended to try and buy the business from Mrs. Cappelli. But that is not the only lawsuit Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein are now involved with. Both men, and the Village of South Blooming Grove, are now under investigation by the New York State Comptroller’s office for illegally attempting to create a garbage district within the Village of South Blooming Grove while one already existed that was managed by the Town. Emails revealed to the public between the Blooming Grove Town Supervisor Robert C. Jeroloman and Mr. Stern reveal a reckless disregard for the rule of law by Mr. Stern in trying to negotiate the creation of this new garbage district.

In addition, while serving in his capacity of what Mr. Stern described as “Assistant Mayor” to News 12’s Blaise Gomez, the Village of South Blooming Grove began clear cutting and construction of a road on Orange County owned land in Gonzaga Park. This too is now the subject of a lawsuit between the Village of South Blooming Grove and Orange County. Mr. Stern’s slander of Mrs. Gomez was also the subject of a defamation lawsuit that she probably should have won, given the repeated tactic of Mr. Stern to describe all of his enemies as anti-semites. A point we will return to later.

But for now, we return to Clovewood. As you know, Keen Equities did not obey the law, and was subject to multiple fines, violations, and stop work orders issued by the DEC. After speaking with Mr. Dennis Slattery of the DEC’s Public Information office, Mr. Slattery identified two additional violations by Keen Equities LLC that followed issuance of the stop work orders in March of 2023. One of which was as recent as March of this year. The other, in June of 2023, has resulted in yet another lawsuit. According to this lawsuit, while illegal work continued at the Clovewood property, Mr. Guilmar Montufar suffered permanent injury. This injury is now the center of a lawsuit known as Guilmar Montufar v. Keen Equities LLC.

There’s more. But as I write this, I’m still in the process of gathering additional information. So let’s turn our attention to United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove, and the claims they are making to the Yiddish speaking residents of Blooming Grove, Kiryas Joel, and other Satmar communities located in New York and New Jersey.

Misinformation From The UJC

(Pictured above: The UJC claims Clovewood’s development would alleviate South Blooming Grove’s water issues and the housing crisis impacting Haredi in the Satmar community. Neither claim is true, but the UJC urges members to repeat these claims during the April 3rd public hearing.)

First, the UJC continues to refer to South Blooming Grove as a city. It is not. It is the Village of South Blooming Grove until such a time that all of the residents choose to change its status. Implying that South Blooming Grove is already a city, or “New Kiryas Joel” as it has been described in media outlets such as The KJ Weekly, misleads both the Haredi and non-Haredi community about the nature of the village and its surrounding area.

In documentation obtained from whistleblowers in the Yiddish speaking community, the UJC has informed residents that the DEC’s virtual public hearing are in violation of New York State’s open meetings law because, they claim, these meetings must be held in a private format and those who want to participate must do so in person. This is false.

(Pictured above: Misleading claims about how meetings work here in New York State.)

The UJC also claims that there is no reason for there to be a DEC public hearing. The DEC hearing is described as a wrong perpetrated against the community and part of a conspiracy by outsiders.

Additional documentation distributed by Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein under the guise of the UJC state that the Clovewood project would benefit the Satmar community by increasing the water supply. This flies in the face of the ongoing water restrictions that South Blooming Grove has operated under since 2019. In fact, the issues concerning clean drinking water date back to the 1960s in the Town of Blooming Grove. Residents of South Blooming Grove have also highlighted potentially false and misleading information in the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) concerning the water supply and potential wells identified by Keen Equities LLC.

Today, residents have taken photos of their brown drinking water to highlight the ongoing issues and shortages of their water supply. It is more likely that further development of Clovewood would endanger not only current residents, but future residents of the community as well.

The UJC also claims the Clovewood development would help alleviate the shortage of affordable housing that impact not only the Haredi community, but everyone across New York State This couldn’t be further from the truth. Instead of high density housing, which I agree is needed, Clovewood is projected to produce 600 single family homes. Single-family homes are often identified as the root cause of America’s current housing crisis. 75% of housing in the United States, for example, is zoned for single family homes. Strict single family zoning has artificially raised prices and made home ownership out of reach for millions. Under no circumstances would the construction of 600 single family homes help the Haredi community or any community deal with this urgent housing crisis. What the creation of these homes would do is make Mr. Stern, Mr. Ekstein, and their associates rich.

(Above: UJC claiming Clovewood is the target of an active hate campaign by “half-Jews” — that would be me in their view — and anti-semites, that would be most of you reading this.)

In Closing

Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein, since their arrival to South Blooming Grove, have continued to paint the residents of the area as hateful anti-semites. This was the same tactic utilized by Mr. Jacob Gold, Mr. Stern’s boss at Windsor Global, during the original lawsuit filed in 2009. In the UJC message pictured above, the residents writing to you with concerns about Keen Equities LLC and Clovewood are claimed to be engaged in a campaign of hate, who oppose Clovewood’s development because it is meant to be a home for the Jewish people.

As a Jew, I’d like to touch on this for a moment. The United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove does not represent me. It does not represent all Jews. It does not represent all Haredi. This organization exists only to represent the financial interests of Mr. Stern, Mr. Ekstein, Mr. Gold, and the associated real estate interests who have tried for nearly 20 years to bring the Clovewood development to life.

The only people trying to make this an issue concerning religion are the people with financial interest in Clovewood’s completion.

There is no doubt that anti-semites live in Orange County. And there is no doubt some of those hateful individuals would like nothing more than to stop Clovewood from being developed. However. Much in the same way that Mr. Ekstein and Mr. Stern’s actions are criminal, it cannot be said that all members of the Satmar community are criminals.

Therefore, while true that there are anti-semites in this community, it is also true that many of the people who have written to you are not anti-semitic. That they do not hate their current and future neighbors in the Haredi community. That the concerns they raise with you are not born out of anti-semitism, but out of a legitimate concern for the environment in a world where the planet continues to warm.

All people, according to the United Nations, have the right to clean water. Mr. Stern, Mr. Ekstein, as well as their associates, wish to deny that right to everyone, Haredi and non-Haredi alike. Their claims that Clovewood would relieve the water crisis in South Blooming Grove are false. Their claims that Clovewood would relieve the housing shortage in the Satmar community are false. Their claims that the DEC has somehow tried to obstruct their project out of bigotry and anti-semitism is false.

Mr. Stern, Mr. Ekstein, Keen Equities LLC, and their associates have participated in an ongoing criminal conspiracy. One that should have been disrupted long ago by Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler and New York State Attorney General Letitia James. Given their failure to act — which will result some day in a lawsuit given the denial of due process entitled to residents of South Blooming Grove under the Fourteenth Amendment — we look to you, the DEC, to finally bring this issue to a close.

For that reason, I am requesting you deny Keen Equities their permit request. And I am also asking that you revoke all permits already granted to Keen Equities LLC.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

(Put your name here)