Proving Ownership of The Blooming Grove Report In The Dumbest Way Possible

We have an old law from the 1990s to thank for confirming the publisher of The Blooming Grove Report. Can you guess which one?

Upon discovering the existence of The Blooming Grove Report — thanks to one of our Monroe Gazette readers — I reached out to the NYC American Civil Liberties Union (NYCACLU), the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), and Americans United for the Separation of the Church of State(AU), the Anti-Defamation League, People for the American Way, and the Church of Satan.

🎶 One of these things is not like the other … 🎶

The Anti-Defamation League wrote me back to acknowledge getting the email, but then I never heard from them again. That’s too bad. The ADL were huge supporters of the Separation of Church and State. So much so, that they participated in the Supreme Court case against Kiryas Joel in 1994. The ADL sided with Louis Grumet, former Executive Direction of the New York State School Boards Association, saying that the Kiryas Joel school district is a violation of the federal constitution’s establishment clause.

Grumet and the ADL were right then, and they were right now. Something that, in a perfect world, would be revisited given the $94M the school district received in COVID-19 relief funds that they refuse to account for. To say nothing of frequent complaints of unsafe bus operations by Monroe and Woodbury residents.

Of course. We don’t live in a perfect world. When it comes to New York State politics, hanhallah has a stranglehold on the New York State Democratic Party, and the Republicans have become so insane, not even tried and true Republicans want to vote for their own candidates.

So, hanhallah does what it wants, more or less unencumbered.

That includes violating the Establishment Clause, yet again, with The Blooming Grove Report.

But you might be asking … How can we prove it’s the Village of South Blooming Grove producing this publication?

The NYCACLU, the AU, and the FFRF all had that same question. The Church of Satan, sadly, never wrote me back.

The other three asked: Can you prove that The Blooming Grove Report is an official publication of the Village of South Blooming Grove.

Until this week, we could only go on speculation: The colors, logo, and imagery were exactly the same from what The Village was putting out to its English language residents.

But that’s coincidence, and good prosecutors want a sure thing.

That brings us to the US CAN-SPAM Act.

This is a federal law that governs the use of email messages sent and received in the United Space. It was born out of the bad old days of the Internet. I mean, not that today is much better, but back then, the corporations weren’t in charge.

So, if you wanted to make millions of dollars spamming people through email, you could. These days, you still can, but it’s much harder to do it within the United States.

What’s important to know about CAN-SPAM is that it requires a mailing address to be used in order to send “bulk” email (anything that’s being sent to more than one person, basically.)

If it’s an invalid address, or missing address, most email service providers (ESPs, but not the psychic kind) will not deliver your email message.

So, the physical address must to be legit. Otherwise you face penalties that could reach nearly $52,000 per email sent with a fake address.

Some newsletter, like The Monroe Gazette, use a PO Box. PO Boxes are fine.

But The Blooming Grove Report? Well, let’s look at that first issue sent by email and see what address they used …

Yeah. That’s the address of the Village of South Blooming Grove’s Village Hall: 811 Route 208, Monroe, NY, 10950.

The headline, which is not a 100% accurate translation, is something like: Village Water Update - Friday Parshat Noah (Parshat Noah is the part of the Torah that was better depicted in Evan Almighty. A sequel film that had Lorelei Gilmore and virtually nothing else going for it.)

I want to be clear: Google Translate is maybe 70% accurate. And it isn’t good at capturing certain nuances in Yiddish and Hebrew. So, while I recommend using it, I want to caution people to not take what it says as the final translation.

Therefore, take my translations in this post with a grain of salt. They’re mostly right, but it’s not 100%.

The rest of the BGR’s first email issue simply contains a message from the Village Water Department, and it says, more or less, “Special notice to the public. All unpaid water and sewer balances will be added to your 2024 Village property tax on November 1st. With understanding, The Village Water Department.”

So, right out of the gate, there’s a village department using the BGR to communicate financial notices to the Village’s Yiddish speaking residents.

The mailing address for Village Hall is used in every single issue, up until the BGR stopped publishing, via email, on April 5th, 2024.

Probably because of the CAN-SPAM address requirement where you’re legally obligated to use a legit mailing address.

If the Village can publish the BGR through message boards and WhatsApp, then the CAN-SPAM address rule no longer applies.

And that’s what happened.

After people in the Village started to ask Village officials about who makes the BGR, The Blooming Grove Report is now distributed through private WhatsApp channels and message boards like here on Ivelt.com

Here’s the latest issue, which was not sent by email.

Also of note: The same person publishes both the UJC newsletter and the BGR newsletter on Ivelt.com with the screen name, Written and spoken. That user joined Ivelt.com on September 20th, 2023 at 2:16pm. This account is responsible for almost all of the posts of the BGR.

This BGR is reminding people to properly put their garbage in the garbage can, otherwise Marangi Disposal won’t touch it. (Also, the issue with the garbage is a whole second level of crazy that we’ve barely touched on. But here’s News 12’s coverage of it. Long story short, the New York State Comptroller’s office is now involved.)

But the BGR pre-dates the email account.

How do we know this?

Because the first issue of the BGR was published on The Official Village of Blooming Grove WhatsApp account. Here’s the original link they used.

Notice where that link now takes you? Yup. Back to The Village of South Blooming Grove’s WhatsApp channel.

The first issue of the BGR was published via WhatsApp and Ivelt.com on May 9th, 2023.

On Tuesday, May 9th, 2023, a user on Ivelt.com posted this screenshot at 10:58pm.

Loose Translation:

“Important notice! It is with great joy that we announce to the general public and local residents of South Blooming Grove that we will soon begin a new format and method of communication to keep the public informed with news and updates about the happenings in South Blooming Grove on the Yiddish language, from a village perspective. The new means are provided to strengthen the communication and to share the local news with the public, so that people understand and know the work that’s done for the benefit of the public, in general and in particular. The updates will be available on messages and email platform. We are also working on the options to receive the information by mail and in the synagogues. With respect, The Village Board.” (Emphasis Added)

At 4:22pm, the same user had published the first issue of the BGR on Ivelt.com (pictured above) using the username Blooming c. And Blooming c would publish A LOT concerning the UJC, South Blooming Grove, and …

The Washingtonville lawsuit:

So, Here’s A Fun Curve Ball …

You know what else Blooming c posted on Ivelt.com? The UJC newsletter. See for yourself here. Blooming c would post under this name until May 10th, 2023, at 10:40pm. Then, Written and Spoken would take over posting in September.

Sadly, I can’t yet answer the security question on Ivelt.com, so I haven’t been able to look at Written and Spoken’s posting archive.

But wouldn’t you know it, Blooming c also posted ads to Rapid Care, a business owned by … Isaac Ekstein and Joel Stern.

As we’ve documented thus far, The Village of South Blooming Grove is essentially run by Joel Stern and Isaac aka Yitzchok Ekstein.

Both men are unelected, paid village employees, and both men started the local hate group, United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove.

Stern acts as the De Facto Mayor for South Blooming Grove.

And The UJC calls its newsletter … The Blooming Grove Voice.

Mr. Stern and Ekstein do not get points for originality.

Especially when, if you look real close at the UJC newsletter, and then real close at The Blooming Grove Report, you’ll notice it’s the same layout and design with some small changes (like the header image).

Look closely at the background:

It’s the same as The Blooming Grove Report, meaning most likely the same person is putting out the UJC and BGR newsletters using the same templates, and I’m willing to bet, the same computer to do it.

Most likely at Village Hall, but also potentially at the UJC headquarters at 29 Merriewold Lane South, Monroe, NY 10950.

Ok, but who writes this thing?

We’re still not sure who at Village Hall publishes The Blooming Grove Report but it reads a lot like The Blooming Grove Voice.

For example, both publications put down the previous administration and praising the new one (Stern). Both also have advocated for local residents to participate in the DEC hearings on behalf of Keen Equities LLC.

The two publications are near mirror images of each other, aside from the advertising that the UJC newsletter carries for it’s definitely not legit non-profit. (I can say that because the IRS revoked their status for not filing the appropriate forms every year.)

I have a FOIL request in. The FOIL request is to find out who knew about the BGR, and who is responsible for publishing it.

Funny enough, this request was ignored until News12 ran a story that originated here at The Monroe Gazette: The Orange County Health Department is pissed!

And by pissed, I mean they’ve sent a couple of stern letters to The Village stating that they are not in compliance with their water system, putting everyone in danger, and they better fix it.

Or else?

Well. Not exactly.

You see, I reached out to the engineer who wrote that letter (you can see the latest one here from 2023), and Orange County will NOT let me speak to him.

Mary Pat Smith, new assistant to Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus, wrote me back after I requested an interview to say:

Good afternoon, Mr. Mendelson,

There will be no interviews. The County Health Department is monitoring this matter and makes its oversight and enforcement decisions in an open and transparent fashion.

You may have access to those decisions upon request. [Emphasis Added.]

So, of course, I wrote back:

Hi Mary,

Thank you for your reply. So, in the spirit of oversight and enforcement decisions made in an open and transparent fashion. Can you answer the following:

1. When is the deadline for South Blooming Grove to be in compliance with the violations noted by Mr. Gagnon in his September 5th, 2023 letter?

2. Was the Village ever penalized for failure to adhere to the deficiencies noted in the 2022 letter sent to the Village Board by Mr. Gagnon?

3. Will there be any further extensions given to the Village of  South Blooming Grove to comply? How many have they received thus far?

To nobody’s surprise, Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus and his team want to say they’ll operate in “an an open and transparent fashion” but then won’t answer questions from reporters in an open and transparent fashion.

Wait. What About That Financial Penalty?

Right. So, for each email sent with a fake mailing address, the sender can face up around $54,000 per email sent.

That means, in the event the BGR was sent from the UJC headquarters, and they used the Village’s address instead of their own, they are liable for up to $51,744 per email. With 20 emails sent, that would be just over a $1,000,000 in penalties.

So. I think it came out of the Village. Nobody can be that stupid … Right?

… Right?

Why am I saying it’s coming from the Village?

Because the March 8th, 2024 BGR used an image that I know was designed and created by the South Blooming Grove Village Clerk. I know this because the Clerk sent me the exact flyer when I asked why it wasn’t on the village website

And here’s the one I was sent:

Yeah. You’re not going to have that graphic unless you work for The Village or asked for the Village to provide it to you.

So, there you have it.

The BGR is published by the Village of South Blooming Grove.

Once people in the Village caught on, they stopped using email because of the CAN-SPAM address requirement, and now distribute it electronically through WhatsApp and Ivelt.com

Now, will the ACLU, the FFRF, and the AU join the fight on behalf of residents of South Blooming Grove and lovers of the separation of church and state?

Stick around and let’s find out together.