This Is Why Everyone Thinks Our Community Is Antisemitic

If you want to know why the larger media outlets won't write about East Ramapo, or South Blooming Grove, or places like Forestburgh, Woodbury Town Councilman, Brandon Calore, provided an answer.

Today was supposed to be a research and development day on several stories I’m working on, but then something dumb happened, and I need to (briefly) report on it.

But this weekend, one of you had a great question, which was, “Why doesn’t larger media outlets cover what’s happening in South Blooming Grove / East Ramapo / Forestburgh?”

So, please forgive me for the short post today, but I’d like to answer that question by way of example in Woodbury.

We’ve discussed Woodbury Town Councilman, Brandon Calore, before. He’s the guy on the far right in this picture with State Senator James G. Skoufis:

If you recall, Councilman Brandon Calore was accused by at least two eyewitnesses — and as documented in a police report — of assaulting a disabled teenager at the height of the pandemic — after being asked to put on a mask. This happened during America’s largest disaster, where over a million people died, and over 315,000 people died preventable deaths because of disinformation concerning the benefits of masking and vaccinations.

(Senator Skoufis did not reply to a request for comment about his decision to take this recent picture with Councilman Calore, while simultaneously questioning the integrity of the Mayor of Woodbury that he still, to this day, refuses to meet with.)

More recently, after voting in favor of a resolution to give the part-time Woodbury Town Supervisor, Kathryn Luciani, full-time pay, Calore voted in favor of amending the Town of Woodbury Ethics Code to allow the Town Board members to hire their children. This came despite widespread protest from the residents of the Town as seen here:

So, why are we talking about the Councilman again today? How does he answer our reader question?

Woodbury Town Councilman Brandon Calore is the owner of a Facebook Group called Woodbury Connections. Here he is, being thanked for starting the group back in 2018:

And here he is, listed as an Admin for the Group in a screenshot this morning.

Despite recent changes to the Town of Woodbury Ethics Code, at the time of this writing, there is still a section in there prohibiting discrimination or association with groups allowing for discrimination:

Specifically, the Woodbury Town Code says:

“Discrimination. No board member, Town employee or Town consultant of the Town or of any service or other organization chartered by or directly or indirectly sponsored or supported by the Town shall:

Discriminate or cause involuntary segregation, directly or indirectly, based upon creed, color, national origin, sex or disability or allow the preceding to be factors affecting the recruitment, selection, placement, assignment, compensation or promotion of any Town officer, Town Board member, Planning Board member, Zoning Board of Appeals member, Town employee or member of such service or other organization.” (Emphasis Added.)

With me so far? Because here we have an elected Town Councilman serving as an admin for a Facebook Group, that’s allowed for comments like this to be published:

At the time of this writing, despite being asked to remove the above comment, Councilman Calore has not done so.

The penalty for such a violation in the Woodbury Town Code reads as follows:

§ 39-10Penalties for offenses.

In addition to any penalty contained in any other provision of law, any board member, Town officer or Town consultant who shall knowingly and intentionally violate any of the provisions of this code may be fined, reprimanded, suspended or removed from office or employment in the manner provided by law.” (Emphasis Added.)

Now, let’s take a minute to unpack that anonymous comment above with a quick fact check:

-It’s suggesting that the newly appointed Chair of the Woodbury Ethics Committee has "cozied up" to our Haredi friends and neighbors, implying an age-old antisemitic conspiracy theory in our region and around the world that my fellow Jews and I somehow run the world and that we’re some kind of “other” that is not worthy of trust.

-It also implies malicious intent on the part of the Haredi community in Woodbury, which the Town Board member represents.

-Mr. Calore, as a Town Board member, must also work hand in hand with our Haredi brothers and sisters in Kiryas Joel to ensure peaceful relations and good cooperation between our respective communities. Do you think allowing for comments like this in a Facebook Group he owns and operates achieves that goal? The answer is a definitive no.

(The Monroe Gazette has reached out to Kiryas Joel Administrator, Gedayal Szegedin, for comment about this anonymous comment and Councilman Calore allowing it to run on his Facebook group.)

-The "Anti-Semitic BS” in this comment refers to a lawsuit, and countersuit, wherein a few Haredi residents of Highland Lake Estates shared their desire to push out the secular residents. This lawsuit, and subsequent investigations, found that the three Haredi Board members, along with former Woodbury Planning Board member, Richard Cattagio and former Woodbury Building Inspector, Michael Panella, colluded to provide exclusive benefits and preferential treatment to our Haredi friends and neighbors at the expense of secular residents. This investigation by The Monroe Gazette resulted in the removal of Mr. Panella and Mr. Cattagio from their respective positions in the Village.

-The gentleman slandered in this Facebook post is a former NYPD officer. There is no evidence anywhere to suggest that he "tried to keep them out” nor that he pulled over anyone, at any point, using any sort of lights to do so. Upon seeing this comment, they and their wife reached out to all of the admins of this group, including Councilman Calore, and requested that it be removed. At the time of this writing, the comment was not removed.

It’s worth noting that just last week, we marked the anniversary of 9/11, when the Woodbury Ethics Chair coordinated personnel in a supervisory role with the Joint Terrorism Task Force to respond to the attacks. I guess “Never Forget” only lasts a week in Woodbury.

It’s astounding to me that an elected official would operate a Facebook Group with what appears to be very little, to zero, moderation in place within a community that is constantly dealing with a poor perception issue. Not to mention, a community facing a high probability of lawsuits claiming antisemitism over its recent decision to extend its building moratorium.

For that reason, before we move on, I want to stress that Woodbury residents should request Councilman Brandon Calore be removed from office for allowing a safe space for hate within a local Facebook Group that he owns and operates.

Because while this seems like a minor point, what just happened here harms Woodbury residents and everyone else in the Hudson Valley.

Here’s how:

“Look At Those Racist Rednecks”

I’ve worked in PR, Marketing, and Journalism since 1998. I’ll do my best to boil down an incredibly lengthy and complicated answer to our reader question as briefly as possible: “Why won’t larger media outlets cover what’s going on in our region with some of the bad actors in the Haredi community?”

So, due to budget constraints, the need for speed, the need for a great visual or hook, and the need for a lot of people to approve a story before it can get made, most stories need to fit into a narrative box.

This way, when the story is pitched, if it fits into the box? It’s more likely to get approved for publication by the editors and producers.

If it doesn’t? Most reporters won’t bother pitching the story because it doesn’t “fit” into the narrative.

This concept is laid out in Drew Curtis’s book, “It’s Not News, It’s Fark.”

Obviously, there are exceptions. And, of course “Not all journalists …”

But. A lot of journalists. Especially at the bigger media outlets.

And since the 1970s, most stories involving our Haredi friends and neighbors in South Eastern New York falls into the narrative box called “Look at those racist rednecks.”

More specifically, “Look at those racist rednecks picking on the Haredi just trying to get by and read the Torah in peace.”

Is that fair? Is that true? Sometimes it is! Just look at our story today.

Other times, like with South Blooming Grove and East Ramapo? Not so much.

The thing is, every time you see a story like the one today, where a Town Councilman runs a Facebook group that permits the publication of hateful comments, that makes it SO MUCH HARDER to pitch a story like what’s happening in South Blooming Grove.

Because if you’re based in New York City, and you think the world ends at the Lincoln Tunnel, you’re not going to differentiate between South Blooming Grove and Woodbury.

You’re just going to read today’s story and go, “Wow. Look at those racist rednecks. They get what they deserve.”

Now do you understand why it’s so important that we, as a community across multiple counties, need to be VERY active and vocal in calling out bad actors like Councilman Calore? Because let’s be clear about what happened here today: A Town Councilman who represents a big chunk of Haredi residents, operates a Facebook Group with apparently zero moderation, allowing for comments like this to get broadcasted out in the world and leave the Town vulnerable to future lawsuits claiming discrimination.

We all need to be and do so much better than that. Especially if you want journalists to look into these issues.

Because if we don’t, it makes it nigh impossible to get anyone to take a closer look at the ongoing situations up here.

I hope that answers your question, dear reader, and I hope that encourages the rest of you reading this to be active, be vocal, and make sure we flush out the bad actors.

Otherwise, things won’t change for the people of South Blooming Grove or East Ramapo.

Not as long as we serve up these ready-made examples like Councilman Calore just did, again placing us into the wrong narrative box.