Upstate NY legal dispute underlines ongoing Hasidic community growing pains

NEW YORK — New York State Attorney General Letitia James came out in support of federal intervention in a dispute over a Jewish housing development in the Catskills region, in a local conflict that has highlighted ongoing growing pains for Hasidic communities around New York City and alleged antisemitism in small towns.

James issued a warning to officials in the town of Forestburgh who have allegedly blocked Hasidic Jews from building homes in the community. She called the allegations “profoundly disturbing” and said that, if proven true, the claims would violate the federal Fair Housing Act.

“Discrimination on the basis of religion, race, national origin, or other protected characteristics — whether explicit or cloaked in pretext — is not only illegal but fundamentally un-American,” she wrote in a letter on Monday that backed a federal statement of interest in the case, one of several similar disputes in the tri-state area.

The defendants’ legal team responded in a letter to James’s office, saying that the town agreed with James’s support for religious liberty and housing non-discrimination, but that her characterization of the case was “inaccurate or incomplete.”

The dispute stems from a 2022 civil lawsuit filed in the federal Southern District of New York court against the town of Forestburgh, its zoning board, and several town officials. The plaintiffs are Lost Lake Holdings and Mishconos Mazah, companies owned by Hasidic Jews.

The two companies said they had bought land for a development in 2020. The previous owner, who was not Jewish, had obtained approval to build more than 2,600 residential units at the 3.3-square-mile site. The town board had described that development as a “wonderful project” and local residents backed the non-Jewish company, the lawsuit said. The rural town has a population of around 900.

The company failed to carry out the construction project, and the two Jewish companies bought the site. After local officials realized Hasidic Jews had acquired the land for development, the town set up a series of obstructions to prevent construction. Local officials and inspectors denied building permit applications, conducted an illegal search of the property, over-assessed the value of the site to drive up taxes, issued stop-work orders, and adopted a local law that imposed a 1,000% increase in fees, among other measures, the lawsuit alleged.

Internal emails cited by James and federal officials suggested anti-Jewish discrimination played into the obstruction.

“Don’t be scared about the Hasidic threat — we’re energized and have the cash to fight and make their lives miserable,” a local official said in an email, according to the federal attorneys.

“Bloomingberg was asleep: we’re on amphetamines,” the email said, in an apparent reference to disputes between local officials and the Hasidic community in the nearby town of Bloomingburg.

In another email, a local resident wrote to town officials, “Their sect is notorious for mysogyny and child abuse,” and warned of “their wanton destruction of the towns and school districts.”

“They take over, like locusts — killing everything they encounter, draining every last resource,” the email said. The town board planning chair forwarded the email to unknown recipients, saying, “I too have been thinking strategy about how to prevent Lost Lake from overwhelming this town,” according to the federal statement.

Town officials were pushed by local residents who opposed the development, the plaintiffs said. Local social media groups and articles about the development were flooded with antisemitic comments. In some of the online comments cited by the lawsuit, area residents decried “dirty money” from the “Jewish mafia,” and said, “You wonder why Germans did what they say they did.”

The defendants’ lawyers responded to James in a Wednesday letter that a town official shared with The Times of Israel.

A local zoning law that James has said may illegally discriminate against religious land use had been misinterpreted, the town said. Places of worship are permitted throughout the town, subject to restrictions similar to those applied to non-religious buildings, in rules that are more permissive than in other local communities, the letter said.

The email about the “Hasidic threat” was from 2015, written by someone who was a private citizen at the time, and related to a fraud case in Bloomingburg, the letter said.

“The Town categorically denies that any of its land use actions were based on the religious identity of the developer or potential homebuyers,” the town said.

The back-and-forth this week was the second exchange between the town and the attorney general’s office. Last year, James’s office warned the town that the rezoning ordinance “discriminates against Jewish New Yorkers” by illegally limiting religious land use. The town’s lawyers said that interpretation of the law appeared “to be based on a selective or incorrect factual record,” pointing to similar zoning rules for other buildings. The rules were put in place to keep development at a low density “to preserve the rural character of the Town,” the letter said.

The defendants have also disputed that the companies, and the property’s previous owner, had approval to build a large housing development. The development plans were “inconsistent with and materially different” from previous approvals, a town official said in a legal filing.

The thwarted plans have caused the developers significant financial damage and effectively stripped them of the property. The lawsuit seeks compensation, declarations of wrongdoing and to overturn the obstructions.

The US government weighed in on the case in March because of its interest in enforcing federal law, and because of US President Donald Trump’s January 2025 executive order on combating antisemitism, the Department of Justice said. The department also weighed in on the case in 2023.

James’s Monday letter supported the federal intervention, saying, “Your engagement in this matter sends a powerful message that no individual or community is above the law — and no community is beyond its protection.”

“Together, we must affirm the principle that government decisions must be based on law and evidence — not bias, fear, or bigotry,” James said, according to a copy of the letter James’s office shared with The Times of Israel.

Forestburgh is located in Sullivan County in the Catskills region, around a two-hour drive northwest of Manhattan.

The lawsuit illustrated ongoing disputes between Jewish and non-Jewish residents in areas surrounding New York City, as Jews move out of the city due to housing pressure. The disputes have exposed alleged antisemitism that takes place in quiet small town bureaucracy, away from the widely publicized discrimination occurring in forums like street protests and on college campuses. The opposition is motivated by both generic resistance to community change and development, and anti-Jewish animus.

The Catskills region has a celebrated Jewish history stretching back more than a century. The so-called “Borscht Belt” drew throngs of Jewish visitors to the Catskills in the mid-1900s and has had a lasting impact on American culture, particularly in stand-up comedy. The Borscht Belt declined as antisemitism waned and Jewish tourists traveled elsewhere, contributing to an economic downturn in the region. Jews have launched efforts to revive the memory of the Borscht Belt in recent years with comedy shows, a museum and public placards.

Jewish camps and getaways are scattered across the region, many Jews have summer homes in the area, and there are several recently built Orthodox Jewish developments in the areas around Forestburgh.

Despite warm memories of the Borscht Belt, a series of fires at the former hotels has given rise to antisemitic conspiracies.

In 1974, Hasidic Jews established the town of Kiryas Joel in Orange County, bordering Sullivan County. Hasidic expansion in that town and others in the area has sparked repeated disputes between Jewish and non-Jewish residents. In the small towns, growing Hasidic communities can fundamentally change the composition of the local population, leading to conflicts over control of local government and schools.

In addition to referring to Bloominburg, opponents of the development in Forestburgh repeatedly mentioned Kiryas Joel, according to the lawsuit. A town fire department official told the plaintiffs that residents feared the Hasidic “bloc vote,” comparing the situation to Kiryas Joel. Local reports about the development also drew comparisons, with comments warning of “Kiryas Joel part 2” and calling that community dirty, the lawsuit said.

James’s letter acknowledged that pattern, saying Orthodox Jews “too often faced bias masked as bureaucratic decision-making in matters of zoning, housing, and land use.”

Using zoning laws and land use regulations against Jews “recalls a dark history” that appears to be “reemerging in the 21st century,” James said.

New Jersey has seen similar conflicts, with local governments feuding with Jews over schools, zoning laws and a cemetery, including in recent weeks.