N.J. Attorney General settles with Ocean County municipality over alleged bias against Orthodox Jews

The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office announced Monday that it had reached a settlement with an Ocean County municipality that allegedly used zoning and land-use powers to discriminate against Orthodox Jews.

Under the settlement, Jackson Township is required to adopt new policies and procedures to protect religious freedom and to repeal ordinances that discriminate against Orthodox Jews. The settlement also includes $275,000 in penalties against the township, and the creation of a $150,000 restitution fund for anyone harmed by the township’s actions, the Attorney General’s Office said.

An additional $150,000 in penalties could be applied if the township is found to have violated the settlement’s consent order, which has been approved by a Superior Court judge. The state lawsuit was filed in 2021.

Jackson Township, known for the Six Flags Great Adventure amusement park, encompasses 100 square miles but has a population of only about 60,000. It neighbors Lakewood Township, which has one quarter the land size but more than twice the population.

Orthodox Jews make up more than two-thirds of Lakewood’s population and have been drawn there for decades because it is the home of Beth Medrash Govoha, the largest yeshiva — an Orthodox Jewish religious school — outside of Israel.

In recent years, Orthodox Jews have turned to Jackson as an alternative to the more congested and urban Lakewood. And those Orthodox Jews allegedly have been facing anti-Semitism from Jackson Township’s government and from the community.

In the 2021 lawsuit, the Attorney General’s Office and others accused Jackson Township of passing ordinances for the purpose of preventing Orthodox Jews from building religious schools and dormitories, as well as restricting their religious practices.

Michael Reina, the mayor of Jackson Township, could not be reached for comment Monday. Reina, who was reelected last November to a fourth term as mayor, was a named defendant in the case and signed the consent decree on Aug. 22.

The township issued a statement late Monday night, saying that the current members of the township council were not involved in alleged prior discriminatory conduct, but that the actions of former officials “severely weakened” the township’s legal defense.

Last year, the township settled a similar lawsuit filed in 2020 by the U.S. Department of Justice that accused the township of using discriminatory zoning ordinances against the Orthodox Jewish community to prohibit religious schools and associated dormitories.

» READ MORE: Lawsuits seek to end discrimination against Orthodox Jews in Jackson Township, N.J.

“This township council welcomes and embraces people of all faiths, races and ethnic backgrounds. It’s time for Jackson Township to move forward,” Reina said in a statement when the Justice Department settlement was announced. “This governing body is committed to ensuring that we will do just that in order to foster one, united community, respectful of all people who call Jackson home.”

As with the federal settlement, the township did not admit wrongdoing to the alleged claims in the lawsuit filed by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.

The state and federal complaints followed a lawsuit filed in 2017 against the township for adopting ordinances that effectively targeted Orthodox Jews trying to build religious schools.

In 2021, a federal judge sided with the plaintiffs — Agudath Israel of America and WR Property LLC — and found the ordinances were discriminatory.

That lawsuit remains pending, but may be close to a settlement, said lawyer Donna M. Jennings, who represents the plaintiffs in that case.

Since the federal judge’s preliminary injunction and the Justice Department settlement announced in June 2022, several religious schools for Orthodox Jews have been approved in Jackson, Jennings said.

“The town itself, definitely, they’ve gotten better, that’s for sure,” Jennings said Monday evening.

The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office had alleged that Jackson Township had passed ordinances in 2017 that essentially banned the establishment of yeshivas and dormitories for Orthodox Jews by prohibiting the development of schools in residential zones, and dorms in all zones.

The township enacted a zoning ordinance in 2017 that also effectively prohibited the creation of an eruv, which is a wire boundary that symbolically extends the boundaries of a home to permit outside activities — such as pushing strollers or carrying house keys — on the Sabbath and during the holiday of Yom Kippur. The township’s ordinance banned impediments or placement of objects in the public right of way, including the grass between the sidewalk and street.

The township allegedly engaged in discriminatory surveillance of Orthodox Jewish homes to monitor prayer gatherings in 2016 and 2017. And the township allegedly discriminated against the building of sukkot, which are temporary, open-air structures used to mark the weeklong Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

“As hate and bias — including against the Jewish community — continue to rise, it is critical that we call out religious discrimination when we see it, and it is especially important that we hold public officials accountable when they treat people differently based on their faith,” Sundeep Iyer, director of the Division on Civil Rights in the Attorney General’s Office, said in a statement.

“Today’s consent order sends a strong message: We will not tolerate religious discrimination here in New Jersey,” Iyer said.

Under the settlement, people who believe they were harmed by Jackson Township’s actions can contact JacksonRestitutionFund@njcivilrights.gov.

Township officials, including the mayor, will undergo training on discrimination in land use and zoning, the Attorney General’s Office said.