There's a long history there. The Jewish communities pay taxes and don't send their kids to the schools. So it's the exact reverse of what he says is happening. They had an unspoken agreement and school boards were run by non-Jews and money was set aside for bussing and special ed, etc. But then the boards cut all the funding, so the JEwish community said, "hey, don't do that. We pay a massive portion of the taxes that fund your schools. Let's go back to the way things were." They refused, and so the Jewish community voted in a new board so the board reflected the actual people paying the taxes.
I won't claim to be any kind of expert on what happened in Rockland/Orange Counties. My limited understanding is that there was an agreement that was broken, and an overreaction the other way. FWIU, the current situation is very unfavorable to public schools. Swila's platform isn't against yeshivas. He's pro school choice. His issue is with the rules and regs that allow for manipulation of allocations and misuse of funds for the public school system. His platform is also targeting property tax reform, which ties in to schooling. He specifically has an issue with the abuse of the tax exempt system. It IS abused, and Jews ALSO abuse it. Ultimately, his line is: the problem isn't the people, it's the laws. You can't blame people for using the loopholes that are made available to them. We need to make proper and just laws with fewer loopholes.
This is one of the most annoying anti-Semitic canards. Voting maps can almost always be overlayed on demographic maps. When the entire Park Slope votes for a Socialist candidate, that's average Americans voting. When Crown Heights between EP & Lefferts votes for one candidate, that's "Voting as a Bloc™". No one has a problem with progressive JEws campaigning for Maya Wiley under an organization called "The Jewish Vote", neither does anyone have an issue with community organizing groups across the country that show ballot samples showing people how to vote for the African American friendly candidates. When anyone else does it, it is voting in their interests. When frum Jews do it, it is "voting as a bloc."
Are you seriously equating Jews campaigning for specific candidates to askonim promising tens of thousands of votes to politicians? United Crown Heights, or anyone else, has every right to knock on doors and try to convince people that certain candidates are in their best interest. No one has ever had a problem with that. There is no "bloc," even if they are all convinced to vote the same way. There is no negotiating with politicians in exchange for guaranteed votes. To my recollection, I don't think anyone has ever accused CH of bloc voting in recent history. Again, context is key. The people he's talking to
are dealing with bloc voting, it's done exclusively by Jews
in that specific area, and it almost exclusively goes against them. I don't know why we would expect him to talk about other people doing it if it's not applicable.
Personally, while I understand the frustrations, I don't have an issue with bloc voting. Tit-for-tat is the name of the game; always has been and always will be. I just have an issue with getting into bed with the devil because they promise us some government handouts. That some of us religiously vote for people who are so diametrically opposed to virtually all of our values... we reap what we sow.
We're screaming anti Semitism because that's what it is. These claims are used against black communities, Latino communities, and Jewish communities. "They're gonna take over your neighborhood", "They don't pay their fair share", "Your taxes support them", and of course, "they are not like regular Americans" - ודתיהם שונות מכל עם
Just because some of the things he said are also said by anti-Semites, that doesn't automatically make what he said anti-Semitic. His point isn't that Jews are bad. His point is that the system is flawed. He clearly says that if he was one of us, he'd absolutely do exactly what we do. Because the system allows for it. We "don't pay our fair share?" He was specifically talking about KJ, where 45% of the people live below the poverty line, compared to 13% in NYS as a whole. I have yet to see someone justify it. In that context, "
our taxes
do support them." Not just non-Jews. All taxpayers. And the "gonna take over your neighborhood" line isn't just used against Jews, or even minorities. It's the rallying cry against gentrification, too. It's a line against all and any change to the way things are. It's used because it's true. When people of different values move in to any area and change the makeup of the community and the demographics of the voting public, things change for everyone.
Look, maybe the guy is an anti-Semite. Maybe what he said was anti-Semitic. Maybe I'm pushing back here because I'm tired of any and all criticism, even legitimate issues, being automatically branded as Jew hate. People hate us, I get it. Not everyone does, though. And when issues are raised, even if they were used by anti-Semites in the past, we owe it to ourselves to examine if there is any truth to them before dismissing it as textbook anti-Semitism.
