Dear Teaneck Town Council Members,
As a resident of Teaneck whose parents moved to this township over 60 years ago, I can think of very few days in our community as disturbing and unpleasant as Sunday, March 10. I am referring, of course, to yet another invasion of the streets of our wonderful town by pro-Palestinian marchers, many of whom do not live in Teaneck and at least some of whom were loudly chanting hate-filled slogans, whose activities this time focused on a private event held at an area synagogue.
I am well aware of the fact that in the United States, people whose views I personally find most abhorrent, and even people who unabashedly endorse terrorism, have the freedom to express their opinions in public. I also have nothing but admiration for our outstanding township manager and his deputy, and for our local law enforcement agencies, who are all doing their jobs as best they can under trying circumstances.
That said, however, I believe that the time has come for our elected representatives to put their heads together, in conjunction with other dedicated communal leaders, and come up with a creative way to put an end to, or at least substantially limit, these rallies. It is one thing to protest (peacefully and with all proper permits) at the Town Hall or a township park, but quite another to target a local house of worship and harass the people going there to attend a private affair. Where exactly does that end? Do we want people policing all of our religious institutions and organizing rallies opposite a church or a mosque if they think that a speech to be presented or a function to be held there will be offensive to them? Does permitting a group to address something taking place privately at a religious establishment not constitute a step upon a slippery slope towards potentially serious challenges to freedom of worship? I have no doubt that if such a scene would unfold at another religion’s local house of worship, our community officials would be scrambling, most appropriately, to find any way they could to put an end to any such demonstration. Why should this case have been treated any differently?
Moreover, it is quite clear that the people organizing these rallies are doing so specifically in Teaneck because their aim is to antagonize and intimidate the comparatively large Jewish population here. I have not heard of any such rallies being held in Bergen County towns like Glen Rock, Allendale, South Hackensack, Lodi or Cliffside Park, for example. Once again, I believe that if it were another religious or ethnic group in our town being similarly singled out on a regular basis for this kind of provocation, efforts would be underway to stop it by whatever legal means possible. It is certainly true that the Jewish community here will not be frightened or bullied by these troublemakers, and we will continue to go about our business as usual as well as proudly support the causes which we hold dear. But that does not absolve our town’s authorities of their responsibility to help rein in this situation by any means at their disposal.
Finally, as a Teaneck taxpayer, I have to wonder on a practical level just how much taxpayer money had to be spent yesterday in order to “keep the peace” as a result of this protest. How much money has the town had to spend on such activities over the last several months? Is this what we residents of Teaneck want our township dollars spent on?
I recognize that the solution to this problem is not necessarily simple, but it is the job of the Town Council to first acknowledge that we have a serious problem here and to then work together, perhaps, as noted above, with communal leaders from across the town political and religious spectrum, to come up with a way to control it before things get even worse for the township as a whole, because it definitely appears that this brewing crisis is heading in that direction.
