After three hours of commentary and with protesters gathering and chanting loudly outside in the municipal parking lot, Teaneck’s Town Council approved an anti-Hamas resolution (printed in its entirety below) introduced by Teaneck Council Member Hillary Goldberg and added to by Mayor Michael Pagan. The resolution condemned Hamas for its October 7th attack on civilians in Israel. It expressed support for Israel as the only democracy in the Middle East, and shared facts about the United States-Israel relationship as well as the United States’ characterization of Hamas as a terrorist organization. At press time, seven members of Teaneck’s community relations advisory board had resigned, apparently in protest of the resolution’s unanimous passage.
A line to get into the meeting extended from 808 Teaneck Road all the way to Cedar Lane. The town’s Zoom meeting met capacity at 500 on the call, and many more spilled over to the live feed on YouTube. Community imams and rabbis spoke against and for the resolution, respectively. The Teaneck Police Department was commended for keeping the peace and for assisting in walking residents back to their cars safely.
The resolution was read during the regular meeting and entered into the consent agenda which was approved unanimously later in the meeting. A second resolution, introduced by Council Members Denise Belcher and Danielle Gee, known as a “unity resolution,” did not get the votes required to enter it into the consent agenda. Two council members including Karen Orgen and Mark Schwartz (who is co-publisher of The Jewish Link) noted that they were not comfortable supporting the resolution at this time, and Goldberg, as well as Deputy Mayor Elie Katz, abstained from voting. None of the council members had seen the unity resolution until a few hours before the meeting and wished to make changes to the language to make it fully inclusive.
Pagan’s leadership was commended in trying to ensure that the resolutions met with approval, and the entire council was thanked for its difficult work in supporting residents with a wide range of views and opinions. Township Manager Dean Kazinci was thanked for his words of support for Israel and the town’s Jewish residents on the day of the attack.
Schwartz said in his comments at the end of the evening that he wanted there to be one resolution at this particular meeting and that he supported 99% of the content of the unity resolution. He pledged to work in the coming days and weeks to make sure that resolution would pass. “The reason I want this one resolution tonight? When the Black Lives Matter march happened, I marched for Black Lives Matter. Many of my Orthodox friends said, ‘Don’t all lives matter?’ I said ‘Today, Black Lives Matter and we march for Black lives.’
“Tonight the Jewish people of Teaneck need that, too. Tonight we are asking to talk only about the Jewish lives that matter. We haven’t even buried the dead yet. We have a list of 79 kidnapped people but 199 names. We need this night to grieve. We are not minimizing anyone else’s experience,” said Schwartz.
The main focus of the evening was on the scores of commenters during the town meeting’s “good and welfare” portion, in which many people from both inside and outside Teaneck spoke about the resolution. Many Jewish residents spoke of their close relationship with those in Israel and the many who have been called to serve in the IDF. More than a dozen women wearing the hijab said that the resolution condemning Hamas was offensive and did not take into account the deaths of civilians, including children, on the side of the Palestinians. They made specific statements relating the levels of human loss on the Palestinian side as part of their people’s 75-year-long struggle for freedom. They did not address the decapitation and rape of Jewish civilians and said that these were lies being perpetrated by the Western media. At least one speaker recommended that everyone follow the “Eye on Palestine” social media page to get the “most accurate” information on the conflict. Many of the speakers on the Palestinian side said they hoped council members would rescind their support for the Anti-Hamas resolution, saying it was offensive to American Muslims and Palestinians.
“This resolution affirms what we all believe and know to be true,” said Deputy Mayor Elie Y. Katz in his remarks. “While Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields and shows no regard to anyone’s lives—let me be clear to my friends, neighbors and Muslim family members—this is not an anti-Muslim, or anti-Arab or anti-Palestinian resolution. We respect people of all faiths; we respect the lives of all. Antisemitism should never be considered free speech. When we view and hear of the atrocities committed by Hamas, gleefully recorded by their agents of evil, we must speak out.”
Katz also spoke about the personal side, learning that the driver of the ambulance his family had sponsored in Israel had been killed during the October 7 attack, and that the ambulance was completely destroyed with bullets. “We were shocked and distraught as we viewed pictures of the bullet-riddled driver side of the ambulance with my family’s name on it, thinking of Aharon Chaimov’s tragic and violent end. To imagine that a hero, a first responder who dedicated his life to helping others could be shot down while serving those in need was incomprehensible.”
Council Member Karen Orgen thanked the Muslim community of Teaneck for explaining its customs in recent months at various events she has attended. Now, she said, she wished to explain her experience to the community as well. “Since October 7, we have explained to all our neighbors and have tried to explain that we are broken, we are not OK, and we are trying to cope while we are also trying to support our friends and family. There are over 1,000 Teaneck residents in Israel right now, serving, studying, volunteering or working. There is but one degree or less between anyone in our community and anyone who is currently serving in the IDF who has been killed or wounded or kidnapped.
“Since October 7, antisemitism is up 488%. I know Islamophobia is up, too, and I support you and I grieve with you, but we are trying to tell the community now what we need.”
Orgen added that last Friday was publicized as an international “day of rage” and that Jews had been scared to send their children to school locally. She said that not one non-Jewish person reached out to her, those who are here in council chambers every week, who speak to her every week. She said the community felt alone and not seen. She added that at last Thursday’s rally at Votee Park where prayers were said for the safe release of the hostages, other than the Jewish residents, fewer than 10 people from the township were present.
“What this resolution is saying to everyone, only focusing on the bad that Hamas has done, this is what we need. I do not oppose any resolution for peace and unity. Not tonight. I need it to take every side into account. I want to thank from the bottom of my heart [Township Manager] Dean Kacinci, [Teaneck Police] Chief McGurr, and I hope we can heal with understanding for each other.”
“A large portion of that crowd was not from Teaneck,” said Keith Kaplan, a former Teaneck Council Member who runs the website and facebook page Teaneck Today. “This resolution condemned Hamas’ terror. If you looked at this resolution and thought this was attacking you, ask yourself why something in your head equates you with Hamas, and rethink who you truly are,” he said.
After witnessing the protest and streaming it live on Facebook, Kaplain said, “I knew people felt this way, but I was not adequately prepared to know people felt this way. When I passed by [Former Council Member] Gervonn Romney-Rice, who spoke online against the resolution because it did not represent all the residents of Teaneck, she asked me, ‘Are you happy, Mr. Kaplan?’ I responded that I hadn’t been happy in quite some time, but didn’t know what she was referring to. She pointed to the line of people, among them people screaming, and stated that I created this divisiveness. I walked past her in silence.
“As though I had sent out an action alert from the Council on American Islamic Relations and asked people to come [from Woodland Park, from Paterson, from Trenton] and protest an anti-Hamas resolution, as though by being Jewish I had personally asked for or somehow brought this situation to our doorstep.
“They deliberately sowed division, and it’s somehow my fault?”
Kaplan continued: “I stood outside, much to my wife’s chagrin, I stood in between the two groups. I wanted to record what they were doing. I saw Jews on one side, and the most incredible thing that I saw were Muslim men and women walking safely through the Jews to get to the other side. But the Jews had to ask for a police escort to get to their cars.
“They were screaming, ‘Drop Qassam rockets on Tel Aviv’ in Arabic, and ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
