Daughters of Israel (DOI), the nonprofit nursing facility that has become an institution in West Orange, will likely be forced to relocate or close within the next decade if its plan to develop the site into a continuing care retirement community (CCRC) is not approved.

The plan to include independent living, assisted living and skilled nursing components was rejected by the township’s Zoning Board of Adjustment two years ago after 11 hearings. Although the vote was 4-3 in favor, a use variance requires a super-majority to pass.

About two months later, DOI filed suit against the board in an effort to revive the plan, which its representatives contend is the only way for the financially ailing facility to remain functioning while still serving the needs of all members of both the Jewish and secular community.

“We are operating at a deficit,” DOI’s Director of Spiritual Care Etan Hindin told The Jewish Link. “Daughters needs to be majorly rehabilitated. We need this redevelopment plan as part of our long-term vision to create a sustainable path forward.”

He noted the facility accepts Medicaid patients with no savings at a “huge cost” and if the project is blocked it will probably lead to DOI’s demise, adding, “It’s not a matter of when, it’s a matter of if.”

Hindin said the Jewish community would sustain a double-blow since DOI is within walking distance of many observant Jews, who often visit loved ones on Shabbat.

He serves as chazan and provides religious services as needed, including Shabbat morning services. As an example of what DOI means to those who reside there, Hindin said he has seen residents who are virtually unresponsive perk up when he brings around the Torah and sings. “They slowly put out their hand to touch the Torah. This is something really impactful and meaningful and something we stand to lose for our loved ones.”

DOI began as a home for the Jewish elderly in Newark about 120 years ago and moved to West Orange as a skilled nursing facility in 1962.

In an effort to prod the township to negotiate a deal, residents and representatives of DOI showed up to plead their case at a May 6 meeting of the township council. Because the matter is in litigation, council members couldn’t comment.

Township resident Jason Buskin, whose mother came to DOI about three or four years ago, said, “I cannot speak enough about what Daughters of Israel has done to take care of my mother,” whose daily life has become “unbelievably meaningful.”

Relocating the building was “unacceptable” to Buskin’s family. “Because we’re Sabbath observers we often walk there every Saturday. and that’s something that’s never again going to be possible if you take this facility out of West Orange. We’re not the only ones impacted by this. Many other families go to Daughters on Saturday and other days to visit these residents and make a difference in their lives, and that is part of the unique specialness of Daughters. It’s not just a facility that’s been placed there. It’s a part of this community.”

Attorney John Inglesino said CCRC communities have generally been viewed favorably by communities because they have minimal impact, particularly because there are no children to burden the school system.

He called the facility, which cares for those of all faiths and races, “part of the fabric of the community,” noting many of those it has cared for were former West Orange residents. Additionally, Inglesino said DOI provides more than 40 Meals on Wheels each day in the community, is a training site for area nursing programs, including the Essex County School of Nursing, and provides transportation for such services as doctor appointments and shopping for seniors and developmentally challenged adults, the majority of whom are township residents.

“It will be tragic for those West Orange families who will not have Daughters of Israel to care for their loved ones in the future and for those residents who will no longer be able to call West Orange home,” he added.

Inglesino also noted if the DOI project is turned down the state will likely request the site be included in the township’s fourth round of affordable housing under Mount Laurel rules, which would involve more parking, traffic and school-age children.

“As we see it, the township has a choice to work with us on a new CCRC project or it will be redeveloped with multi-family housing,” said Inglesino. “Daughters of Israel prefers to work with you in partnership to redevelop this site with a new CCRC facility to continue its mission here.”

Planner Frank Banisch, special adjudicator in the courts in Mount Laurel proceedings, said he was advocating for DOI because “I really feel that kind of facility provides a benefit to a community that doesn’t come back once it goes away.”

He said he did not believe the best course of action would be to go again before the zoning board, which would be time-consuming, but rather to negotiate a settlement through litigation. Banisch warned the property would be “extremely attractive” to a large-scale developer because “you don’t find property of this size already flattened out so it’s logical for you to assume it will be highly sought after.”

Civil engineer Sean Delany outlined specifics of DOI’s plan, and based on similar area properties, what a multi-family development would likely entail.

DOI’s 75-page suit, filed in Essex County Superior Court by Howard D. Geneslaw of the Newark firm of Gibbons P.C., remains in litigation. It contends the three board members who voted against the variance “did so based on concerns that were not supported in any way by the evidence in the record, and more importantly, were wholly irrelevant to a variance determination as a matter of law.”

They include: a “perception” that the facility didn’t have the money to complete the project despite evidence to the contrary; an erroneous belief that DOI would not pay property taxes despite testimony that taxes would be paid on the independent living component; concern “without evidence” that the new construction would negatively impact the health and mental state of current nursing home residents; concern that because DOI is a nonprofit it “did not pass the smell test” since the proposed independent living units would be offered at market rates; and a belief that “voters” were supposedly against the project, although out of municipality of almost 48,000 residents, only 10 people testified against it.

The suit additionally noted the proposed project would actually increase tax revenue, wouldn’t change the character of the community or neighborhood in any meaningful way, nor change DOI’s status as a nonprofit.

“Rather, it will simply modernize the campus and allow Daughters to provide the type of service seniors will need in the years and decades to come,” according to the suit, which states that the project is “inherently beneficial” and “the compelling proofs in the record” and New Jersey land use law “mandate that the use variances sought by Daughters should have been granted.”

It also pointed out the township’s planner, forester and engineer, with some minor revisions, found the application acceptable.

It asked the court to find the suit “arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable and in violation of New Jersey land use law,” and reverse the board’s decision.

Debra Rubin has had a long career in journalism writing for secular weekly and daily newspapers and Jewish publications. She most recently served as Middlesex/Monmouth bureau chief for the New Jersey Jewish News. She also worked with the media at several nonprofits, including serving as assistant public relations director of HIAS and assistant director of media relations at Yeshiva University.