Rabbi Freilich:
“We are the guests here”
MONTICELLO – For the first time in many years, the Sullivan County
Human Rights Commission and the Sullivan County Legislature held an open
forum to discuss community and Orthodox/Hasidic relations.
The purpose of the session, held Monday at the county government center
in Monticello, was to prepare the greater Sullivan community for the 250,000
plus, Orthodox and Hasidic visitors who will come to the county for the
summer, as they always do. The forum created an atmosphere where residents,
representatives of the Jewish communities and elected officials, could
put their concerns out in the open for discussion.
Bill Liblick, a Sullivan County human rights commissioner, said after
former County Legislator Jodi Goodman introduced a committee for better
relations between the Jewish and greater community years ago, no such
committee, or forum, has existed.
“It died out and what I wanted to do, as a Human Rights commissioner,
is to try to bring everyone together, to bring people together and to
discuss issues,” said Liblick. “Some people don’t understand
the Hasidic/Orthodox community because they look different, or they dress
different. They have different customs and what we wanted to do on the
Human Rights Commission is to show that everyone is a human being, and
to address certain issues, and to try to bring people together.”
Issues discussed Monday centered on public health, community cleanliness,
public safety, traffic safety, unilateral tax exemption misconceptions
and noise issues. Each topic was discussed very briefly due to there being
no voiced disagreements. Each issue was met amicably to both the members
of the greater Sullivan community who attended and the representatives
from the Jewish communities.
Rabbi Bernard Freilich, a senior representative for the Jewish community
and liaison to the superintendent of the New York State Police, said the
seasonal Jewish visitors, as well as the yearlong Jewish residents, wish
only to get along with their neighbors and to be acknowledged for the
benefits they bring to the community, rather than being acknowledged for
their differences.
“Again, our community is here, and we understand that we are guests
here, but we do put in a lot of money into the communities building a
lot of houses, hopefully it’ll be year round, especially in the
Town of Fallsburg and some other towns,” said Freilich. “Whatever
we do, we definitely want to do it together and with an understanding
of our neighbors, an understanding of government and with law enforcement.”
There are still some issues regarding whether or not the current infrastructure
in the Town of Fallsburg can handle the development the Jewish community
wishes to embark upon there; but, those issues were not discussed at the
forum.
Sullivan County Sheriff Michael Schiff said the public should be aware
of the visitors and when driving, to do so defensively, just as would
be recommended for any known population increase to the area. As far as
issues that may arise between the Jewish and surrounding Sullivan communities,
Schiff said the place to start when trying to prevent those issues is
with a dialogue, like the one that was rekindled at the forum.
“I have found that we’ve done that in different groups, when
you open up a dialogue, most of the problems go away. It’s just
a matter of sitting down and talking, getting rid of the misconceptions,
and asking for help on both sides,” he said. “When different
communities can work with us, they can take of problems on their end to
make them go away, and where we can, we work with them to make things
safer for them. So, just starting the dialogue, I think they’ve
done a very good thing.”
Schiff also asks Sullivan residents to try and resolve any issues that
may arise between themselves and the Jewish community with their Jewish
neighbors first, before escalating a situation to the point of police
involvement because in his own experience, the Jewish community has always
been very cooperative when it comes to compromising with the members of
surrounding communities.
