New York – Elected Officials And Community Leaders Condemn Pashkevil-Dumpers

New York – Anger and outrage are the order of the day, as officials in Borough Park, Williamsburg and Monsey continue their hunt for the individuals who illegally dumped thousands of fliers in the streets this week, resulting in costly clean-up efforts by local sanitation departments.

“This is hate being spread randomly,” Assemblyman Dov Hikind told VIN News. “They are never signed by anyone, filled with lashon hara and rechilus and it is a sick, disgusting thing to do.”

In addition to creating both an eyesore and a mess, Hikind pointed out that the paper-dumpers have created yet another problem for some residents.

“The people who live in those areas are getting tickets,” said Hikind. “They are being slapped with violations for littering, so the individuals who are doing this are also causing others to incur losses.”

According to Willliamsburg resident and a member of the Aaronite faction of the Satmar Community Activist Gershon Schlesinger Executive director of UJcare (United Jewish Community Advocacy Relations and Enrichment) the culprits belong to a group called Asra Kadisha, which sometimes uses radical tactics to protect the sanctity of Jewish cemeteries and is protesting a new development in Beit Shemesh that will incorporate currently being used as a cemetery.

“Many rabbonim, including R’ Moshe Shternbuch have ruled that these are not Jewish graves but Asra Kadish has decided that they are and they hope that by distributing these papers, they will pressure R’ Shternbuch and he will walk away from the project,” explained Schlesinger. “It is a shame that an organization that is really supposed to be doing good things is busy with these kinds of things in ways that are not Torah’dik.”

Councilman David Greenfield came out strongly against the litterbugs and is in the process of drafting legislation that would allow the police department to issue violations for illegal dumping, as previously reported on VIN News.

“I have been working with the Sanitation Department and reviewing their video,” said Greenfield. “We want to let people know that there is no tolerance and make it very clear that we will not tolerating dumping garbage on our streets. We are right before Rosh Hashana and no one should be engaging in this kind of behavior.”

Greenfield questioned the logic behind mass paper dumping as a means of resolving a dispute.

“There are legal ways to do it: put up posters in Shul, take out an ad in the paper, write a letter to the radio, call into a radio show, comment on a blog. The idea that people think is acceptable is offensive.”

Phil Tisi, public affairs coordinator for the Town of Ramapo, expressed his outrage at the spate of paper dumping that took place in Monsey.

“You don’t channel your anger by defacing areas of the community,” said Tisi. “To protest by denigrating an entire community is both illegal and intolerable. The actions are being investigated by our police department and anyone found guilty will be prosecuted.”

Borough Park resident Ezra Friedlander noted that this type of protest was indicative of a lack of sensitivity to others and suggested that the anonymous nature of the pashkevilim, which are typically unsigned, was particularly disturbing.

“The littering of our streets with defamatory literature is indicative of a callous approach to one’s fellow citizens as it defaces the community both literally and figuratively,” observed Friedlander. “Pashkevillim are usually disseminated by cowards who are not brave enough to stand behind their positions and try to intimidate those coming under attack. The community must condemn these rouge individuals in the strongest possible terms.”