Lakewood Chabad Lag B’Omer Event Targeted in Sabotage Attempt
by CrownHeights.info
Hisnagdus is alive.
A beautifully planned Lag B’Omer event for children scheduled to take place Friday in Lakewood and arranged by local chabad mosdos was targeted Wednesday with a letter claiming that the local rabbonim had banned the event.
According to the letter, the rabbonim had taken issue with the fact that the event was planned at a local stadium, claiming that the consensus of the Rabbonim made events in the facility assur.
The letter had at least three signatures of prominent roshei yeshivos and rabbonim of Lakewood.
The story, and its hypocrisy, was broken first by YeshivaWorldNews, which pointed out that another event was planned at the same time, and the same place, and was not banned.
The letter, quoted by YeshivaWorldNews, read “our community has a longstanding policy that disallows concerts in the city of Lakewood, since it is a form of entertainment that runs contrary to the spirit of Torah scholars and greatly undermines the Torah atmosphere of our community….Running any event in the First Energy / Blue Claws Stadium is itself a serious breach of our community’s policies. Since the stadium’s opening, a stringent ‘fence’ has been established: not to enter or make use of the stadium for any purpose – whether for a sporting event or for a privately run program”
Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the letter itself was created on false information, claiming that the event was a “concert”, and that it would be taking place “inside the stadium”. The truth is, that the event was advertised as an “celebration,” and was actually planned to take place in the parking lot, which the Lakewood Scoop pointed out also hosts major events from many Lakewood Mosdos.
The Lakewood Scoop also noted that it had confirmed that at least of the signatures on the letter had been forged.
“It’s pure sheker,” the Lakewood Scoop quoted an askan as saying after investigating one of the signatures.
While attempts such as this to sabotage chabad events are few and far between these days, this remains a stark reminder that hisnagdus does still exist.
