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Religious Discrimination

Police & Fire
NJ Sikhs Terrorized By Texas Man Who Threatened To 'Show Them Heaven': Feds NJ Sikhs Terrorized By Texas Man Who Threatened To 'Show Them Heaven': Feds
NJ Sikhs Terrorized By Texas Man Who Threatened To 'Show Them Heaven': Feds A Texas man threatened to forcibly shave the “top and bottom hair” of a South Jersey Sikh activist, make that person smoke and eat tobacco and “show [them] heaven,” federal authorities charged. Bhushan Athale, 48, left seven voicemails of hate over the course of a single hour on Sept. 17, 2022, threatening to kill his primary target -- along with fellow members of a Sikh nonprofit organization in Burlington County – with a razor blade, they said. The voicemails, from Dallas, were “filled with violent imagery and obscenity” and “contained references to places, people and tenets that are part…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Pregnant Out Of Wedlock: NJ Supreme Court Rules Teacher Can Be Fired Pregnant Out Of Wedlock: NJ Supreme Court Rules Teacher Can Be Fired
Pregnant Out Of Wedlock: NJ Supreme Court Rules Teacher Can Be Fired Nearly a decade after a New Jersey Catholic school fired one of its teachers for getting pregnant out of wedlock, a New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the school was within its rights. The Supreme Court ruled on Monday, Aug. 14 in favor of the Church of St. Theresa in Kenilworth, which fired Victoria Crisitello — a second grade art teacher — in 2014, after she told them she was pregnant out of wedlock. The school said that Crisitello had violated her employment agreement and fired her. The agreement requires teachers to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with the discipline, no…

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by Sam Barron
News
Social Studies Teacher Sues Local Bergen County District Over Suspension For Hitler Assignments Social Studies Teacher Sues Local Bergen County District Over Suspension For Hitler Assignments
Social Studies Teacher Sues Local Bergen County District Over Suspension For Hitler Assignments A Bergen County grade-school social studies teacher who was indefinitely suspended over assignments about Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany claims the district superintendent told him that he’d upset “Jewish people” in town and then ordered him to “fix” it. In a lawsuit filed against the Woodcliff Lake School District, Robert Welsh of Park Ridge says he was made a “scapegoat” amid complaints from parents because he’s a “socially conservative Christian in a community with a large Jewish population.” Welsh, 53, wrote a letter to the parents explaining why he considered the lesson necessary and ap…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
‘Are You Jewish?’ Hammer-Wielding Man In Rampage At Teaneck Medical Office Reportedly Asks ‘Are You Jewish?’ Hammer-Wielding Man In Rampage At Teaneck Medical Office Reportedly Asks
‘Are You Jewish?’ Hammer-Wielding Man In Rampage At Teaneck Medical Office Reportedly Asks An attack on a Teaneck pediatric office and dry cleaners by a man wielding a hammer should be considered a bias incident, said a mom who hid in a bathroom with her terrified daughter. “Are you Jewish?” Jill Gordon said he asked her and others during Sunday’s rampage at the Riverside Medical Group on Palisade Avenue. Camwren T. Cole, 23, of Teaneck – who’d apparently cut himself while smashing windows -- also screamed “They tried to turn me trans!” Gordon said. Responding officers nabbed the bloody Cole moments later and sent him, in custody, to Bergen New Bridge Medical Center in Paramus f…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Authorities: Street Evangelist Violates Judge's Order, Stalks Englewood Abortion Doc Again Authorities: Street Evangelist Violates Judge's Order, Stalks Englewood Abortion Doc Again
Authorities: Street Evangelist Violates Judge's Order, Stalks Englewood Abortion Doc Again A self-described Christian missionary from Bergenfield who was accused of using a drone to peer into the second-floor office of an Englewood abortion doctor was arrested again Friday morning for violating a restraining order, authorities said. A Superior Court judge in March ordered Daniel Stephen Courney, 37, not to return to Metropolitan Medical Associates on Engle Street as a condition of his release after city police charged him with stalking the doctor. He was back Friday morning -- and recorded it on Facebook. Officers responding to a call of excessive noise by a small group of peop…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Clifton Man Gets Probation For Threatening Paterson Police Chief Over Race, Religion Clifton Man Gets Probation For Threatening Paterson Police Chief Over Race, Religion
Clifton Man Gets Probation For Threatening Paterson Police Chief Over Race, Religion UPDATE: A Clifton man who texted threats to Paterson’s first Muslim police chief because of his race, religion and nationality got plea-bargained probation. Stefan Keco, 29, who spent more than 15 months in the Passaic County Jail, also was ordered to attend counseling and to not have any contact with Chief Ibrahim Baycora, in addition to the three-year probationary sentence. Rather than face trial, Keco took a deal from prosecutors following an investigation by city police and including the FBI, Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office and other law enforcement agencies. In exchange for leni…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Clifton Man Admits Threatening Paterson Police Chief Over Race, Religion Clifton Man Admits Threatening Paterson Police Chief Over Race, Religion
Clifton Man Admits Threatening Paterson Police Chief Over Race, Religion UPDATE: A Clifton man admitted that he sent Paterson’s first Muslim police chief threatening texts because of his race, religion and nationality, authorities said. Stefan Keco, 29, told a Superior Court judge in Paterson on Monday that he sent the texts to Chief Ibrahim Baycora on Feb. 26 “with the purpose to terrorize him and in reckless disregard of the risk of causing such terror,” Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia Valdes said. Baycora had been sworn to the position only a few weeks before receiving the threats. The threats “caused a disruption to the day-to-day operations of the poli…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
BATTLE ENDS: Woodcliff Lake Agrees To Allow Orthodox Worship Center And Pay $1.5 Million BATTLE ENDS: Woodcliff Lake Agrees To Allow Orthodox Worship Center And Pay $1.5 Million
Battle Ends: Woodcliff Lake Agrees To Allow Orthodox Worship Center And Pay $1.5 Million An Orthodox Jewish congregation will be allowed to build a new worship center in Woodcliff Lake under an agreement reached Tuesday, ending a years-long battle that the borough fought with both the religious group and the federal government. Under a pair of the agreements announced Tuesday, the feds and Valley Chabad are both dropping lawsuits against the borough for denying zoning approvals for the property at Werimus Road and Woodcliff Avenue. The borough also will pay Valley Chabad $1.5 million in damages and attorney’s fees resulting from the ordeal, under a separate agreement between th…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
US Government Sues Jersey Shore Town For Discriminating Against Orthodox Schools US Government Sues Jersey Shore Town For Discriminating Against Orthodox Schools
US Government Sues Jersey Shore Town For Discriminating Against Orthodox Schools Jackson Township is discriminating against Orthodox Jews through zoning ordinances that “intentionally restrict the operation of religious schools and housing associated with such schools,” including yeshivas, the U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday. The ordinances were enacted and used “against a backdrop of extreme [animosity] by Jackson residents and township decision makers toward the Orthodox Jewish community and a movement by residents to keep Orthodox Jewish community members from settling in Jackson,” the government contends in a lawsuit. Jackson’s planning board applied a pair o…

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by Jerry DeMarco