Jackson claims quality of life, Jews claim discrimination in dorm fight

Well this was bound to happen.

In March, Jackson passed restrictions on living area that are "operated as an accessory use to a school, college, university, boarding school, convent, monastery, non-profit educational institution, religious order, or other." Agudath Israel of America and developer WR Property is suing the town over this, claiming it's an anti-Semitic move that is illegal because it restricts their religious freedom.

If we're going to bring religion into everything, may I just say God forbid a town tries to maintain its quality of life regarding size of population, services rendered, traffic issues and all the rest. That's what Jackson Township is arguing. The dorm ban cites no particular religion. It would apply to any type of school or any religious order.

They have seen what has happened to Lakewood over the years. Lakewood has become a mess. Their population has skyrocketed. 25,000 more people just since the last census was taken seven years ago. Traffic is a nightmare. Not to mention so many other issues that the Orthodox Jewish population never wants to see as discrimination in reverse. Such as the past use of public school buses to transport students to private yeshivas that are not part of the public schools. This costs millions per year and has strained services. Now state money by the millions is going towards a pilot program to aid the problem.

Or how about local police officers being expected to go into the homes of Orthodox Jews after sunset on Fridays to do things like change their thermostat settings because their religion dictates they aren't allowed to (yet they want to live with particular creature comforts nonetheless). They have been expected to run errands to drug stores and change batteries in appliances and turn on air conditioners in the homes of Orthodox Jews during Sabbath. Police officers are city employees and should not be turned into private servants based on one resident's religion while another resident of a different religion would never be able to have a cop sent to their home to play houseboy.

We live in a free country. You are free to practice (or not practice) any religion you want. But when a religious people insist anything that doesn't go their way is discrimination then something is wrong. Tell us what you think in our poll below.