New York state’s top prosecutor Wednesday night issued a blistering rebuke of a “deeply disturbing” video posted on the Rockland County Republican Party’s Facebook page that portrays proposed housing development for the Hasidic Jewish community as a “threat.”
With throbbing, ominous music playing in the background, the video, titled “A storm is brewing in Rockland,” warns that over-development threatens the area.
“Aron Wieder and his Ramapo bloc are plotting a takeover,” the written message overlaying the video declares, referring to the Hasidic Jewish Rockland County legislator who supports multi-family development. “If they win, we lose.”
“This video is deeply disturbing and should be removed and condemned immediately by the Rockland County Republican Party,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “To clearly state that members of the Jewish community are a threat to families and our safety and that they must be stopped is despicable and completely unacceptable. Attacking those who are different than we are only breeds hate and makes us weaker. We must all stand together to denounce this hateful video.”
Brooklyn-born Wieder, who lives in Spring Valley, thanked James in a tweet, writing that her “unrelenting condemnation of bigotry and hysterical doomsday theorists serves New Yorkers well.”
A decade in pictures: Iconic stories, photos and covers of the 2010s
The condemnation comes weeks after a contentious Ramapo town hall meeting over a zoning change that would allow development of at least 220 units 27 acres along the Clarkstown and Spring Valley border — a plan opponents claim is over-development favoring the Hasidic Jewish community, the Rockland/Westchester Journal News reported.
