By COLlive reporter
Signs have been hung in synagogues around Crown Heights condemning Jewish property owners for selling real estate to non-Jews.
“Recently there’s been a plague that Jews are selling homes to non-Jews, Heaven forbid,” the signs reads, “or to builders that are building apartments for non-Jews.”
The letter was signed by the anonymous “Committee for the Strengthening and Consolidating the Neighborhood.”
“How long will this be an obstacle for us,” it reads. “Sleepers, awake from your slumber. The duty is on each and every one to intercede in this matter to the best of his ability to stop the epidemic immediately.”
The neighborhood in Central Brooklyn is primarily a residential and commercial area consisting of factories, warehouses, one and two family private houses as well as numerous apartment buildings, home to 110,000 lower and middle-income residents.
With the cost of living rising in Manhattan, Williamsburg and the nearby Park Slope, non-Jewish Caucasians have been moving into the neighborhood, utilizing the easy Subway access to get to work.
The neighborhood is primarily comprised of three major and distinct ethnic groups: African Americans, Caribbean Americans and Chassidic Jews affiliated with the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.
Don’t you love posters that are signed by non-signers? It’s sort of like, well, this – a post without a signature. So, on that note, how does someone know whether a buyer or renter in non-jewish? ask them? right. Me thinks some people might be bothered by increased diversity, high cost of living space in an open (and not controlled) market. while i don’t like having to pay top price for living spcae, i understand and appreciate the way free market work. want to live i prime space, you pay prime dollar. i also welcome any influx of high paying… Read more »
If a Jew owns a grocery store and a person comes in to buy something and that person is not Yid, you are not going to turn him away. the same thing when a person wants to rent an apartment, it doesn’t matter who that person is as long as he has the money.
I personally believe that its the starbucks in crown height’s fault for charging so much for drinks that people can’t afford houses anymore. Just sayin…
How ridiculous to blame families from many yrs ago who couldn’t afford to buy
The blame is completely on the greedy yiddin whose $$$$ is more important than the welfare of fellow Jews, more imp than halacha, and more imp than what the Rebbe asked
The prices to rent here are out of control. $2700 for a small 2 bed past E NY avenue. $2000 on sterling place and Scnecfady. How are young married couples going to live in CH?
And I would like to see any of you take $100,000 less to sell to jews
you do realize that its illegal to not sell to non jews… Wonder what all of you would be saying if non jews put up signs saying not to sell to jews. And then we wonder why there is anti semitism
This must be a joke! Honestly, people have the right to sell to whomever! Yes I understand we want to keep Lubavitch strong here, but honestly if I was going to make much more money selling to someone else, I would be stupid not to! We all have families to support. And even more importantly, these signs are a HUGE chilul HaShem! Imagine if you saw this in another community..we would all be talking about them!
This is the US of A and not former USSR. You go and buy in Williyamsburg if you can but don’t tell others what to do. it is not illigal (yet).
The rule of supply and demand doesn’t really apply in this particular case.
to all crown heightsers cry cry cry you had a guy who put his heart and soul into this neighborhood and you thrashed him to the dogs because of a few people who had a personal agenda against him. you had a great Community council which you dumped and replaced with a bunch of do nothings and losers. it is now almost 30 years since that “great revolution and we as a community have zero left to show for ourselves. back then a person was not allowed to buy a property if it was not going to be used for… Read more »
That nice community already exists. Kingston, PA, is only 2.5 hours from NY and has a Lubavitch cheder, mikvaos, shul, all the infrastructure of a Lubavitch community. Ten new families in the past year with more coming in. Plenty of large homes for under $150K.
The Rebbe said to bring Geula not live forever in Golus, this is real Torah and the Golus is liquidating from France to Venezuela,Moshaich will be revealed in Israel not C.H! ALIYAH NOW if your not on a real shlichus and if you are encourage those you have influence on to make Aliyah!
I do think that with regard to situations such as these we have have to go straight to the שולחן ערוך and rabonim and the rebbes sichos. It’s no secret that it’s a tuff topic both for the landlords who have the most to gain as well as for fellow members of the community. But as אידן and as חסידים we must strive to do what the אויבערשטער wants no matter the consequences!
so why do you think they didnt sign it? are they afraid ashamed embarresed? if it unsigned it just a pahkville ignore it
If you are going to write a note like that please sign the letter with your name
It is possible to put a house up for sale and to sell specifically to Yidden.
Everyone sees the home and they all place a bid and you can choose any bid that you like.
You can also tell the Yidden that they may need to up the bid slightly to match —
That’s allowed.
We need to live in walking distance of Shuls.
The goyim don’t need to.
So we are helping Yidden by assisting them to purchase a home to bring to EY with the coming of Moshiach very, very soon.
And then the guy that hung up these signs, went back to his house in Williamsburgh where his sect has sold every of property they had to white goyim, you hung up the signs in the wrong place no ones doing that here were too poor!
#18 is on the money, if people didn’t coward away to live in duplexes on Montgomery st. They could have bought mansions on st. Marks.
I personally know of flippers from williamsburg doing “buisness” in OUR neighborhood, maxing out any property available. making us look elsewhere to live.
It’s illegal to refuse to rent or sell to someone because of their race, religion, orientation…etc… only in multi-family buildings. In private two family houses, the landlord can decide to whom he wants to rent or sell. ( Possibly in four family homes, also, but not sure.) It’s not about racism. It’s about not having the influence of the goyim right smack in your daled amos. Especially, when the white goyim have children, our younger children don’t easily recognize them as non-Jews. Their influence can be very negative – bringing in all kinds of secular cultural attitudes. It’s hard enough… Read more »
There are also a lot of Satmars that own Real Estate in Crown Heights and all over Brooklyn and they rent to anybody that has the money to buy, so you cant just blame the Labavitchers for not renting to yidden,
The reason people may feel that homeowners want to primarily sell to non-Jews is because Jews don’t want to pay the asking price.
The landlord/homeowner has every right to collect the precise amount that he wishes to get for his/her property.
If the landlord/homeowner got an offer that is reasonable from a Jew he would take it in a second and not sell it to a non Jew for cheaper.
Citing the Rebbe, the book,” Contemporary Halakhic Problems” by Rabbi Bleich states that halacha imposes restrictions on the sale or lease of property to non-Jews.Chosen Mishpat 175:40 states that the original owner must assume responsibility for any loss incurred or the non-Jewish purchaser or tenant agrees that all disputes about the property be adjudicated according to Jewish law.The property owner is enjoined from accepting a sum significantly higher than the fair market value of the property when such an offer is tendered for the purpose of destroying the Jewish character of the neighborhood.Jewish law requires one to do everything in… Read more »
I remember the rebbe speaking about this. I also remember when people didn’t demand money for guests to pay coming to crown hts. They wanted the mitzvah of hachnosos orchim. I remember store owners employing jews instead of hiring all goyim so jews would have parnosa. So much has been lost
exactly put number 18. but then again who would have thought things would go up so fast
Is there a reason why Jewish landlords are not selling their properties to fellow Jews?
What do the Beit Sin say about this
any rulings?
why the silence?
Well, it’s illegal to refuse to rent or sell to someone because they are or are not Jewish. So if you’d like to break laws that’s fine, but I certainly won’t be.
Probably good comments in this story…didn’t read one…no name.
There are about 100 “older” families in Crown Heights living in 2-3 bedroom apartments. These people had MANY opportunities to buy homes 15-20 years ago when houses smack in the center of Crown Heights were going for under $300K. Some of these people had opportunities 30-40 years ago when houses were under $100,000! The Rebbe’s campaign of “Chizuk Hashchuna” was a directive to THOSE people. Instead, they chose to live comfortably in their 3 bedroom apartments, because after all, rent was cheap back then, and they were paying less than $500/month for rent. Well, as it turns out, those people… Read more »
This is a little ridicules, why are people hating on non jews?
Why does it matter if someone whos white and non jewish lives next to you. Anyone who thinks this is a little messed up….. nuff said.
And what about the Jewish landlords renting to non jews?
We wouldn’t have such a crisis finding apartments if they would keep them for us and not give them to others! What a shame!!
THE satmars ARE RUINING CROWN HEIGHTS!! MOSDOS DAY CARE CENTER HAS BEEN SOLD !!!! ITS TIME FOR ACTION. OUR CHILDREN’S CHINUCH IS AT STAKE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1.theire not just renting ALSO to goyim they are renting ONLY TO GOYIM Unfortunately there are rich lubav building owners which are building apartments and condos specifically for goyim (1 sink etc.) and refuse to rent to yidden. 2.several years ago these same ppl were making a killing off lubavitchers by charging way more in ch than buildings 2 blocks away from ch but now that there’s a better deal out there they quickly dump the lubavs. 3.the matzav got so bad that ppl from Williamsburg and elsewhere are coming to do business here (in Williamsburg. where there’s a normal… Read more »
Yes apartments that are made with only one sink….hint hint they don’t want Jews in it…
and the we call it antisemitism when non-Jews do the same to us…
Excellent job for raising awareness and putting signs out. In my opinion, the signs should be in Yiddish as well, on the actual buildings where you see the Jewish landlord going in and out of! They need to realize that crown heights buildings and streets very quickly got filled up with tons of goyim within the last few months and they are to blame! This needs to stop! We need the lubavitchers to start buying property and renting to yidden at an okay price and not rip off your fellow Jew but still make profit. Thank you! Keep up the… Read more »
1) How much the Rebbe spoke and begged about chizik hashcuna etc. This is the exact opposite of what the Rebbe crie so much about
2) The halachik issue of it.
The above is more important than free will and market etc.
Wait, there are people who are specifically refusing to sell property to Jews? Or is there simply a more diverse pool of buyers due to the other ethnicities moving in from other areas? It seems according to the halacha quoted on the sign, priority should be given to Jews. But how exactly can that be controlled? I suppose all properties in Crown Heights would need to be sold privately, since the general public would cry racism if they are told they cannot purchase the house if they are not Jewish… It’s not an easy issue, but I would certainly hope… Read more »
The Invisible Hand of the free market (i.e. the laws supply and demand) determines property values. Property owners will never turn down a good offer. Go out there and make offers that can’t be refused. B’chol Me’odecha. Talk is cheap.
who wrote:
“If you owned the house you would do the same thing!”
Even if 99.9% of people would do it, it does not make it right. This applies to any and all Halachic concepts (and even secular law). What everybody does, does not change anything from wrong to right!
We should all move and start a nice chassdish community . We need 10 families to make the move. Prices here are just not affordable anymore
Publicize the names!
It’s about time this movement got started.
Finally someone speaking out, many of us dont realize the not – so -long term consequences of these actions R”L , people are too silly to ust think about quick money …Not the after affect of these actions.
Fellow Yiddin PLEASE help put a stop to this madness!
In our history it was unheard of to sell in a Jewish community to NON Jews. WAKE UP!
If you owned the house you would do the same thing!
Sorry, this is a chilul Hashem