Monsey's Mavens

We met yesterday with the all of the rabbis from Spring Valley and Monsey who are the leaders of every Yeshiva in the community. In all, the group, organized by Rabbi Horowitz of the Community Outreach Center, represents over 20,000 school kids and their parents. The meeting was called under the auspices of Rabbi Aaron Berger of Congregation Zichron Yeshaia, and represented the deep level of concern that the entire community has about the coming of Wal-Mart into the Monsey area.

The rabbis were briefed about the status of the project, and were reassured that there was a great deal that they could collectively do if they wanted to stop the entry of the supercenter. In the end, the unanimously decided that they would initiate a letter writing campaign, directed at Supervisor St. Lawrence, from all of the yeshivas. In addition, they were amenable to doing a number of very visible public demonstrations of their opposition to the mega-retailer (a march of mothers with baby carriages was one suggestion that was well-received).

It is coming very close to critical mass time on the Wal-Mart proposal. The project is yet to be certified but the level of community opposition is growing and will soon hopefully reach the point where the supervisor will be compelled to step up and do the right thing-tell the developer that this project cannot go forward and that the plug needs to be pulled.