Atlantic Beach continues costly war to stop Chabad

The Village of Atlantic Beach is incurring sizable financial costs as a result of its long-running dispute with Long Beach-based Chabad Lubavitch of the Beaches over the organization’s effort to open an outreach center at the foot of the Atlantic Beach Bridge.

•The village’s legal costs have totaled about $375,000 — so far.

•The village may also have to pay Chabad at least $400,000 stemming from a federal court’s finding of violations of the Chabad group’s constitutional rights.

At the same time, Atlantic Beach’s 1700 year-round residents are facing a local tax increase of 50 percent or more. That steep hike is unrelated to the Chabad case and stems from the village’s past mismanagement of its finances.

Not only money is at stake. The reputation of the South Shore community that’s adjacent to the Five Towns has also been badly damaged. The move to keep Chabad out of Atlantic Beach partly reflects intolerance toward pious and proselytizing Jews whose culture and beliefs are not shared by a majority of residents.

The controversy dates to 2021 when Chabad of the Beaches paid $950,000 for a 10,000-square-foot property at the foot of the bridge, a prominent location was listed for sale following the closure in 2019 of a Capital One branch.

The village made no move to buy the building during the two-year period when it remained vacant and available. But soon after Chabad’s purchase, the village sought to use its eminent-domain power to seize the property, with the stated intention of opening a community center and a lifeguard operations facility there.

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Some Atlantic Beach residents voiced opposition to the seizure of Chabad’s property. They noted that the village already owned other parcels suitable for a community center. Constructing it at an alternate location would avoid the cost of compensating Chabad for the taking of its property via eminent domain, the critics said.

Opponents of the village’s action also questioned the underlying intention of the eminent-domain initiative. Its “suspicious” timing appeared intended to exclude Chabad from Atlantic Beach, a resident suggested at a public meeting.

Chabad filed suit in July 2022 seeking to block the seizure, arguing that the village had acted in a “discriminatory” manner.

Federal District Court Judge Joanna Seybert ruled in Chabad’s favor two months later.

“The village’s acquisition decision was made in a manner intolerant of Chabad’s members’ religious beliefs and which would restrict Chabad’s practices because of its religious nature,” she ruled.

The judge’s decision also made reference to “antisemitic community comments.”

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In a court filing, Chabad presented documented instances of biased remarks made by village officials.

•In one such communication village trustee Patricia Beaumont declared that Chabad is “buying the world town by town, city by city.” She added: “The have the numbers — they procreate.”

•In another message, Linda Baessler, then also a trustee, warned that Chabad’s arrival in Atlantic Beach would be “a nightmare.”

•And Mayor George Pappas, who rejects any implication of antisemitism on his own part or the village’s, responded “very true” to a text claiming that “most people don’t want the Chabad and just don’t want to say it. Any secular Jew doesn’t want them.”

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Objections to the outreach center do not stem only from prejudice. Some potential neighbors of the Chabad property at 2025 Park St. have expressed concerns about potential negative environmental impacts of Chabad’s intent to include a kosher-food drive-thru as part of its educational, programming and religious services center. A possibly dangerous increase in traffic will result from this operation, these residents say.

But Chabad appears unwilling to compromise on this issue.

It recently terminated a 2023 out-of-court settlement whereby the village agreed not to pursue eminent domain proceedings and to pay Chabad $400,000 over four years. Chabad exercised its option of rejecting the settlement on the grounds that the Atlantic Beach Zoning Board of Appeals, in a decision last November, failed to conform with a stipulation that the group’s requested variances had to be approved.

The dispute could thus return to court. Atlantic Beach would then incur additional legal costs and might have to pay Chabad considerably more than the $400,000 initially agreed upon.

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Chabad of the Beaches, established in 2007, has been generally accepted as a good neighbor in that city.

Its leader, Rabbi Eli Goodman, could demonstrate this quality by making concessions regarding building design, in the course of negotiations now underway with the village’s law firm.

Chabad of the Beaches will not win favor among Atlantic Beach residents, including those without animus toward the group, by continuing to pursue a maximalist agenda that will further destabilize the village’s precarious finances.

It should be possible for both sides to behave in a conciliatory manner. Atlantic Beach could apologize for past expressions of prejudice, and Chabad could alleviate objections regarding potential traffic, parking and noise problems associated with its center.

Open-mindedness on both sides will heal wounds and ensure a future of peaceful co-existence.