Because I live within a mile of New Square:

A neighbor shattered the glass on my car with a stick and then walked away

My pregnant wife, children, and myself have been woken up at every hour of the night and early morning by loud music and honking

Drunken men have laughed at me when I asked them to lower the music at 3am

I and my friends watched my parked car get hit by a drunk driver who denied any wrongdoing and lied to the police

My whole community had to walk by a party of immodestly clad women across the street from the Shul on Shabbos

I, my wife, and my children are exposed to women that are not dressed in line with Jewish values

My neighbor hung brightly colored women’s undergarments outside in full view to dry

My neighbor gets drunk outside and on more than one occasion urinated on the side of his house

The radiators in my house shook because of my neighbor’s music

I sat at the Friday night Seudah with my neighbor’s music blaring

I had trouble learning at home because of the noise from my neighbor’s music

I have listened to loud music, sometimes for hours, and often multiple shabbosim and Sundays in a row

My mother sat outside of our house at 5am on a Shabbos to ask people to stop honking and they smiled at her and honked

Children that I don’t know play in my backyard when they think no one is home and use my swing (which they broke), trampoline and deck

I sit in Shul and worry that my children are running late because they were hit by a drunken driver on the way to Shul [ if you think I am overly anxious ask Mr. Yisroel Eisenbach whose daughter was killed recently by a DUI of someone living in similar circumstances]

The police removed a machete from the house next door

There used to be a brothel across the street

I walk by bottles of urine that are tossed on the side of the road

When my wife was walking with my 6 year old on Shabbos an unseen car sped out of the backyard of a house on our block 10 feet in front of them. It was going so fast that it knocked over a small tree

My kids can’t play on the block because of fear of cars pulling out of the backyard and drunk drivers

I don’t let my children play in the front yard because I do not know who is living next door (currently there are a lot of young single looking men) and I have no idea if I can trust them. 

I am embarrassed when people come to my house and comment on the trash and unkempt homes on my street. The houses on my block have open windows without screens, towels and shoes hanging out the windows, broken windows that get boarded up and piles of trash, mattresses, crock pots, and tires on their front lawn

I and my wife and my children walk by many men sitting and drinking beer and don’t feel safe

Neighbors’ yards and then my yard becomes covered in trash

There was a stabbing in a house next to multiple people from my community that I walk by every day

There was a shooting in the house next to someone from my community

There was a stabbing in a house in our area and a SWAT team was called in

There was a stabbing in the house next door to me

I explain to my non-Jewish neighbors that the Chassidic Jews that they see illegally filling houses, returning monthly to collect rent, and ruining their quality of life do not represent Jews

I am sad and angry and struggle with my Emunas Chachamim of how members of Klal Yisrael can do such a thing.

I have a sense of instability that comes along with your neighbors swapping out every month, and it’s not one family- it’s as many people as can be crammed into the houses. 

The esteem my children and my family hold for Skver and Chassidus in general is diminished

I am disappointed in the lack of response of Rabbanim in Monsey who in their shiurim speak about Chumros but do not act on a Kol Koreh signed by Rav Elyashiv, Rav Dovid Feinstein and all the Rabbanim in Lakewood.

I feel sadness that this is done to us by other Jews who do not want us living here.  Honestly it’s the most tragic part of all of this.  Most people in our neighborhood have nothing against Skver and we all appreciate the amount of Chesed that they do for Klal Yisrael. We just want to live our lives and be ohavei Yisrael, not waste our energy being upset that other Jews are doing terrible things to us.  It’s really hard to explain to your children that Frum Jews are buying houses and putting these types of people in them because they don’t want you to live near them.

מַה־פִּשְׁעִי֙ מַ֣ה חַטָּאתִ֔י כִּ֥י דָלַ֖קְתָּ אַחֲרָֽי׃

What did I do to deserve this? Because we moved to a community with people that I know and respect, where my kids have friends, and we could find and afford a house? Because a Rebbe – that is a big Ohaiv Yisrael – that in my life I have never had anything to do with – wrote a letter that he prefers I didn’t live here? For that I, my family, and my community deserve this? I am a simple Baal haBas that is קובע עתים, doesn’t have a smart phone, sends his kids to Yeshiva, and helps Skver Chassidim professionally. And for this they cause me, my family and my community all of this pain?

So just leave?

I have heard this and think it is such an out of touch and insensitive question. As if I and everyone in my community can and should leave their friends, their children’s friends, Chavrusas, Shuls, Rabbanim, homes that they invested in as if it were nothing. As if, I and everyone in my community can just afford to pick up and leave and go through all the included aggravations of that process. As if Jews actively destroying other Jews lives is just the way things are and we are the ones that must adjust.

Why am I writing this to you?

Because I refuse to believe that Klal Yisrael can stand by and let this happen and because if you continue to be apathetic and stand by the side they will continue to abuse. Because if you continue to say that you don’t want to get involved, we will continue to suffer. It has been too long and too much and too disgusting for you to not help. Whether you are a Rabbi, Baal haBas, or Skver Chassid, you can help stop the pain and suffering that is happening right now by speaking up and not standing for this עולה.