“Not so bad maybe they’ll all move back to New York.” Can anyone imagine this comment being said about African-Americans, Hispanics, Muslims, or members of any other ethnicity? In America 2017?
That is verbatim the comment made in public on Wednesday, November 15th, by Tony Sloane, whose Facebook profile lists him as a Realtor at Weichert Realtors’s Long Beach Island Office, located some 35 miles from Lakewood. Mr. Sloane made the comment on the “Jackson NJ Strong” Facebook post that fear mongers about Ocean County’s growing Orthodox Jewish population based on a news story about the formation of the City of Palm Tree in Upstate New York, which encompasses the current Kiryas Joel. “Can this happen here?” the post wonders, dripping with disdain.
Mr. Sloane’s insinuation that he would like all of Ocean County’s religious Jews to move out of New Jersey is vile and un-American, particularly coming among a string of other comments on that post that incite hate, and actual physical violence, against the County’s Jews.
The Lakewood Vaad issued an urgent call to Weichert Realtors, and particularly the management of the Long Beach Island office, to stop the hate by disassociating in every way from the bigoted Sloane.
On its website, the Long Beach Island office touts its “friendly, responsive sales associates…(who) share their expertise with you whenever you’re ready to buy or sell a home.” Manager William C. Darby extolls his business philosophy: “What you should know about me is that, as a Weichert Manager, I believe wholeheartedly in the unique, personal nature of real estate.”
Weichert is a major real estate chain based in New Jersey, whose branches in Ocean County and beyond do extensive business with Orthodox residents of the state.
“For so many Americans, realtors are the key to the American dream of home ownership and entrepreneurship in the spirit of tolerance and coexistence,” says Rabbi Moshe Zev Weisberg of The Lakewood Vaad. “How can a respected company like Weichert continue to employ a bigot like Sloane?, is the big question that so many are now asking. We trust that Weichert will maintain its professionalism and integrity and send a clear message that bigotry and exclusion have no place among its employees and associates.”
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Update: Shortly following the posting of this story, Mr. Sloane deleted his offensive comment from Facebook. Unfortunately for him, it is not so easy to hide his hate. Attached is the original comment.
Wow. I think we should all ban Weichert Realtors until they fire this antisemite.
Agreed. I don’t need their services, but that’s not a way to speak about a whole community. They should do the right thing and get rid of this guy.
A Goy from Jackson.
Why publish this?
Really? It’s called calling out the hate. Hopefully he’ll lose his job for his bigotry, and send the others running for the hills.
Despicable.
good for the lkwd vaad, or anyone for that matter, that stands up to this hate. its becoming rampant. ppl need to know that we wont stand for it. period.
It’s about time the vaad is standing up to the bigots.
My humble opinion, leave this for the ADL & focus on high property taxes
Once again our friend Stephanie shows how we should all stand in unity.
Thank you Stephanie for your strong support.
Please everyone stop it. Ppl hate Jews!! Deal with it. It’s nothing new and it’s never gonna stop till machiach comes. Enough of this antisemite watch
I was going to sell my home with that company….but not anymore
Kudos to the Lakewood Vaad for standing up to the despicable, hateful, incessant harassment of Jews that is so rampant on the Jackson Strong Facebook page. Joseph Goebbels is truly shepping Nachas from his place in eternal hell when he sees how some NJ residents and politicians are following his in his race baiting, despicable methods. I think the part which makes him proudest is watching how it is so often tolerated and even encouraged by mainstream NJ media outlets and Politicians. It is time for us to publicly expose these people for who they are. It is time for the general public (who are largely good, honest people) to stand up and publicly condemn the outright bigotry against Jews that is reminiscent of pre-war Europe.
Let’s pause for a moment and ask ourselves a question. What has changed since the 1940’s until today? Why should the hatred of today be any different than the hatred of ….. during the Holocaust? As painful as it may be but the answer may surprise you. NOTHING! So now lets take a look. What has been going on over the last 70 years? After world war 2 the horrible atrocities that the German Natzi’s including the Polish and other anti-Semites have committed has been exposed for all the world to see. It became unpopular to be a hater or an anti-Semite. (At least publicly) since everyone realized how bad it looks and how discusted the world was including their own descendants. However today many Holocaust survivers have past away and the new generation of haters aren’t educated. Therefore they don’t realize how bad they look. The hatred has always been there. However for all that knew what took place during the Holocaust and knew how the Natzi’s ultimately had their downfall and knew how the world viewed them all knew to hide “control” their hatred.
Apparently Tony Sloane of Weichert Realtors took his comments and ran for the hills. No more free shots, Mr. Sloane. And Mr. Burrows. And Mrs. Robert “Jen Marie Gal” Cusanelli. And all the rest of you. Feel free to proudly and publicly espouse your small-minded hatred – and – be aware you may ultimately have to answer to higher athorities like the NJ AG for your bigotry.
we had an estate sale in our neighborhood. the company running it- or the 2 women – would only offer high priced deals to the jews and different prices usually much lower to non jews. suddenly items were not available and sold. If you were jewish you needed to pay in full cash and take it out that day. but if you were not jewish you could offer a deposit. Best was at the end of the day the high priced items that were set aside as sold was taken by the 1 of 2 of the women themselves. they had a used WII console and some games selling for $250.00 and would not take price lower for the entire few days. They set it aside did not take “normal offers”. and the owner of the home on many items was stuck. so they approached the home owner to take it for themselves and most probably resell it online for a profit,
Report this to the nj real estate commission and they will come down hard on the realtor and his broker. The agent may lose his license to sell real estate in nj. Send all the information. You can look Up the nj real estate commission online. It will guide you on how to file a complaint.
I have a family member who was going to use this company for a home. This is disgusting. I’m calling them to not give them the listing.
Maybe we should think that we have to work on ourselves and be low-key. Us yidden need to be shtill aheit, if people hate us it’s because we are making too much noise.Spend less on gashmius and make a kiddush hashem at every opportunity. We should not be giving them excuses to light the fire of hate.
I agree. Thank you for saying this!
They will have to answer for their hate, but let us work on our own selves before we work on everyone else…
A snippet from Adolph Hitler’s Wikipedia page: “Hitler read local Newspapers such as Duetsches Volksblatt that fanned prejudice and played on Christian fears of being swamped by an influx of Eastern European Jews.” This quote is frighteningly similar to the situation in NJ in 2017! There are media outlets which very clearly play on the same fears which were instrumental in shaping Hitler’s ideology which ultimately lead to the extermination of 6 million Jews and millions of other minorities deemed ‘undesirable.’ I’m sorry to those to whom these quotes make uncomfortable, but this is the reality on the ground today and this is how it starts. Maybe, Maybe, if the good people in Germany would’ve spoken up and condemned the anti-Semitism of the third Reich, maybe then my grandparents would have merited to see their young children get married instead of being incinerated in Auschwitz. Wake up NJ and please condemn this hate before it’s too late.
I can’t believe it. I’m actually about to go into contract on a property with a Weichert agent. Although I’m not Jewish. I will not continue with them unless they fire this bigot. Period.
What a disgrace.
This excusable hatred is a ditect result of the Trump populism. But I don’t expect the same people who were small minded enough to vote for him to actually recognize and admit that there is any correlation.
On his page it shows no sales in the last 12 month. Unsuccessful people are always full of hate.
sadly he is not the only one who must be taught a lesson…..
I’m sure glad the Vaad is fighting for us again. This is what they should be doing constantly for the oilem. Thank you.
I am working with a weichert commercial broker on a deal. I will seriously consider to switch the listing to another firm if this fellow isnt removed from weichert.
The only way to beat a bully… is to beat a bully. JS has been the town bullies here, operating from behind keyboards and secretly spying on ppl with cameras, they thought their reports to the town were “secret” and they found out they weren’t. They are the brownshirts of Jackson and it needs to end. Just as I don’t want LCSW patrolling our streets, I also don’t want a hate-fueled vigilante group doing it either.
Deal with the REAL issues together, it’s the ONLY way the town will survive.
Yes, we must not tolerate hatred and anti-Semitism etc. At the same time, let’s do the right thing that so that we have Hashem’s protection. If we live the way Yidden are supposed to live, then it’s a tremendous Shmira for us. There’s a lot of things to work on ( in so many different areas’s). Let’s all try to do at least a tiny bit better, and then hopefully we’ll see all this hatred fade away. When we don’t do “Kiddush” then the Umos Haolam start to make “Havdalah”.
Where it’s not a very nice remark, everyone is entitled to their freedom of speech and opinion.
LCSW is wonderful! Please patrol my street!
This is actually in violation of his license with the Real Estate Commission. One simple call to the REC, and his license would be revoked. Not sure why the Vaad or whomever doesn’t simply do this…
why are we making a shtink the same way a yid should never get fired for a dumb comments – if you want use a frum realtor, the scoop is just giving a platform to this nonsense, all the frum ” go vaad” really means copy the chassidishe kehilos and be ahead of the curve in albany and washington