Roosevelt NJ, Residents Protest Yeshiva Plans

ROOSEVELT — Plans to bring a yeshiva — a private, intensive religious school for Jewish children — to Roosevelt is drawing the community's ire.
Neighbors fear the school could change the small town's character, while the hosting synagogue is hoping the yeshiva will revive its struggling congregation.
Fiery accusations of prejudice on the part of residents and the board's refusal to consider a survival plan more palatable to the community flew at a recent community meeting to discuss the yeshiva, but the night ended without any clear picture of the future.
Board members of Congregation Anshei Roosevelt on Homestead Lane want to allow a yeshiva at the synagogue for a one-year trial run. The yeshiva would be only for boys and would educate eight to 10 students in its first year. If the school stayed in Roosevelt, the yeshiva would add one grade each year, possibly reaching as many as 50 students in four years. The school would have one head rabbi and a teacher per grade who will likely live in town.
The prospect of a yeshiva in Roosevelt isn't sitting well with many impassioned residents, who came out to a July 1 community meeting to learn more about the plans. Residents' concerns ranged from the yeshiva's influence on the tiny borough's character to the impact on Roosevelt's only nursery school, which is housed in the synagogue and will presumably be evicted if the yeshiva stays past the year trial run.