Scranton, PA - Hasidic Group Headed to City to Have Social, Cultural Impact

Scranton, PA - The Hasidic Nadvorna sect has announced plans to bring as many as 1,000 families to Scranton, an influx that promises to alter the city in numerous ways.

The sect is in many ways a mystery to the outside world, and it appears there are some among the group who would just as soon keep it that way - for now. Efforts to learn more about the sect, and its specific plans, for the most part have been fruitless. Rabbi Alter Rosenbaum and others identified as leaders of the sect have not responded to repeated requests for interviews.
The group, which has between 5,000 and 7,000 members in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, leads an insular lifestyle that is defined by their religion, with little interest in secular pursuits or interacting with others.

Its members avoid calling attention to themselves and shy away from publicity, said Teri Backus of Realtec Source One Realty, who submitted the group’s bid for East Intermediate. “I’m not bringing in aliens here,” Ms. Backus said. “They’re quiet. They keep to themselves.”
Ms. Backus said the group will use the Quincy Avenue building as a school for the children of 80 to 100 families who will move here initially, and there is a possibility it may establish a synagogue there. Members already have contracts to buy six homes in the Hill Section, she said.

But critics cite what has happened in places like Lakewood Township, N.J., and Orange County, N.Y., where growing ultra-Orthodox or Hasidic communities have caused strife.
Lakewood resident Bill Hobday said Scranton should proceed with caution. “If it’s a place they like, you’ll go from 100 to 1,000 families in a few years,” he said, “and the way of life you’ve always known will be gone.”
The problem, Mr. Hobday and other critics say, is when the religion and the politics mix, the result is preferential treatment for the Orthodox community.
“Whatever you have heard in that regard is very real. Let there be no doubt, that’s what happens,” said the Rev. Gary Stiegler, pastor of Immanuael Lutheran Church in Lakewood and president of the Lakewood Clergy Association. “There is no piece of land, if they have their eye on, they aren’t going to get. There is very little if they wanted, they could not get. They have literally taken over the town.”