“‘Rise Up Ocean County’ has been operating under the pretense of opposing overdevelopment; in reality, the group was dedicated to disparaging Orthodox Jews, using ugly tropes that have plagued society for too long,” said Avi Schnall, executive director of Agudath Israel’s New Jersey office.

BY FAYGIE HOLT

(February 6, 2020 / JNS) Ten months after New Jersey officials first raised concerns about a Facebook page that many said was peddling in anti-Semitic tropes, Facebook notified state officials that the page has been removed permanently.

The page, which had some 19,000 “Likes,” was shutdown on Wednesday.

Organizers claimed that the “Rise Up Ocean County” Facebook page was aimed at preserving the county’s open spaces and more rural way of life amid a rapid growth in the size of the Jewish community in Lakewood and surrounding towns in Ocean County.

However, critics, including numerous Jewish groups and the director of state’s Civil Rights Division, Rachel Wainer Apter, noted that the group used their platform to disparage the growing Orthodox community in their area.Subscribe to The J