In a recent opinion piece in the Jewish Standard, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach writes that members of orthodox communities need to do more when it comes to acknowledging, and adhering to, secular law. He states: "An increasing number in the Orthodox community are guilty of the corrosive belief that the secular world exists solely to support the religious world, that the marketplace is nothing more than a lowly means to a higher end." Rabbi Levi Brackman, in his online column, "Jewish World," echoes this sentiment when he states that: "according to Judaism if you don't like the law of the land you live in, be it regarding taxes or anything else, you have one of two choices: move to another country or get used to it. Contravening a secular law is not an option."

While both rabbis were referring to the recent story in New Jersey, in which a group of orthodox rabbis were caught in a major money-laundering scandal, their statements certainly have resonance for those living in the ridge area. The recent situation at the old Homowack Lodge — in which members of an orthodox girls' camp occupied woefully substandard, even dangerous, housing, continually refusing to vacate the premises despite numerous health and safety warnings from town, county, and state officials — reminds us that the above statements have an application in our own community. It took a judge's order to remove the campers from harm's way, most of whom were young children.

Rabbi Brackman goes on to say that often "people within the Orthodox community seem less concerned about crime that is directed towards the government." Rabbi Brackman could very easily be talking about the apparent disdain for local code the operators of the camp at the Homowack recently demonstrated.

So, where does this disdain come from? Brackman goes on to offer a possible explanation. He cites the historical, and systemic, anti-Semitism Jews faced during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Europe. Jews lived, and died, under the heel of various gentile governments, enduring everything from paying higher taxes than other citizens, to pogroms, and even attempted extermination. Anti-Semitism, it could be argued, was the defining issue of western world during the twentieth century. It is therefore understandable that some orthodox Jews simply don't trust those who come from outside of their immediate community.

But, it is important for members of the orthodox community to understand that the modern United States of America is not the equivalent of Europe. And while none of us should sugar-coat the anti-Semitism that still exists in many parts of this country, the U.S. is, and likely always will be, a place in which people of diverse religious backgrounds — Jews, gentiles, Muslims, Buddhists, even atheists — can not only get along with one another, but become trusted neighbors, thereby forging a healthy and tolerant community.

Town, county, and state officials never wanted to evict the girls from the Homowack camp simply because they dress and think differently from many Americans. What they wanted was for the operators of the camp to acknowledge, and act upon, the dangers these girls were facing. At one point, the girls were even seen wearing respiratory masks, a tacit confirmation on the part of the camp's operators regarding the terrible black-mold problem present in many of the buildings.

When our orthodox neighbors return next summer, and we hope they do, let them do so first having taken a page from Rabbis Boteach and Brackman.