A Letter to American Jewish Congress--Meryl Frank is Unfit to Lead Women's Division
Talk about hearing only one side of an issue. Although Meryl Frank has consistently acted as one of the most divisive forces in the Highland Park Jewish community, the American Jewish Congress apparently is unaware of her shenanigans and has appointed her as President of its Women's Division. Below is a letter I sent the AJC explaining the other side of Meryl Frank's regime in Highland Park and asking them to rescind the appointment.
Dear Mr. Gordon and Ms. Kurlander,
I am writing to express my strong objection to the appointment of Highland Park, NJ Mayor Meryl Frank as AJC Women's Division President.
I am a writer and a child of Holocaust survivors, and my family and I have lived in Highland Park, NJ since 1969. We are actively involved in the community through both synagogues and service organizations, and I can tell you from firsthand experience that Ms. Frank has been one of the most divisive political forces in this town over the last decade.
Far from being a respected activist on behalf of social justice, women’s rights, and human rights, Ms. Frank is a bully, a tyrant, and a self-centered politician connected with corrupt officials in the highest echelons of New Jersey state government, including Board of Public Utilities president Jeanne Fox, currently under investigation by the FBI.
During her eight years as mayor, Frank has used strongarm tactics in an attempt to force her redevelopment vision, one that urbanizes our small town, onto the borough. She has targeted various businesses, including a used car dealership co-owned by my brother, his father-in-law, and his two brothers-in-law, all of whom are Orthodox. She has made statements saying their business, which is heavily patronized by the Orthodox community, does not belong in the downtown. When confronted by one of the owners regarding a proposed development plan that totally excluded his business and placed a four-story building on the site instead, she justified her plan by yelling, "you didn't vote for me."
My family and I proceeded to lead a movement against the potential use of eminent domain in her redevelopment plan. She had put my brother's business in the redevelopment zone against their will after lying about how much taxes the property owner pays and forcing that owner along with several other business owners to spend thousands of dollars on lawyers. In one conversation, she described my family as "a family of despicable liars."
I ran for Borough Council twice against her candidates in a Democratic primary and ended up with a respectable 42 percent. She proceeded to drag my name and reputation through the mud all over town. She publicly distorted my election results, saying they were two to one; she made up stories attempting to portray me as a racist (including one she conveyed to another local rabbi); and she filed two false police reports against me claiming I threatened her and her family, which I never did. My so-called threats were of defeating her politically. I had to spend $1,500 on a lawyer to defend myself against a phony charge of disorderly conduct. In 2001, she asked my employer to fire me, and in 2005, she asked the employer of my running mate to fire him. Thankfully, neither complied. At her urging, the rabbi of a prominent temple violated his temple's 501 C3 status by telling his congregants at a public event two days before my primary not to vote for me.
Because I politically oppose her "vision" for the downtown and support a different Democratic faction, which she ousted in 2000 through lies and false accusations of corruption, Ms. Frank has spread "lashon hara" about me all over town, referring to me as "mentally unbalanced," and "in need of help." In one newspaper column after another, she and her supporters made false accusations against me, including accusing me of trying to overturn an election and of being "filled with hate like the plague." She has attempted to defame me and destroy my reputation among Democratic Party leaders at all levels with what cannot be described as anything other than the politics of personal destruction.
I am not the only victim of Ms. Frank's dictatorial tactics. When she first took office, Frank filed false charges of theft against the former Democratic Party treasurer, an Orthodox Jew who had been fighting cancer for 20 years. In 2004, she forced Councilwoman Carolyn Timmons to resign and got her fired from her Middlesex County position as Director of Children's Services because Timmons publicly opposed her redevelopment plan. Last year, she asked New Jersey Democratic leaders to fire a leader of a local Democratic group because he supported her opponent in the 2007 Democratic primary. Over and over, she has shown her hostility to our large Orthodox community, in one case saying another Orthodox synagogue would come into town "over my dead body."
Ms. Frank's regime has been one of closed government and backroom deals, the complete opposite of the open government in which she presumes to believe. An energy consultant who worked for her husband's firm as well as her husband are under investigation by US Attorney Chris Christie in connection with New Jersey's $100 million no oversight Clean Energy Fund, which disbursed money to both through no bid contracts.
If you take the time to speak with many representatives of the Jewish and non-Jewish communities in Highland Park, you will find out that Ms. Frank is a divider, not a uniter, a ruthless, vindictive politician who has spread "sinat chinam"--senseless hatred--within our town for almost a decade.
I admit I am a biased source, but I experienced all these things firsthand, and I seriously ask you to reconsider the appointment of Ms.Frank to this position. I would be happy to speak with you personally and provide media sources for many of these incidents. You can find out more about the opposition to Frank from my two-and-a-half-year-old blog at http://blogforhighlandpark.blogspot.com/
Thank you for your consideration and for taking the time to read my concerns.
Sincerely,
Laurel Kornfeld
Highland Park resident since 1969, Borough Council Candidate in 2002 and 2005
Dear Mr. Gordon and Ms. Kurlander,
I am writing to express my strong objection to the appointment of Highland Park, NJ Mayor Meryl Frank as AJC Women's Division President.
I am a writer and a child of Holocaust survivors, and my family and I have lived in Highland Park, NJ since 1969. We are actively involved in the community through both synagogues and service organizations, and I can tell you from firsthand experience that Ms. Frank has been one of the most divisive political forces in this town over the last decade.
Far from being a respected activist on behalf of social justice, women’s rights, and human rights, Ms. Frank is a bully, a tyrant, and a self-centered politician connected with corrupt officials in the highest echelons of New Jersey state government, including Board of Public Utilities president Jeanne Fox, currently under investigation by the FBI.
During her eight years as mayor, Frank has used strongarm tactics in an attempt to force her redevelopment vision, one that urbanizes our small town, onto the borough. She has targeted various businesses, including a used car dealership co-owned by my brother, his father-in-law, and his two brothers-in-law, all of whom are Orthodox. She has made statements saying their business, which is heavily patronized by the Orthodox community, does not belong in the downtown. When confronted by one of the owners regarding a proposed development plan that totally excluded his business and placed a four-story building on the site instead, she justified her plan by yelling, "you didn't vote for me."
My family and I proceeded to lead a movement against the potential use of eminent domain in her redevelopment plan. She had put my brother's business in the redevelopment zone against their will after lying about how much taxes the property owner pays and forcing that owner along with several other business owners to spend thousands of dollars on lawyers. In one conversation, she described my family as "a family of despicable liars."
I ran for Borough Council twice against her candidates in a Democratic primary and ended up with a respectable 42 percent. She proceeded to drag my name and reputation through the mud all over town. She publicly distorted my election results, saying they were two to one; she made up stories attempting to portray me as a racist (including one she conveyed to another local rabbi); and she filed two false police reports against me claiming I threatened her and her family, which I never did. My so-called threats were of defeating her politically. I had to spend $1,500 on a lawyer to defend myself against a phony charge of disorderly conduct. In 2001, she asked my employer to fire me, and in 2005, she asked the employer of my running mate to fire him. Thankfully, neither complied. At her urging, the rabbi of a prominent temple violated his temple's 501 C3 status by telling his congregants at a public event two days before my primary not to vote for me.
Because I politically oppose her "vision" for the downtown and support a different Democratic faction, which she ousted in 2000 through lies and false accusations of corruption, Ms. Frank has spread "lashon hara" about me all over town, referring to me as "mentally unbalanced," and "in need of help." In one newspaper column after another, she and her supporters made false accusations against me, including accusing me of trying to overturn an election and of being "filled with hate like the plague." She has attempted to defame me and destroy my reputation among Democratic Party leaders at all levels with what cannot be described as anything other than the politics of personal destruction.
I am not the only victim of Ms. Frank's dictatorial tactics. When she first took office, Frank filed false charges of theft against the former Democratic Party treasurer, an Orthodox Jew who had been fighting cancer for 20 years. In 2004, she forced Councilwoman Carolyn Timmons to resign and got her fired from her Middlesex County position as Director of Children's Services because Timmons publicly opposed her redevelopment plan. Last year, she asked New Jersey Democratic leaders to fire a leader of a local Democratic group because he supported her opponent in the 2007 Democratic primary. Over and over, she has shown her hostility to our large Orthodox community, in one case saying another Orthodox synagogue would come into town "over my dead body."
Ms. Frank's regime has been one of closed government and backroom deals, the complete opposite of the open government in which she presumes to believe. An energy consultant who worked for her husband's firm as well as her husband are under investigation by US Attorney Chris Christie in connection with New Jersey's $100 million no oversight Clean Energy Fund, which disbursed money to both through no bid contracts.
If you take the time to speak with many representatives of the Jewish and non-Jewish communities in Highland Park, you will find out that Ms. Frank is a divider, not a uniter, a ruthless, vindictive politician who has spread "sinat chinam"--senseless hatred--within our town for almost a decade.
I admit I am a biased source, but I experienced all these things firsthand, and I seriously ask you to reconsider the appointment of Ms.Frank to this position. I would be happy to speak with you personally and provide media sources for many of these incidents. You can find out more about the opposition to Frank from my two-and-a-half-year-old blog at http://blogforhighlandpark.blogspot.com/
Thank you for your consideration and for taking the time to read my concerns.
Sincerely,
Laurel Kornfeld
Highland Park resident since 1969, Borough Council Candidate in 2002 and 2005
posted by Laurel Kornfeld | 12:37 AM
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