Dear Editor of Yeshiva World News,
I am writing to you with a heavy heart and a burning sense of outrage, mortification, and shame after witnessing a scene that has left me questioning the values of our community. On Thursday, Chol HaMoed Pesach, I visited the Coney Island boardwalk, hoping for a pleasant outing with my family. Instead, what I encountered was nothing short of a travesty—a grotesque display of disregard for basic decency and cleanliness.
The entire boardwalk, a public space enjoyed by thousands, was transformed into a landfill of kosher wrappers, plastic cups, plates, spoons, dirty diapers, soiled baby wipes, eggshells, and more. The beach itself, a natural treasure, was littered with the unmistakable remnants of our community’s presence: Discarded chocolate Lebens, wrappers, Mayim Chayim seltzer bottles, Lieber’s products, Paskesz candy, and kosher l’pesach potato chip bags, all strewn about like a perverse advertisement for kosher brands. It wasn’t just litter—it was a monumental Chillul Hashem on a scale that should shake us to our core.
Do the Yidden who left this disgusting mess behind not understand the gravity of their actions? Have we forgotten what Chillul Hashem means? Have we lost sight of the fact that Yom Kippur itself does not atone for such public desecration of Hashem’s name? The Gemara in Yoma (86a) makes it clear: Chillul Hashem is so severe that even teshuva, Yom Kippur, and suffering cannot fully erase it until one’s actions are rectified in the eyes of the world. Some mefarshim suggest that only misa death can fully atone for such a aveira! Yet here we are, with our negligence on full display for all of New York City to see.
The non-Jewish residents, the tourists, the workers who will have to clean up this filth—what must they think of us? What must they think of the Torah we claim to uphold? I am utterly disgusted. This is not who we are supposed to be. The Torah commands us to be a light unto the nations, to embody kiddush Hashem in every action. Instead, we’ve turned a public boardwalk into a symbol of carelessness and disrespect.
What happened to basic derech eretz? What happened to “v’ahavta l’rei’acha kamocha”? What happened to the principle of leaving a place cleaner than you found it? Are we so consumed with our own enjoyment that we’ve forgotten our responsibility to the world around us?
I saw families, frum families, walking away from piles of their own trash without a second glance. I saw children tossing wrappers into the wind while their parents did nothing. I saw groups of teenagers leaving behind half-eaten snacks and empty seltzer bottles as if the beach were their personal dumpster. This wasn’t one or two bad actors—this was a collective failure, a communal embarrassment that reflects poorly on every single one of us.
Amidst this sea of filth, I noticed dozens of Chassidim snacking on Bamba. Bamba! On Pesach! Has no one told them it’s kitniyos? Have we become so lax in our observance that we’re eating kitniyos openly and in public?
The hypocrisy is staggering. We pride ourselves on our supposed commitment to mitzvos, yet we leave behind a trail of wrappers without a second thought. If we can’t uphold the basics of decency, how can we claim to represent Torah values in the world?
YWN, you have a platform, a voice that reaches tens of thousands of Yidden. Use it. Call out this behavior for what it is: a Chillul Hashem of epic proportions. Demand accountability from our community leaders, our rabbanim, our organizations.
We need public campaigns, shiurim, and drashos reminding us of our responsibility to uphold kiddush Hashem. We need practical solutions—trash bags distributed at community outings, volunteers to monitor public spaces, and a cultural shift that prioritizes cleanliness and respect. We need to teach our children that leaving a mess isn’t just bad manners; it’s an aveira that tarnishes our collective neshama.
I am ashamed to be associated with this behavior. I am heartbroken that our community, which has so much potential for good, allows this to happen. And I am furious that we’ve given ammunition to those who already view us with suspicion or disdain. The people of New York City deserve better. The Torah deserves better. Hashem deserves better from his Chosen People.
Shame on those who contributed to this mess. Shame on us for allowing it to happen. Let’s clean up our act—literally and figuratively—before it’s too late.
Sincerely,
A Mortified and Disgusted Yid
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32 Responses
100% correct! Then we scream antisemitism when the neighbors try to protect their quality of life with their strict zoning laws and eruv laws.
The neighbors are unfortunately correct 😩
Btw there’s non kitniyos Bamba lol
One hundred percent agree with every single word of this letter. Nothing to add other than I am very pessimistic about our community improving in any issue that has to do with Chillul Hashem. We’re just too entitled, and we’re too proud of it.
“It wasn’t just litter—it was a monumental Chillul Hashem on a scale that should shake us to our core.”
This is hyperbole, of course.
It should “shake us to our core” because some little kids (or even some lazy adults) didn’t clean up after themselves? Yes, parents should be watching their kids, and should be sure to clean up, regardless, and it is certainly a lack of derech eretz to not clean up one’s garbage, and could certainly be a chilul Hashem, as you noted.
But this is not “…on a scale that should shake us to our core”. The chessed that Jews do, on the other hand, is on such a scale.
Totally agree with the letter writer and am also very disturbed by the fact that my wonderful Jewish family can be so blatantly disrespectful . Many times in such situations I will personally collect “Jewish” trash so as not to make a chillul Hashem.
We need to think about what people will say about us regarding how we act in public and yes, what kind of trash is leftover when we are gone.
Many of the indoor places tolerate our messes because we bring a lot of money but why should Jews ruin the lovely outdoor spaces Hashem has given us to enjoy??
Baruch HaShem for Klal Yisrael, the last vestige of Kedusha and normalcy in a declining, decadent world. Nobody is perfect. Normal people understand that. Those who hate us will always find a pretext to rail against us-we don’t need to help them. Of course, littering is not ok. But let’s stop conflating western norms and Torah law. “A chillul HaShem of epic proportions”?? Really? Hundreds of families of Torah-observant Jews is a tremendous kiddush HaShem!! Mi K’amcha Yisrael!!
it was a very windy chol hamoed even more at the beach everything was blowing everywhere. much cleaner than the beach on easter weekend i guarantee u. listen u c what u wanna c
Was there any fights or killings among the heimisha crowd. No. So why are you getting all worked up about some kids dropping a wrapper. Why don’t you talk about those talking in shuls or business on shabbos. The community has grown very fast and families are very large and you can’t control every kid. Every large chassidic movement needs two or more rebbes as one can’t control tens of thousands. Even Moshe rabeinu needed to appoint on every group of ten and fifty and do on a leader. One leader can’t handle so many people. Today the Frum community has expanded in different directions. Boro park,Williamsburg,crown heights,Seagate,Staten Island,lakewood,Jackson,Tom’s river,Linden,Howell,Monsey,pamona,Airmont,spring valley,Wesley hills,Monroe,Bloomberg,Possaic,and dozens of new areas all around these areas. Streimels and black hats are seen everywhere. Families today around the world in the Frum oilem are having 7 to 18 kids especially in Israel. People go to five weddings a night. It’s normal. You can’t patrol so many children dropping a wrapper on the floor. Kids are kids. Go compare to the Puerto Rican day parade what gets dropped there on fifth ave in manhattan.
Seek immediate help.
Calm Down!!! Yeah it was a chillul Hashem but you make it sound like It’s a pervasive crisis. Stop piling it on. Make your point and move on!
Well stated. It is our zechus to remind the yidden around us how inappropriate this is if we found them doing these kinds of things–but as chizuk though, if as mussar it usually would not be heard and might even aggravate the situation further, because many may just feel it’s a ‘chumra’ of sorts, never having seen others do better.
The same was at the Flatbush event on Tuesday…….. but I think there were just not enough receptacles and a major wind blowing things around even if they started off in a box or can. Still…….
Kudos to the author and YWN for this very important letter. Though this type of behavior by certain phony and corrupt hymish behymish fake frum types has by no means just started now (YWN has had similar posts in that past), it still is outrageous, and must be strongly called out and opposed. If the community will not act properly and police itself, HKB”H may send outsiders as well as city police and other officials to put it down with a heavy hand, and have violators pay a stiff price. The world is not hefker.
Bamba is made of peanuts and thus not kitniyos.
Wow. What a strong condemnation of the Jews. But there are a couple of things wrong here. First of all, where are the photos and videos? The few puny pics of trash on the boardwalk are a strong indicator that this author did not really find much to support his accusations, since one would assume that he’d put his best photographic evidence forward, not his worst. And secondly, why did he mention his problem with some Chasidm eating Bamba? How is that relevant to his point? Is it a chilul Hashem for the non-Jews? Or is this whole article just some non-Chasidic person bashing Chasidim in general? I suspect the latter…
I’m not saying it’s not possible but to me it sounds like this is a smear based on a small amount of truth. What drives me to believe that is the Bamba story.
chilul hashem means to do a aveireh in bublic. leavivg dirt is horrible and dis gusting but im not sure its chilul hashem.
Thank you for taking the time to write this letter.
You gave hope to at least One fellow Jew.
Me.
The only way to fix a travesty like this is to make a kiddush Hashem. I encourage you to start organizing people at events….
My father, ZT”L used to get our bungalow colony cleaned up by making a garbage hunt….
He gave out garbage bags on Friday afternoon and gave out prizes for the kid who had the most trash in their garbage bag.
I can guarantee you, that any child who participated in those garbage hunts on erev Shabbat, has no problem taking out the trash for their wife, cleaning garbage off the floor in there home, or making sure that their children clean up after themselves.
May Hashem be with you in your quest to repair our nation
I’ve been to the Coney Island boardwalk many, many times on Chol HaMoed and I’ve never had this experience. It is possible that some people act in a way they shouldn’t but it certainly isn’t true of everyone who was there as a group. Did the author of this letter speak to anyone directly or is a lot more fun to do so online where no one is there to defend themselves and you can just enjoy the bash and hate fest you created without being confronted by anyone?
This letter would have lot more effect even on the alleged guilty themselves had it been written as a bringing up awareness letter rather than the self-righteous attack mode that it was written in
N1818 – do research before you say something. Peanuts are definitely kitniyos and therefore assur for Ashkenazim to eat on Pesach.
All we have done so far is complain. Where is the solution.
We need to educate our children. This begins in the home.
Where I live it is unfortunate that the yungerleit have no self respect.
We need to begin by learning self respect, maintaining our selves, how we present ourself and maintain our properties. It takes but an extra minute.
If our children see this, they will carry it forward.
With this Yom Tov of redemption, let us begin to be representative of who we are.
Wishing all a gut Yom Tov,
Sparkey in Ohio
As much as I agree and am super careful myself on litter and work with my kids on this… and am certainly disgusted when I see heimishe wrappers like that… personally… I would like to think I would have gone to a dollar store to buy some ‘grabbers’ and I would have seen if I could get some friends and neighbors to come make a kiddush hashem and taken some garbage bags and gone around picking this up. 1) Would have turned the story into a kiddush hashem to help make us ‘recitifed in the eyes of the world’. 2) Besides a deep lesson for my kids… it would have a more profound affect on people on the boardwalk and likely gave them pause for thought for them and their kids in the future. Personally I can attest that my mother would see garbage in the house and just pick it up. That trained way more than if she yelled at me instead. I also remember my Menahel, an imposing Tzaddik… would see garbage in the hallway and just bend and pick it up. He did not give a Mussar Shmuess or ask a Bochur to go do it.. he did it… and that had 10 times the affect. Please bear in mind… I appreciate you taking action here and in no way believe the responsibility lies on you. You did not throw the garbage and you took the time to try and address it… so thank you… but at the same time… a loving suggestion would be more around this type of action. Unfortunately I live too far away from Coney Island to make a difference here… but the community still has today to make such a Kiddush Hashem!
1. This is a gross exaggeration intended for effect.
2. Would he rather our community fault be like the black community with daily violence and shootings? Or like the white community with out of wedlock pregnancies and drugs? Our faults are tiny in comparison.
3. Aside from all that, obviously anyone on the pritzusdik beach in the first place are from the lower wrungs of society and non-representative of our community.
@19812262
אסור לקלקל רשות הרבים even applies to throwing water onto a public street. So yes, littering a public space is an issur.
Heimisha,
“Was there any fights or killings among the heimisha crowd?”
There’s nothing sadder than Yidden pointing to the lowest society has to offer & claiming (& sadly believing) that being above the worst should make us proud (or at least give us an excuse).
Could you imagine interviewing the leader of an Amish, Catholic, Adventists, etc. conference asking how it went & the leader proudly declares, “35,000 Amish attended & not a single stabbing! Mi Kiamcha the Amish!”
Aren’t we supposed to be a “Holy Nation”? A “Light unto the Nations”? Hashem’s “Chosen Nation”?
& the best you can come up with for Yidden acting with total disrespect towards others (& ourselves) is “but there were no fights or killings”?
This is an issue of basic manners that are not being taught at home. Even if it’s not in public, even if nobody is watching, people with basic derech eretz understand that it’s not ok to throw garbage on the floor or leave your trash behind. Stop finding excuses and teach your kids (and adults) basic manners.
And it doesn’t matter how much chesed we do, how much tzedaka we give or how much better we are compared to others. Wrong is wrong, period.
to letter writer this problem can very easy solved you have to buy new glasses and dont look so bad at the chassidim as can be seen in your letter
this letter writer is wrong on 3 accounts.
I too used to hold similar views, but changed,
after seeing the CLEENUP OF TIMES SQUARE AFTER NEW YEARS. And various other Parades throughout the year, Thanksgiving, etc.
1. One starts to realize that Every outing were there are revelers, there tends to be a LOT of trash left behind. This is sometimes due to bad charchter, but mostly due to logistical realities. Lack of trash, lack of capacity, etc.
2. The writer saw teenagers leaving a half eaten sandwich… Yes, that may very well be callous and contemptable behavior. But why paint the 3, or even 15 instances where negative behavior was displayed as a painting of the whole community. there were Hundreds if not THOUSANDS of frum families there that day.
In Mental Health terms we call that a Cognitive Distortion.
I live in lakewood, and there are issues with the driving. At a certain point i had the thought that every time I saw a car driving irresponsibally or nasty, i make a quick count of all the other cars in the area that i can safely view. Perspective change. 100%
Besides, considering the fact that wherever there are large meeting of reveling teenagers, things many times end with Police, forget bad behavior, the witnessing of one group of teens callousness shouldnt be blown out of proportion.
3. Chassidim eating Bamba. this is an unrelated post, to be sure.
Has it occured to you that some bamba may not be peanuts? I even saw bamba in a local supermarket, though i wasnt interested in getting it, and i thought to myself “bamba kFP”? it didnt occur to me that maybe it was only for ochlei kitniyot. Its an innocent mistake.
The writer is certainly correct. We need to be, as a community, more conscientious about these sorts of things. I believe community askanim can be in touch with Roshei Kehillos to appraise them of the situation, and it would certainly be noted.
But lets take a collective step back. and change this from derision to constructive criticism.
Good Yom Tov!
ujm: “obviously anyone on the pritzusdik beach in the first place are from the lower wrungs of society and non-representative of our community.”
You seem quite unaware of the situation in Brooklyn where Coney Island is. It is still early spring there now, with relatively cool weather, so it is not loaded with people in beachwear like a hot day in the summer. So your assertion doesn’t hold water.
Kuvult
We should take into consideration that Frum communities are the safest compared to any other community. There is a reason police want to work on a religious Jewish community as they have quiet and safe days. How many cops were killed in Boro park since it became chassidic. Non. Families of cops sleep better if their family members who are police work in a Frum Jewish area. As far as kids littering it’s because we are in the western culture that has infiltrated our communities. Kids are exposed to being wild and spoiled materialistically. Kids in America for the most part are spoiled rotten as are their young parents. Throwing orange peels and wrappers out of car windows is habits picked up by parents. Leaving tissues on shul tables is worse. Kids today are so spoiled that when they marry they want everything. To them money grows on trees. Spend spend spend is their motto.
You sound like the Tikun Olam type. Calm down, buddy.
First of all it was very windy on chol hamoed and maybe as someone was throwing their trash away it blew out of their ands. Second of all, I don’t know about Coney Island, I’m not from Brooklyn. Do they have waste receptacles all over? Thirdly, maybe it wasn’t as wide spread as the writer wrote about. Let’s be dan l’kaf zechus our fellow Yidden. And fourthly, I agree with the writer that wrote at least Jews don’t riot and cause a ruckus. Also as far as the “Bamba” is concerned, just about everything for Pesach nowadays is a Pesachdick copy of chometz item, the cookies, cereals etc. in non grebrokst, non kitniyos versions, just read the labels.
It’s not just here: https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/liveblogs/live-blog/2389501/watch-hebrew-not-needed-to-understand-what-this-bus-drivers-saying.html