• 2025-10-31 20:09:55
• Gun Violence

TOMS RIVER, NJ — The Democratic candidates seeking election in the Toms River Township Council race are blasting mailers claiming to support them and targeting their Republican opponents as "antisemitic".

The mailers, sent in Wards 1, 2 and 4, are nearly identical with the exception of candidates' names being changed. They include a letter claiming to be written by a lifelong Republican Toms River resident and a glossy flyer featuring former Toms River Mayor Maurice Hill and Booky Kaluszyner, a member of the Toms River Jewish Community Council and an Orthodox Jew, with Kaluszyner dressed in religious garb including a shtreimel, the fur hat worn by some Jewish men on Fridays for their Sabbath.

The mailers claim that each of the three Republican candidates — Robert Bianchini in Ward 1, Clinton Bradley in Ward 2, and David Ciccozzi in Ward 4 — have been endorsed by Hill and Kaluszyner and that they want to eliminate all zoning rules for houses of worship, to allow any home to be a house of worship.

That claim is a persistent accusation leveled at the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community and a persistent source of friction and anger.

The accompanying letter claims the resident is supporting the Democratic candidate — Anthony Colucci in Ward 1, Susan Payne Gato in Ward 2, and Justin Moran in Ward 4 — while voting Republican on the rest of their ballot. The letters, which have nearly the exact same wording (you can read them below), claim to have met the Democratic candidates during door-to-door visits and say they have promised to fight the towers and the zoning.

The mailers were not sent in Ward 3, where Republican Harry Aber, who is supported by Mayor Daniel Rodrick, does not have a Democratic opponent.

"If elected, a lone democrat on council can't do any harm," the letter says, "but if (the GOP candidate) gets elected, it would put the Mo Hill team and the special interests back in control of Town Council."

The mailers claim to be paid for by "Residents Who Pay Attention," but there is no political action committee registered by that name with the state Election Law Enforcement Commission.

"The Toms River Democratic Committee is appalled at the use of anti-semitism in these materials," said Laurie Huryk, chair of the Toms River Democratic Committee. "We do not support or condone antisemitic, racist, or bigoted messaging of any kind. Full stop."

Gato, the Democrat running for the Ward 2, seat, said she and her campaign "outright denounce the abhorrent and vile antisemitic flyers recently sent to Toms River voters which target Clint Bradley, my opponent for Ward 2 council."

"I do not know who produced these flyers nor where they come from – no address of origin was included," Gato said. "What I do know is this: these flyers are part of a repeated and concerted effort to weaponize antisemitism to influence Toms River elections, and I will not tolerate it nor I will not stand to benefit from it."

Kaluszyner called the mailers "horrible."

"It's sad that in 2025, some still resort to antisemitic propaganda to influence elections," Kaluszyner said. "While we know it didn't come from the candidates, it's clear that nefarious figures are playing on age-old antisemitic stereotypes to divide our community. Hate has no place in politics or anywhere else."

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The mailers distributed Thursday also claim the three candidates want to revive a proposal for 10-story apartment towers along the Toms River. That project, which was reduced to six stories, is tied up in litigation after the redevelopment agreement was canceled by Mayor Daniel Rodrick.

The flyers are

"They keep saying 'Lakewood-style development,'

"It's basically saying 'look at their friends, keep the Jews out, they're friends with these councilmen,' " Kaluszyner said. "I'm just the poster boy."

Rodrick in 2021 defended the flyers, saying criticizing overdevelopment has nothing to do with religion.

He has repeatedly criticized Toms River's change to

"The jump in the law from 2 to 10 created the discrimination," attorney Marci Hamilton said at the time Toms River announced the settlement. Hamilton also is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the preeminent expert in RLUIPA in the country.

"This would have been at least a $10 million fine," Hamilton said, noting that Toms River would have had to pay all the attorneys' fees, for both the township and the Justice Department, in the lawsuit. "Toms River cut this off before it became ridiculously expensive."

Huryk said antiSemitic mailers sent out during the 2017 election, where she got elected to the town council, were cited by the Justice Department during its discussions with the township ahead of the settlement.

"Those statements can be held against the township if the Justice Department decides to go after us again," Huryk said. "The campaign literature is absolutely toxic and the administration can be held responsible for it. "

"Antisemitism has no place in our communities, our institutions, or our public discourse," Gato said. "It must be outright condemned in all of its forms. This kind of dehumanizing and inflammatory politics is calculated and dangerous. It pits communities against each other, corroding public trust and distracting voters from the issues that actually impact them."

"We must not let whoever orchestrated this campaign get what they want," Gato said.