TOMS RIVER, NJ – Tuesday night’s Toms River Township Council meeting gave the Count Basie theater a run for its money in theatrical performances at the Jersey Shore as Toms River Democrat Terrance Turnbach kicked off his 2021 re-election campaign in town hall.
Turnbach opened a box and pulled out a shtreimel, a large fur-based circular hat worn by Orthodox Jews during the Sabbath and on holy days. As cameras flashed, Turnbach said that hat how represents overdevelopment in Toms River and he’s not happy about it.
“This is a Jewish hat. It’s worn by the Orthodox community on their sabbath and on their holidays and it’s become the symbol of overdevelopment by some people who run campaigns and it’s disgusting actually,” the Democrat councilman said as he tried to make amends with the community he slighted in his 2017 campaign. “It’s a religious hat, let me put it up here so you can see it.”
“In 2021, there are people trying to say that overdevelopment has to with the Orthodox community here in Toms River,” Turnbach said. “Nothing could be further from the truth and I think it’s disgusting that’s still being conducted.”
Turnbach said Toms River residents should now look at themselves in the mirror and see what we’re doing here.
“The building that’s going on in North Dover isn’t being conducted by the Orthodox community,” Turnbach said. “It’s being done to fulfill obligations that the council made on affordable housing. If me showing respect for this hat means I need to be voted off this council, then vote me off.”