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Meaningful People

Avi Schnall | "He tried Exposing Lakewood.. But Got It All Wrong"

Meaningful People

Meaningful Minute

Education, Judaism, Religion & Spirituality, Self-improvement

4.82K Ratings

🗓️ 18 April 2026

⏱️ 91 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Lakewood has become one of the fastest-growing Jewish communities in America, and with that growth has come controversy, criticism, and a lot of misunderstanding. In this episode, we sit down with a key insider to break down what's really happening behind the headlines: the expansion, the backlash from surrounding towns, accusations of "hostile takeovers," and the viral narratives shaping public perception. From zoning battles and lawsuits to the reality of community life, this is a raw, unfiltered look at a story most people only hear one side of.
We also go deeper into the role of Agudah, the challenges of representing a massive and diverse community, and the behind-the-scenes work that rarely gets attention. From fighting legislation to securing massive funding initiatives that could change Jewish education in America, this conversation reveals how decisions are made, who's really advocating, and why so many people misunderstand what's actually being done.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Do you watch the Tyler Oliver video? I exposed New Jersey's Jewish invasion. 8.5 million views. Yikes. I thought he did us the biggest favorite because he couldn't contain his hate. He was seething with hate. He couldn't even hide it. Hostile takeovers, right? What does that mean a hostile takeover? What's house about buying a house on the market? For over asking price. If we get on the zoning committees because we were voted on the zoning committee that's called democracy we didn't overthrow a regime we have

0:25.2

elections like every other community in the country has fear elections we are very good

0:30.5

neighbors we are very safe we are relatively quiet we don't bother our neighbors at all

0:35.6

he ignored 90% of us really going on the community i. I want to read some of the top comments. Public money should not go to private schools. That sounds illegal. Well, it's legal. That's fine. Thank you. How good this is wrong? I go to Sistraro. I personally don't know a lot of what the Aguida does on a practical level. What is he going to do? gonna roll their eyes oh he drained the Kool-Aid. He's doing this again. Did you drink the Kool-A? Of course I drank the Kool-A. The reality is the Agu doesn't start as a service organization. Advocacy and government work is the hardest thing to sell. I feel like this has been consistent as anything since they are born as like what does the are going to do what does

1:11.5

the yadour do they take our money they make the sma shas they make money on that also what in the

1:18.3

world does the i gotta do they do nothing why is it exist hello everybody welcome back to another

1:26.4

episode of the meaningful podcast this one is a big one with Avi Schnell. And we discussed so many things. Lakewood, Tyler Lavera, the Aguda, all the things that you're talking about at your Chavez table. What is going on with tuition? Why are we still paying such prices? What about this guy that came to KJ and Lakewood? How did we just take that? Nobody wanted to seek up for our community? What is going on? We spoke about that, plus a lot more in this episode with Avi Schnell. I hope you enjoy. Please, little comment on. Well, let's keep the conversation going. That is our goal here and meaningful people. Of course, this episode is sponsored by my friends at PZ deals. Because the weather is getting nice and you're going to need some stuff. And that stuff is something that you don't need a pay full price for it because you can have the PZ deals app and never ever pay full price again. Right now, head to the app if you haven't already. Download the PZDills app and never pay full price again. Anytime you're about to go order something online, hey, pause, PZ Deals app. You heard it here, first, second, and third. Of course, the episodes also sponsor my friends at Kolchabab. Yes, my streak continues giving every single day. Download the pushka app right now. Pushka.com.com slash meaningful. Get

2:35.0

sedaka every single day through the Kolkabad Pushka app. Your soul will thank you and your

2:41.1

guff because it feels good to give. It feels good to give. Thank you, Kolkabad. And I want to give a big

2:46.0

shout out to all you plus numbers of Meaningful Minute who are keeping us going. Thank you so much for being here. More episodes, more content coming your way. But for now, here is the episode with Abyshna. Lake was got office buildings. Why is that? Like how liquid. They built it. They have the space, the land. We were building in a flash. Do you think it's only about land? Because I think there's four. Five towns had infrastructure. sure five towns had infrastructure they had land oh no I didn't think about it maybe maybe

3:10.9

vision if the Asagas are not but that's it wasn't like that that's like what

3:16.4

offices are are gorgeous Boulevard of America's whatever it's called it's like

3:20.3

wow it's like it's like Manhattan it's like they're not this is just they done. This is, there's many more buildings that are going up. That's going to really bother the YouTubers. And when they started, if you look at the buildings that are there now, they're like three, four stories. Yeah. The new ones are seven, eight stories. Really? So you're going to have a bunch of eight story buildings coming into Townsend. That's going to bother some of these YouTubers now. It will bother them for sure. Food stamps. Yeah. Because we have 17 kids, a family. Right. You know anybody with 17 kids, Avi? My wife actually comes from 16 kids. Oh my gosh. What he said, said like that's normal anybody else anybody else

3:58.5

footsteps anybody else you know like i there happened to be a few families in lake

4:02.9

or that have like 16 seven a few families there that's what it is right exactly there's

4:06.9

maybe 30 out of the 10 000 families it's not just 10 000 families we're 15000 families

4:14.0

you know any families are in lakewood about 15,000 families, whatever it is.

4:14.5

Do you know how many families are in Lakewood?

4:15.4

About 15,000 families.

4:17.0

I feel like it's so much more.

4:18.3

It's much more people because every family has like six, seven kids.

4:22.3

So there's 60,000 kids in the school system.

...

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