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 […]