Toms River Fined Nearly $30K In Federal Synagogue Lawsuit

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Toms River Township has been ordered to pay nearly $30,000 in attorneys' fees in a pair of ongoing lawsuits over the township zoning board's rejection of applications for two Orthodox Jewish synagogues.

U.S. Magistrate Justin T. Quinn on Oct. 15 ordered the township to pay $29,750 to Bais Brucha and Khal Anshei Tallymawr in their 2021 federal lawsuits over the zoning board denials. He had ruled the township was in contempt of court on March 27, 2025, in a May 2024 order to turn over the information.

Toms River has 30 days from Oct. 15 to pay the fine, according to Quinn's order.

Khal Anshei Tallymawr and Bais Brucha Inc. had each sought zoning approval for small synagogues known as shuls in 2019 and 2020 in the North Dover section of Toms River. Both applications were rejected by the zoning board.

In 2021 the two filed federal lawsuits over the zoning denials while Toms River was in the midst of negotiating a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over the town's zoning changes that federal officials said violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.

The Justice Department investigated Toms River after the Chabad Jewish Center's 2016 lawsuit over the Zoning Board of Adjustment's 2015 denial of the center's request to hold prayer services at Rabbi Moshe Gourarie's home.

The lawsuits cited increasing anti-Semitism in Toms River as the cause for the denials.

Federal judges in the Khal Anshei Tallymawr and Bais Brucha lawsuits issued partial dismissals after Toms River settled with the Justice Department, but in both cases the plaintiffs were permitted to amend their complaints, which happened in early 2023, according to court records.

Since then, the township has dragged its feet in providing documents and information in the lawsuit in spite of court orders telling the township to provide the information, Quinn said in his order. The contempt ruling then led to the request for the township to pay the attorneys' fees as a punishment for not turning over the documents.

Bais Brucha and Khal Anshei Tallymawr did not get everything they requested in the sanctions, however. They had requested more than $100,000 in attorneys' fees, but Quinn rebuked the requests as excessive and the billing summaries submitted as too vague.

"It simply is not reasonable for counsel to claim that they spent over a month’s worth of billable hours on one partially briefed motion. And it is not something the undersigned is willing to endorse," Quinn wrote in his order.

On Aug. 27, Toms River's attorneys confirmed the township would provide all of the remaining documents and materials in discovery by Oct. 27, and a status hearing in the case is set for Nov. 3.