A Jewish businessman claims an exclusive country club has banned his family over a tongue-and-cheek video highlighting the gated community’s popularity with Jews.
Isaac Scharf invited comedian Jake Adams to play a round of golf with him at Boca Grove in Boca Raton, Florida, in December.
Adams, who has 50,000 followers on Instagram, gave it a comedic review online, rating it 9.2 out of 10, as part of his long-running series of visiting what he jokingly calls ‘Jewish country clubs’.
But after Adams posted the video, Scharf received a 90-day suspension from the $40,000-a-year club along with his wife Danielle and their five kids.
Boca Grove’s furious board claimed the video showed ‘religious practices that have been deemed offensive to a reasonable person’ in its notice of his ban.
The club told the Daily Mail it suspended Scharf because the jokes in Adams’ video ‘mocked sacred traditions’ and were ‘deeply offensive’.
Scharf, however, claimed in a $50million lawsuit that the real reason was the club secretly doesn’t want to be seen as a destination for Orthodox Jews.
‘I don’t know why, I can only say it’s pure hatred or jealousy. There’s absolutely no reason,’ he told the Daily Mail.
‘We are unwelcome in our own home. We were singled out, we were targeted… I cannot wrap my head around it except you’re evil, you hate for no reason. And we can’t live like that.’
Isaac Scharf was banned, along with his whole family, from the exclusive country club he pays $40,000 a year in fees to, over a viral Instagram video highlighting its popularity with Jews
Adams gave a humorous review of the club, rating it 9.2 out of 10, as part of his long-running series of visiting ‘Jewish country clubs’
Scharf, who owns the popular Pillow Guy brand, claimed board members took particular issue with him helping wrap Adams in tefillin, a traditional Jewish ritual, shown for a few seconds in the video.
He told the Daily Mail this only became clear at a disciplinary hearing with the board, and he ‘got everyone in the room to say it and to agree that it was the wrapping of the tefillin that [they found] offensive’.
‘That makes me cry because we live in a world today where there’s just so much anti-Semitism out there,’ he said.
‘The wrapping of the tefillin has been deemed offensive, but it’s not offensive, it’s beautiful. It connects us all, and it’s a beautiful religious tradition that we’ve been doing for thousands of years.’
The club strongly rejects this explanation, and insisted in its statement that the suspension wasn’t a ‘suppression of religious practice’.
‘The decision in question followed feedback from multiple members – Orthodox and non-Orthodox alike – who felt the behavior depicted in a publicly circulated video mocked sacred traditions in a way they found deeply offensive,’ it said.
‘The concern centered on conduct perceived as disrespectful, not religious observance.’
Scharf, in a letter to the board before the hearing, included in his lawsuit, insisted Adams’ jokes were not offensive as they were intended to mock and subvert stereotypes of Jewish people, especially as Adams is Jewish himself.
‘It was always Jake’s intent to showcase the warmth and inclusivity that Boca Grove embodies, particularly toward the Jewish community,’ he wrote.
He described Adams’ content as ‘dedicated to humorously highlighting golf clubs that welcome Jewish individuals despite the historical exclusion of Jews from many prestigious golf courses’.
Scharf invited popular comedian Jake Adams to play a round of golf with him and produce one of his tongue-in-cheek reviews of Jewish-friendly clubs – including a ‘pickle review’
Scharf and his family sued the Boca Grove Property Owners Association on May 30 for $50 million, claiming their civil rights were violated.
‘This may be the most egregious religious discrimination case I’ve ever handled,’ their lawyer, Dhillon Law Group partner Matthew Sarelson, said.
‘Boca Grove didn’t just target one man – they punished an entire family for participating in an innocuous act of Jewish faith.’
Scharf and his family moved to Boca Grove from Los Angeles in 2020, around the same time as many other families fleeing major cities because of the Covid pandemic.
Now 40 per cent of homes in the upscale gated community are owned by Orthodox Jews and they make up half of total people living there, the lawsuit stated.
The country club includes a golf course that weaves between rows of houses, tennis courts, a clubhouse hosting community events, fitness facilities, a pool, and restaurants.
Scharf’s lawsuit claimed that at first the community was welcoming, as the influx drove up property values and allowed club fees to dramatically increase.
The club introduced monthly kosher dinners and community events, occasional kosher food truck service, and allowed members to bring in kosher food for their events and gatherings.
Boca Grove in Boca Raton, Florida, has a country club that includes a golf course that weaves between rows of houses, tennis courts, a clubhouse hosting community events, fitness facilities, a pool, and restaurants
But the lawsuit claimed a bigoted anti-Orthodox clique soon formed and took over the club’s board, then launched a campaign to marginalize Jewish members.
Scharf detailed in the complaint how he texted general manager Jennifer Jolly on December 4 telling her about Adams’ visit and video, and asking if his round could be comped.
When she didn’t reply, he called golf pro shop manager Dan Pendola, whom the lawsuit claimed ‘enthusiastically supported [Adams] reviewing the club’.
The round went ahead on December 8 with Boca Grove staff present. Some even assisted in serving kosher food after the 9th hole, and Pendola drove to the 12th hole and gave Adams a club-branded hat.
After lunch, Scharf asked Adams if he would like to perform the tefillin ritual as part of his experience at the club.
‘Yes, I’d love to; I haven’t put on tefillin since my Bar Mitzvah,’ Adams replied, according to the lawsuit.
Tefillin are two small black leather boxes containing scrolls inscribed with Torah verses, secured to the head and arm by wrapping black leather straps.
They are worn by Orthodox Jews during morning prayers as a reminder of their deliverance from Egypt during the Exodus.
Scharf said if the ban was only for him he would have taken it on the chin, and only filed the lawsuit after seeing the effects on his family (pictured with his son)
Scharf texted general manager Jennifer Jolly on December 4 telling her about Adams’ visit and video, and asking if his round could be comped
Scharf can briefly be seen in the video wrapping the straps around Adams’ arm as the Jewish influencer joked ‘apparently my arm needed to be regripped’, in reference to the handles of golf clubs.
‘This is the part where they turn me into a unicorn. I can’t say that pace of play was a huge priority,’ he said.
Adams then joked he ‘felt dialed-in after praying’ and the video returned to the golf course.
The video was posted online on January 6 and quickly amassed thousands of views. It has now been viewed nearly a million times.
That is when it came to the board’s attention.
‘They were enraged that Adams’ video brought attention to Orthodox Jewish life at Boca Grove and made the community look inviting and welcoming to Orthodox Jews, thus interfering with their goal of driving the Orthodox community away and reducing its visibility,’ the lawsuit claimed.
General manager Jennifer Jolly called Scharf on January 10 to let him know the board was upset and had initiated a grievance against hm.
‘But don’t worry too much. You didn’t break any rules. I really don’t think this is a big deal. Just write up the facts and I’m sure it’ll be fine,’ the lawsuit claimed she said.
But Scharf had plenty of reason to worry.
The board hired an investigator, and the lawsuit claimed Jolly and other administrators gave the board a deliberately slanted presentation of the facts.
The video, posted on January 6, showcased the club’s facilities and lightly mocked stereotypes of Jewish people
Scharf was notified of the ban, but under the bylaws was entitled to a hearing before a larger committee on March 11 to decide his fate.
‘The hearing made clear that Isaac was targeted and punished for being visibly Orthodox at Boca Grove’s clubhouse,’ the lawsuit claimed.
‘The Board perceived it as staining Boca Grove’s name and reputation to be so associated with Orthodox Jews and was worried that it would only further encourage Orthodox families to move to the community.
‘The Board was particularly furious with the clip of Isaac helping Adams wrap tefillin in the locker room because it made Boca Grove look too friendly and inviting to the Orthodox Jews.’
They were also upset by Adams calling the kosher menu items at the poolside café the ‘Starbucks of David’.
‘Isaac was shocked that they were willing to openly admit to the Board’s bigotry against Orthodox Jews in the middle of the hearing and state it as the motivation for why he was being punished,’ the lawsuit read.
The committee upheld Scharf’s 90-day ban, along with one-week suspensions for two of the other members who played with Adams, and a two week ban for the third player as he brought the kosher food.
The lawsuit pointed out that the standard punishment for a first offense is a warning, up to a $100 fine and one-week ban for a fourth infraction.
A week later, Scharf’s ban was ‘clarified’ to include ‘you and any of your family members, medical aide, nanny/housekeeper and/or guests’.
Scharf (far right) played the course with Adams (center) and three other Orthodox Jewish members of Boca Grove
Two board members in the days that followed held a meeting to ‘discuss tensions in the community’ and said they didn’t want Boca Grove ‘to be known as a kosher club’.
‘One of the members in the conversation challenged them, asking, ‘Why is that a problem? Would you say the same thing if this were a black country club?’,’ the lawsuit claimed.
‘Smith responded angrily and without hesitation, ‘I wouldn’t want this to be known as a black country club either’.’
Scharf told the Daily Mail that if the ban was only for him he would have taken it on the chin, and only filed the lawsuit after seeing the effects on his family.
‘There was a petition signed by over 100 members about at least not punishing the wife and kids, but they had no mercy,’ he said.
‘My 14-year-old coming home crying when his friends are all scootering down the block and they’re all going one way and he’s got a beeline to back home. He goes up into his room because it’s heart wrenching.’
The teenager was at least twice hassled by club members who yelled at him to leave as he walked in areas he was not banned from, the lawsuit claimed.
Scharf said his five-year-old son doesn’t understand why he can’t play with his friends or swim in the pool as he does almost every day, and he and Danielle had to lie that the pool was closed as the truth would be too devastating.
The notice from the club upholding the ban of Scharf’s entire family
‘When he hears his friends say, ‘We’re going to the pool, see you there!’ he becomes despondent and inconsolable, asking his parents over and over, ‘why can’t we go too?’,’ the lawsuit read.
When Scharf’s older son, 18, returned from studying in Israel in April, his friends’ parents wouldn’t let them hang out with him as they worried the club would retaliate against them.
The lawsuit also outlined previous incidents in which it claimed the board was ‘antagonistic to and disdainful of’ the Orthodox Jewish families.
The board also banned members from walking across the golf course to get to the nearby synagogue for Shabbat and ripped up a path that had been there for 40 years that allowed a safe route, instead of crossing six roads.
Scharf’s lawsuit claimed Jewish members were punished far more harshly than non-Jewish ones, outlining some who were given 90-day bans for complaining about the board’s treatment of Orthodox members.
The lawsuit compared these punishments to an only 75 day-ban for sexual harassment by a non-Orthodox member.
Scharf, who owns the popular Pillow Guy brand, said the board was angry that the video showed Boca Grove to be welcoming to Orthodox Jews
Scharf told the Daily Mail that despite what happened, his family had no intention of uprooting themselves from their home and community.
‘I think that if we were to move for this, then they win,’ he said.
‘We love where we live, we don’t want to have to sell our house and have to leave the community that we have all of our friends in that my kids have their friends in.’
Boca Grove Property Owners Association told the Daily Mail it was committed to upholding a welcoming, respectful environment for all members.
‘We are proud of our diverse community and honor all sincere expressions of faith,’ it said.
‘Our decisions are guided by our declarations, bylaws and rules, and by our obligation to maintain standards of conduct that support member harmony and mutual respect.’
