By Eliyahu Federman, NY Daily News
Various European countries have regulated circumcision and even banned Kosher ritual slaughter under the false pretense of protecting infants and advancing animal rights.
In America, though, the U.S. Constitution thankfully protects the rights of religious minorities to practice faith free from unwarranted government intrusion.
But there is a highly disturbing recent trend of local municipalities in America infringing on the rights of Orthodox Jewish people to build wire or fishing line boundaries called eruvs, which allow them to carry and move things outside like strollers on Saturday, when strict Jewish law would otherwise disallow it. The eruvs are barely visible to the public; they are just translucent string on top of existing trees or telephone poles.
One such assault is currently taking place in Hallandale, Florida, where city officials are stonewalling approvals to re-construct an eruv.
The underlying reason for objecting to something so harmless is animus against religion. One objector to an eruv in Agoura Hills, California, blatantly said, “religious nonsense needs to be kept within homes, synagogues and churches, not in public space.”
The U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals held that if posting signs and other attachments to utility poles for non-religious purposes are permitted, then similar attachments for religious purposes could not be selectively excluded.
Despite this, townships are flagrantly violating settled law. Last year it took the attorney general office in New Jersey to file a scathing complaint suing the town of Mahwah for discrimination to finally force the township council to permit an eruv.
Hundreds of Jewish communities in America have eruvs without objection. Most people wouldn’t even notice them.
With kosher ritual slaughter, for example, one can make rational, albeit misguided, arguments for animal rights. When it comes to city displays of religious symbols like Nativity scenes or menorahs, one can raise rational questions around government endorsing religion.
But there is no rational argument against the eruv. It’s not even a religious symbol. It’s just a string that happens to have significance under Jewish law, by creating a boundary to permit carrying on the Sabbath.
But for those that hate religion, it does not matter. They’re too intent on ridiculing and marginalizing religious people.
An atheist activist in Hallandale, in fact, threatened to erect giant dongs if the town permitted the eruv, and a popular atheist blogger on Patheos mocked the Orthodox Jewish parents of a wheelchair-bound 4-year-old, saying they should just disregard “arbitrary religious restrictions.”
The rights of these Jewish religious minorities need to be taken seriously and respected.
Federman has written on religion, culture, business and law at Reuters, Forbes, USA Today and elsewhere.
In an apartment building one can rent the common areas from the landlord, or from his agent the super. Further, since it is usual for the landlord to own the stoves and fridges in each apartment, one can rent the whole building from him, or from his agent the super.
In the case of a city, if one wishes to include private property within the eruv, one can rent it from any utility that has meters or other equipment in every property.
We have to fight for the right to put up eruv in other areas even if we don’t think it can work for CH. Especially since the eruv blockers are against judaism…no we will NOT return to those dark days where jews were forced to practice Torah in secret. We WILL light big menorahs outside, go out on mivzoyim and tahalucha and show the world that we are proud to be jews and keep the Torah
They just use tat as an excuse to bully others like Frum Yidden and have modern day witch hunts.
They want people to beat and torture, so they find phony excuses to accuse others of ‘animal abuse’ so that they can demand they be beaten and tortured and look ‘compassionate’ since they are supposedly doing it ‘for the animals’.
Good point number 6 I would not have known. Although it’s never grounds for destroying anyone’s erev it helps us lay persons understand the objections
How about if it’s a government housing facility, where yidden and goyim reside, from who would one be required to obtain permission for Eruv CHATZEIROT?
The halachah or eruvei chatzerot as set down by the sanhedrin in the days of Shlomo Hamelech specifically prohibited establishing eruvim in courtyards shared with goyim, unless first obtaining some ownership rights over their property. The explicit intent & purpose was to discourage jews from living with goyim. In Europe it was therefore common to “rent” the whole city from the mayor for a token sum. However in America is is very problematic these days when eruvs are constructed against the will of the local government, but by edict of the courts, whether they are actually kosher. There are a… Read more »
The Eruv committee in North-West London forght for years to get planning permission to build an Eruv, the opposition did not come from local gentiles but local, self hating news!
Sorry bad link. Here it is again.
https://www.academia.edu/5712915/Hasidism_Shtadlanut_and_Jewish_Politics_in_Nineteenth-Century_Poland_The_Case_of_Isaac_of_Warka
Still not warming to the idea of an Eruv in CH
Make no mistake
These are yidden or peaple with yiddishe blood # mihuyehudi #reform # secular jews
Do i smell Germany 1920s 1930s
this is an old problem, and this soft form of discrimination and abuse has happened in the past in Poland. I think it would be worthwhile to disseminate this info, so that people realize what we are dealing with here, and have a point of reference. See here page 296-99 https://www.academia.edu/57… And to quote this paragraph: Soon after, the Voivodeship Committee passed Isaac’s petition on to the government authorities, who requested an opinion from the government Jewish Committee. The Jewish Committee (at the suggestion of the Advisory Chamber, which was a common practice) concurred with Isaac’s opinion and declared Eruvin… Read more »