A panel of federal judges has ruled that an “Orthodox Jewish religious zone” erected in a Hamptons beach community can stay.
The zone, called an eruv, is marked with utility poles bearing “religious symbols”.
It allows Orthodox Jews to push strollers, carry keys and perform other tasks not otherwise permitted on Shabbos.
Newsday reports the judges found the zone does not violate Constitutional issues regarding separation of church and state.
The dispute dates back several years.
A group called Jewish People for the Betterment of Westhampton Beach claimed in a 2012 lawsuit that the eruv violated the Constitution.
U.S. Court of Appeals judges said Tuesday the eruv is not “endorsing religion.”
A group backing the eruv says it has gone largely unnoticed.
(AP)
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6 Responses
Note that it is usually the case that only secular persons of Jewish descent (hilonim as they are called in Eretz Yisrael) object to the existence of an eruv. Of course, if the government were to be in charge of the eruv, it would be unconstitutional under American law (though could you imagine the reliability of an eruv set up by De Blasio or Obama or Cuomo?).
The rednecks who tried to force the eruv to be forcibly removed are a bunch of anti-semites including a number self-hating Jewish Uncle Toms. The ONLY think that bothered them was that those hated Orthodox Jews would be living in THEIR town.
Only self hating jews could protest-goyim have no issue…As R Shlomo Friefeld once responded brilliantly to an off the derech young man who claimed “I hate Shabbos”- “You don’t hate Shabbos-You hate YOURSELF!!!”
Someone needs to ask the so-called Jewish People for the Betterment of Westhampton Beach also known as the Jewish People Opposed to the Eruv whether it was worth all that money they spent just to try and keep affluent Orthodox Jews out of Westhampton. What the non-Orthodox won’t do to try and “protect” themselves, their families and their property values from their Orthodox brethren.
ujm : “rednecks” is an offensive term refering to working class Americans of (usually) British descent. I have known many of them and they are generally nice people, and have never been a problem for Orthodox Jews (though secular Jews find them very annoying, and vice versa). As the group involved consisted of Jews, not white Christians, your use of the perjorative “redneck” was inappropriate.
Commenter no. 5: You are right that “rednecks” (i) is a demeaning term which should not be used by decent people, and (ii) generally refers to working class white people of British ancestry, though the term also includes Scotch-Irish (Protestant) Americans and may include other Americans of Western European ancestry. You are dead wrong that they have never been a problem for Orthodox Jews. In the last 40 years they have generally been descent to Orthodox and other Jews, but prior to that they were, many of them, fundamentally anti-Semitic.