The issue depends on the manner that it is implemented. I understand that many of these commitees are overly strict, and thus are causing severe pain and resentment to upright, religious individuals who would like to live within their midsts. In general, while I can understand the desire to live within a likeminded community, it must be recognized that the potential for sinaas chinom and alienation here is tremendous. The messages of rejection that are being gratuitously extended when religious, halachic Jews who do not suscribe to all the strictures maintained by the committees, or do not fall into the precise family and hashkafic patterns demanded are denied living rights in specific areas are heartrending. Our societies suffer on a broader scale from fragmentation,diviseness and alienation and I feel that these screening committees further these tendencies at a dangerous expense. At the very least, I believe that the screening committees should have a list of concrete and thoughtfully generated specifics that families or individuals must suscribe to in order to live in these communities. This would leave the choice in the hands of those whom would like to live there instead of the whims of the commitees, and could still ensure the character of the community. The comparison with private clubs is innapropriate. Private clubs view their members an elite group and do not concern themselves with the rest of society at large. If we in fact view ourselves as part of the larger group of am yisrael, and do not merely pay lip service to it as a nebulous concept, we must concern ourselves with the feelings of those rejected and the potentially grevious results of our actions.
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