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Aug. 29th, 2007 01:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sleepymaggieHoly Crap! Freehold is insane.
Here's a quote from the article:
"A New Jersey rabbi has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the township where he lives, saying local officials in Freehold Township are conducting an illegal surveillance of his house and restricting his right to pray at his home.
The federal lawsuit was filed today in Trenton on behalf of Avraham Bernstein, who is represented by the Rutherford Institute, a Charlottesville, Va.-based civil liberties group that focuses on First Amendment and religious freedom cases.
At issue is whether Bernstein, a rabbi with the ultraorthodox Lubavitch Chabad, is allowed to host a minyon, the necessary 10 men to pray under orthodox Jewish law, at his home on Shabbat, Friday night to Saturday night.
The Monmouth County township says he is violating local zoning ordinances because he is using his home as a house of worship, according to the lawsuit.
Bernstein received a zoning violation in February 2007 and a summons in April; in May he filed a lawsuit in New Jersey Superior Court. The township retaliated by "secretly setting up a video camera," aimed at the Bersteins' home, which is operated on Friday afternoon before Shabbat until its conclusion on Saturday, the lawsuit alleges."
This has enormous implications for other religious groups -- Pagans in particular. We generally don't *have* houses of worship; we almost always worship in our homes. How can Freehold be claiming this kind of thing is illegal?
Here's a quote from the article:
"A New Jersey rabbi has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the township where he lives, saying local officials in Freehold Township are conducting an illegal surveillance of his house and restricting his right to pray at his home.
The federal lawsuit was filed today in Trenton on behalf of Avraham Bernstein, who is represented by the Rutherford Institute, a Charlottesville, Va.-based civil liberties group that focuses on First Amendment and religious freedom cases.
At issue is whether Bernstein, a rabbi with the ultraorthodox Lubavitch Chabad, is allowed to host a minyon, the necessary 10 men to pray under orthodox Jewish law, at his home on Shabbat, Friday night to Saturday night.
The Monmouth County township says he is violating local zoning ordinances because he is using his home as a house of worship, according to the lawsuit.
Bernstein received a zoning violation in February 2007 and a summons in April; in May he filed a lawsuit in New Jersey Superior Court. The township retaliated by "secretly setting up a video camera," aimed at the Bersteins' home, which is operated on Friday afternoon before Shabbat until its conclusion on Saturday, the lawsuit alleges."
This has enormous implications for other religious groups -- Pagans in particular. We generally don't *have* houses of worship; we almost always worship in our homes. How can Freehold be claiming this kind of thing is illegal?
