Jan 25, 2012 2:07 PM
A group that has been trying to create a religious boundary in western Southampton Town for the past two years filed a formal application with Quogue Village last week, marking the first time that the East End Eruv Association has shared specific details of its proposal, one that has divided the community.
At Friday’s Quogue Village Board meeting, Mayor Peter Sartorius confirmed that the East End Eruv Association had filed a formal application, dated January 16, requesting that the village allow the installation of lechis, or wooden markers, on utility poles throughout Quogue. The markers would delineate the borders of a symbolic boundary, called an eruv. If established, the mostly invisible boundary would allow Orthodox Jews to engage in certain activities, such as the pushing of baby strollers and wheelchairs, and... more
At Friday’s Quogue Village Board meeting, Mayor Peter Sartorius confirmed that the East End Eruv Association had filed a formal application, dated January 16, requesting that the village allow the installation of lechis, or wooden markers, on utility poles throughout Quogue. The markers would delineate the borders of a symbolic boundary, called an eruv. If established, the mostly invisible boundary would allow Orthodox Jews to engage in certain activities, such as the pushing of baby strollers and wheelchairs, and... more
Where else does one spend this type of money for the benefit of so few?
But we will be ever indebted to E3A for clarifying this unsettled(?) point, however much it ...more adds to our expenses.
(Just in case, though, I am working diligently in my garage, turning out multicolored Ganeshas in various sizes to post right over the lechis. Hinduism rules!)
No ...more matter how "invisible", or "unimposing" it may be, it's still use of public property.
It is unconstitutional under the First Amendment for LIPA utility poles to be used for religious purposes.
End of line.
The flaw in the comparison, is that this boundary only applies to a minor, select group of people of a particular ...more faith on a weekly basis.
That statement is a SHINING example of the "black & white" thread of blanket thought in out society.
NO church is built upon "State" ground.
Why do they need muncipal permits to declare it themselves?
Is is that the posts themselves need to be marked with something?
I have no dog in this fight, just curious.
In the Tenafly case, things were different because PSE&G is a publicly traded, investor owned company. In other words, it is not a municipal utility, but a public utility.
Their ...more suit has no merit here, and is a waste of time, and resources.
That said: Jews being rational logical people should be able to find a way around all this embarrassing conflict....as they usually do with most religious things that are inconvenient, and ...more the very essence of an eruv is just that sort of distortion of "Talmud" etc. A way around the laws. Like the elevators that now are set to stop on every floor of a skyscraper on Saturday so god forbid they have to push a button on Sabbath. The idea of a personal Guide/Map would be just such a logical move. But probably the Hasidim if there ARE ANY THERE WOULD OBJECT STRENUOUSLY TO THAT. I am with the JPO to the E
End of line.
Why is a quotidian object without overt religious significance but which symbolizes something in the canon of a particular religion NOT a religious symbol? Is this not a question for the Court to decide? Considering the strict interpretation of the 1st Amendment that prevails, I would think that the Court would consider it to be just what the group trying to install it intends it to be.
Their arguement does not hold water, but the fact that the utility poles are municipal property does.
Enoughbickering and wasting money move on without an eruv
~ Seneca
"All religion, my friend, is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination, and poetry."
~ Edgar Allan Poe