A Comedy Central parody filmed in the Village of Westhampton Beach about the controversy surrounding a proposed eruv—a Jewish religious boundary—has everyone in the village talking.
The bit, entitled “The Thin Jew Line,” aired Wednesday night, March 23, on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and poked fun at the strong opposition to the proposed religious boundary.
The segment featured several village residents’ reactions to the possibility of an eruv being erected in the village. Hosted by Comedy Central news correspondent Wyatt Cenac, the segment featured interviews with Jeff Weisenfeld, a member of the Hampton Orthodox Synagogue, and Charles Gottesman, a member of Jewish People Opposed to the Eruv. The piece also highlighted interviews with several area residents in Simon’s Beach Bakery Cafe on Main Street.
Comedy Central crews were spotted interviewing local... more
The bit, entitled “The Thin Jew Line,” aired Wednesday night, March 23, on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and poked fun at the strong opposition to the proposed religious boundary.
The segment featured several village residents’ reactions to the possibility of an eruv being erected in the village. Hosted by Comedy Central news correspondent Wyatt Cenac, the segment featured interviews with Jeff Weisenfeld, a member of the Hampton Orthodox Synagogue, and Charles Gottesman, a member of Jewish People Opposed to the Eruv. The piece also highlighted interviews with several area residents in Simon’s Beach Bakery Cafe on Main Street.
Comedy Central crews were spotted interviewing local... more
"The Daily Show" is well known for promulgating a political agenda. It seems that it is now migrating into a religious agenda as well. But enough commentary, ...more if you will. Here's a suggestion: Why can't Rabbi Schneir petition for all of Suffolk County to be designated an eruv? This would stop the villagel controversy and any other local controversies in the county. Orthodox Jews in Suffolk County could then be anywhere in the county and be able to circumvent inconvenient religious laws.
What I find insulting is the fact that so many are trying to make such a big issue of something that will have absolutely no effect on their lives.
They want to circumvent the laws of their faith, because it has become inconvenient in a modern lifestyle, and desire to use public property to do so. It would seem all things must evolve, including religion, and it's laws / bylaws.
This is America, and last time I checked, allegedly majority rules, but, if you have enough money to bankrupt the "opposing" party, YOU WIN!!
Let's see how this transpires...
When the question of whether it is constitutionally permissable to install religious symbols on public property has reached the Supreme Court in the past, the answer has always been "No".
So ...more this relatively silly question could have profound ramifications as precedent.
Personally, I have always thought that the Supremes went too far in reading the 1st Amendment to see all references to religion as "establishing", but if the Orthodox Jews are permitted to install korahs, the Hindus should be allowed to post Ganeshas.
The uproar is the people an eruv may attract. And to that... really? My family never wanted tourists and wealthy second home owners here, but they came and we are adapting. People didn't want illegal immigrants, but they're here and we are adapting. Orthodox Jews are surely not going to make a pilgrimage out just to mess up WHB, and in the rare chance they do, c'est la vie. If we can't complain about the newcomers who have arrived the past five or six decades, don't complain about those who may visit in the future, all because of a little bit of fishing line.
The majority of that most, in the most recent decade, building second, or third extravagant homes with the equivalent of Mononpoly money.
Illegal immigrants are not something you "adapt to". That is a slap in the face to everyone who came here the hard way.
Now, about that can of Folger's...
YesYesBub, excellent post.
Do you know what it costs to become a citizen, in addition to paying taxes too? Do you know how difficult it is in many cases, to ACTUALLY learn English, as an adult? It's ALOT harder, than learning it as a child. It's not even stored as information in the same part of your brain. How about facing the same bigotry, scorn, and hatred in addition to those challenges?
Usually I refrain from commenting on one's ...more character, but in this case, after reading ALL your posts, I felt I had to choose to.
And, by the way, illegals who know how to play the system "properly", work in trades, file 1099 forms, have fake SSN, or TID numbers, and don't pay a dime in taxes doing it.
Once again, about that can of Folger's...
Every generation scapegoats immigrants because blame is always easier than working towards real solutions. Stomping your feet does not make you any less wrong.
You're fooling yourself if you think otherwise. Many of them send money home, where the dollar traditionally has been worth far more than their native currency. It allows them to build what you most likely have here, on our dime.
If you think it doesn't happen, you really need to get out more.
I did not intend to throw the subject off track and trigger such "Whoa!" worthy animosity.
GOOD. It should be. You work hard, you get rewarded. It ain't impossible. People who "do it right", take the oath, and are naturalized on a monthly basis.
Who's fighting for freedom in their home, or fixing up their country? Who is deposing their dictators? Kermit Roosevelt? We are not the entire free world's dumping ground, and we should not be. Apparently, we have enough difficulty sustaining the population we ALREADY ...more HAVE.
Some illegal aliens work hard, some sell drugs or steal. All of them do have one thing in common, NO RIGHT TO BE HERE! It's just that simple. The friends I have who've had to go through the immigration process are disrespected by each and every one of the illegal aliens, even the hard working ones. As for my desire for cheap labor, I have none, would never stoop ...more to the level of hiring a day laborer to save myself from breaking a sweat.
So keep your sense of humor .
Having a county wide eruv will still bring all the things that the opponents don't want, which is a strict orthodox jewish influx in WHB where the synagogue is.
Opponents will also fight that tooth and nail
Yes, that's a fact, not propaganda. I wonder why people don't like the idea?
The stories are in the papers. Maybe you should contact a resident who moved away, and create a correspondence with them...
Stop trying to excuse your bigotry. Admit that this Eruv will have absolutely no effect on your life and move on. I wish I could respond to some of your other nonsense, thankfully the 2 post limit stops me from doing so.
Let's see, what does that mean? "A prejudiced person who is intolerant of any opinions differing from their own or intolerant of people of political views, different ethnicity, race, class, religion, or gender."
Oh yeah, over here. Totally a hater of everything, and some of my best friends are "African American". A very nice girl I was rather close to in high school now lives in Cali, and we do keep in touch. Obviously, you have no idea what bigot actually means, ...more so, I kindly spelled it out for you. Why is it all the bleeding hearts pull the bigot card, when a "minority" has pulled some BS power play, and someone calls them on it?
I've got this cross on Golgotha you really need to nail yourself to...
Sorry for the delay in answering but as a non-subscriber, I am limited to two comments a day.
I don't think that the fact that a religious symbol is unobtrusive would be grounds for it being constitutionally permissible to erect it on public property. On the other hand, what about a religious symbol that is only religious by definition and otherwise has no religious attributes whatsoever? A bit of metal and a length of string aren't obviously Jewish religious symbols ...more in the way that a Star of David or a menorah are. Another interesting question for the Supremes.
To posters who allege bigotry by those who claim that other communities that permitted eruvs were overrun by Orthodox Jews, I reference the article by Dan in his eponymous advertiser. (I can't give you a more explicit reference because the Press will delete it.) In it, he describes how Lawrence, Long Island, after permitting an eruv, was inundated by Orthodox Jews who took over the town (including the Board of Education) and made his Conservative Jewish relatives so uncomfortable in not obeying Orthodox rules of behavior that they sold their home to an Orthodox family at half its value and left.
I don't blame secular Jewish residents of Westhampton Beach for being frightened that an eruv will attract intolerant religious Jews. If, god forbid, they were the ultra-Orthodox from Brooklyn, Westhampton Beach property values would crater. Moreover, the simple daily pleasure of living among other reasonable, rational, intelligent and cosmopolitan residents would evaporate.
My family came here almost 400 years ago, and while settling and building the east end no one in they're wildest dreams considered the idea that we were creating a Monster. Trust me, I've felt frustration and anger about how the area "evolved" in general, watching everything about my small culture right down to the accent get taken over and deemed "redneck". It's been incredibly hard feeling like the outsider even ...more if you have been here the longest, next to native americans; so recently I've learned to deal with it and we'll actually be joining the Bubby Pilgrimage down south.
Since most of us aren't as articulate and/or politcally minded as others, we've been continiously swept under the rug for decades. We've certainly felt taken over the past fifty years or so at the very least, just like those who oppose the eruv are fearing. People tried to fight it, yet still lost miserably.
If the East End remained nothing more than a compilation of fishing and farming villages rather than the resort it's become.. well, that would be my Utopia, but the battle is long lost. Those who recently came here during the last half century seeking solice like we did hundreds of years ago need to come to terms with the idea that the such solice doesn't last forever.
If you paid attention in History, you'd know they (slaves) were usually more expensive than the indentured. Unless YesYesBub's ancestors were ...more yeoman farmers, they most likely did not own any. Up until the early 1800's, only about 2/5 of Long Island households owned slaves. However, the number of slaves after 1800 septupled by the time the Civil War rolled around. Thank the English trade for that. Slaves were most commonly the "property" of said yeoman farmers, or wealthy plantation owners, but they did have some freedoms, like the ability to earn some form of income in their "free time". Many of them also did not have separate quarters, but lived in the landowner's home. Most of the "common folk" did not own any, and more often, they had "indentured servants". or "redemptioners" in their service. You (the indentured) had your debt purchased, learned a skill, and earned your freedom, by paying off the cost of your passage to the "New World" with your labors. About 80% of pre-Civil War immigrants earned being in America this way.
However, if you look carefully at part of the definition, I believe it can also apply to someone like Mrs. Z: "1. One that interferes with the affairs of others, often for selfish reasons; a meddler. "
Those who built up the cost of real estate to astronomical levels, with no thought to the future of the local population, are not selfish?
Those who usurped farmland with their faux wealth, which would be more useful producing corn, or potatoes (especially in our current economy), were not selfish? Or interfered with the freedoms of their fellow Americans, ...more by abusing their own?
If the shoe fits...
Maybe if you quit looking so hard for bigots, you'd find less of them...
It's worse than pathetic. It's an end around, so they don't have to abide fully by the laws of their "faith", and they want to use public property to do it.
Grandma always said, "if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen".
I became so disgusted with Catholicism, besides the riches, and power used/usurped involving the worship a pauper, I turned to being Agnostic. Upon reading up on all the theology I could lay my hands ...more on, I came to the startling conclusion that NO ONE knows what God is. They jus like to believe they do, and the "believers only club" is a nice bonus. It simply boils down to this:
"People prefer to believe, what they prefer to be true."
~ Sir Francis Bacon
I'll simply wait for the beatings to begin...
Find me someone here, who doesn't use public utilities, and OK, maybe I'll bend.
Is that simple enough, for you? Or, is the principle still obtuse for you?
You have me confused with another poster. Four hundred years ago my ancestors were squires of a potato plantation in Ireland, importing slaves to cultivate the tubers. (That's how the "Black Irish" came into existence.) Alas, that all ended in the nineteenth century when the root weevil destroyed the potato crop. Buy there is a silver lining to every cloud; they used the inedible potatoes to invent vodka.
Allegedly, the Russians invented vodka during the latter part of the Dark Ages. From what I've gathered, I have to give it to the Poles. The Russian claim is pretty much the work of a crackpot historian.
However, rye, or potatoes is really the question...
change the eruv rules in whatever rule books that need a changin i mean who says you cant do this unless you make a rule saying you can do this TOO BAD WE CANT DO THIS WITH THE DVELOPERS!!!
alas, who was it that said " .. the times they are a changin"
put eruv markers at north & south pole - the world is your eruv.
We don't need catholic rosaries on the poles either
Please don't allow the Methodist church to hang their symbols up.
No Muslim, Protestant, Shinto, or anything else.