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July 2, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The hallmark of a person

Abe Novick: Up, up, and aliya

July 1, 2009

Rabbi Avi Shafran: The Road Taken

The Kosher Gourmet by Marialisa Calta: Get into the holiday spirit with these Star-Spangled desserts

June 30, 2009

Rabbi Binyomin Ginsberg: What makes a great parent?

Caroline B. Glick: Ideologue-in-Chief

June 29, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Beware of 'Caveat Emptor'

Steven Emerson: ACLU pushing for more money for Hamas

June 26, 2009

Rabbi Yoni Posnick: Learn the secret to a healthy marriage from a scriptural villain

Caroline B. Glick: Barack Obama vs. International Law

June 25, 2009

Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf: The Absurd Power of Truth

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkle's strip: Everything's Relative

June 24, 2009

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Advancement of technology is a wake-up call for humanity

The Kosher Gourmet by Andrea Weigl: Summer on a stick: Making frozen treats can be easy, creative and fun

June 23, 2009

Martin M. Bodek: 'On Surnames': And so, We Begin

Caroline B. Glick: The Obama Effect

June 22, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Working for a corrupt firm

N. Richard Greenfield : Where are American Jews?

June 19, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Emotion v. intellect

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's rare opportunity

June 18, 2009

Jonathan Rosenblum: Sometimes it is more essential to define the nature of evil than good

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkle's strip: Everything's Relative

June 17, 2009

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Language of Confusion

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Nothing pleases Dad more than a thick, juicy onion-smothered steak. Add home-Baked Potato Chips and …

June 16, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Career v. Careersism

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's losing streak and Israel

Richard Z. Chesnoff: ‘Palestinians’: Never Missing an Opportunity …

June 15, 2009

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu: How Judea and Samaria can become 'Palestine'

Daniel Pipes: Where Netanyahu's speech failed

June 12, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Some big thoughts about not acting so big

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's High Commissioner

June 11, 2009

Victor Davis Hanson: Our historically challenged President

Mitch Albom: Beware the True Believers

Lewis Grossberger: What we learn from the new Hitler photos

June 10, 2009

Mort Zuckerman: What Obama and his advisors won't -- or refuse to -- grasp about Israel and the Muslim world

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky Lotsa pasta: Tips, techniques and (amazing) taste

June 9, 2009

Anne Bayefsky: Obama's stunning offense to Israel and the Jewish people

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: America's first Muslim president?

June 8, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Merchant must take responsibility for careless shopper?

Mark Steyn: A superpower that feeds on mediocrity cannot survive for long on leftovers from the past

Richard Z. Chesnoff: How do you say 'kumbaya' in Arabic?

June 5, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: In quest of spirituality

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's Arabian dreams

Charles Krauthammer: The Settlements Myth

June 4, 2009

Paul Greenberg: The War Comes to Little Rock

The Kosher Gourmet by Judy Hevrdejs: Splash it on! Tap your inner jazz musician and improvise when stirring up a vinaigrette

June 3, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. Should terrible teacher be exposed?

Jonathan Rosenblum: The Israel Lobby: Missing in Action

June 2, 2009

Dennis Prager: The Speech President Obama Won't Dare Give in Egypt

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Pressure on Israel raises war risk

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review May 6, 2004 / 15 Iyar, 5764

Score one for the faithful in the culture wars!

By Roger Severino



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Orthodox synagogues battled discrimination by local government and won, reinforcing protection for all faiths


http://www.jewishworldreview.com | With the recent re-affirming by a federal appeals court of the constitutionality of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), the days when municipalities could discriminate against religious believers with impunity are numbered.


It should be self-evident. Unless you are on a plane or a boat, religious expression involves some kind of land use. Unfortunately, far too many municipalities are ignoring this fact when applying their zoning laws and religious liberty suffers. In response, the courts have put teeth into the RLUIPA, a young civil rights law designed to restore full religious freedom to the land use context.


This development is necessary as local zoning officials have time and again trampled on the rights of sincere religious believers, and for a variety of reasons. Many municipalities shut the door on houses of worship to prevent real or imagined tax-base erosion. Others listen too closely to the NIMBY fears of activist neighbors who, oddly enough, think houses of worship make bad neighbors. And finally, as hard experience has shown, cities and townships at times use zoning laws as a cover for outright religious bigotry.


As a result, religious expression has slowly been banished and ghettoized; sometimes through supposedly "general" laws, sometimes through impenetrable red tape or impossible conditions, and sometimes by arbitrarily denying permits to the "wrong type" of church or religion. Houses of worship are routinely banished to the far corners of municipalities by being categorized as "inconsistent with the character" of residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural zones in turn (are there any places left?).

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Not to be outdone, some municipalities actually amend their zoning laws in direct response to permit applications by religious groups. These religious gerrymanders leave congregations with literally no place to go. Recognizing these threats to religious liberty, the United States Congress unanimously passed RLUIPA in 2000. RLUIPA is robust. It prevents municipalities from discriminating against or "substantially burdening" sincere religious exercise without a compelling reason and, with the help of the courts, is providing a potent counterweight to the discretionary power of local zoning officials.


Predictably, some municipalities are not happy with RLUIPA's strong civil rights protections and have even gone as far as to challenge the law's constitutionality. However, in Midrash Sephardi v. Town of Surfside, the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently re-affirmed the following common sense principle: Local zoning interests, while important, do not outweigh the fundamental right to freedom of religion.


In a 60 page decision, the three judge panel unanimously found that RLUIPA "is a constitutional exercise of Congress's authority under the First, Tenth and Fourteenth Amendments." This is the first time a federal appeals court has ruled on the constitutionality of RLUIPA's land use provisions, and it upheld the law against all objections. This is an extraordinarily important decision and will have significant ripple effects throughout the court system.


The facts of Midrash are not unusual for a RLUIPA case. Midrash Sephardi and Young Israel of Bal Harbor, two small Orthodox Jewish congregations formed in the 1990s, were holding prayer services on the second floor of a bank building in the town of Surfside, Florida. The dispute began in 1999 when Surfside tried to shut down the worship services on the premises and threatened fines of $1,000 per day.


Surfside argued that it was merely following its "neutral" zoning laws — laws that completely ban churches and synagogues in seven out of the town's eight zoning districts but allow private clubs, lodge halls, cinemas, schools, studios and health clubs instead.


Not surprisingly, the Eleventh Circuit had a far different take on Surfside's zoning ordinance and held that it "improperly targeted religious assemblies and violated Free Exercise requirements of neutrality and general applicability." Key to the holding was the fact the town's "provision excluding churches and synagogues from locations where private clubs and lodges are permitted violates the equal terms provision of RLUIPA."


The little guy won for a change and RLUIPA made all the difference.


RLUIPA codifies the best of our nation's tradition of religious tolerance and accommodation. It makes explicit what Jefferson and Madison knew at the founding and what most Americans already know today — that religious liberty is not a matter of local concern but of national importance. Far too often unfounded (and often prejudiced) complaints from fearful neighbors on the one hand, or the cold tax-base calculations of zoning officials on the other, spur a municipality to remove the welcome mat when it comes to religious land use and only religious land use. However, in its thorough and well-reasoned opinion, the Eleventh Circuit determined that RLUIPA is a constitutional response to unconstitutional zoning practices

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Roger Severino is Legal Counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. (The Becket Fund's "friend of the court" brief in the Midrash case can be found at http://www.rluipa.com/cases/MidrashSephardiAmicus.pdf). Comment by clicking here.


© 2004, Roger Severino