In response to the Village of Suffern's attempt to use zoning
laws to close down an Orthodox Jewish health service agency's
Shabbos hospitality house, a coalition of Orthodox groups has
filed a friend of the court brief in federal district court
in support of the house, charging the village with violations
of the U.S. and New York Constitutions and the federal
Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000
("RLUIPA").
Agudath Israel of America joined in the brief with six other
Orthodox organizations, under the aegis of the National
Jewish Commission on Law and Public Affairs. Counsel of
Record and author of the brief is the constitutional law
expert Nathan Lewin.
At issue is use of a single family home situated across the
street from Good Samaritan Hospital. Rockland County Bikur
Cholim, a private health service agency, purchased the house
as a place where Orthodox family members of patients in the
hospital could reside over Shabbossos and Yomim Tovim, in
order to be able to visit their sick relatives over the
course of those days.
The village cited the facility as illegal, defining it as a
"transient motel," even though the service is provided free
and only to patients' family members.
The Orthodox groups' brief takes issue with the village's
characterization of the facility as a mere "convenience" made
available to visitors. It asserts that, as visiting the sick
and observing the Sabbath are both religious obligations in
Judaism, the use of zoning laws to prevent religiously
observant Jews from honoring them constitutes an infringement
the free exercise of religion. In addition to violating the
constitutional protections for free exercise, the village's
position is contrary to RLUIPA, which protects the use of
land for religious purposes from restrictive zoning
ordinances.
Also cited in the brief is the apparent discrimination
against Orthodox Jewish observance inherent in the village's
permitting of "houses of worship" in the same zoning district
where the Bikur Cholim facility functions, even though it,
too, serves as a Shabbos house of worship.
Speaking for Agudath Israel of America, Rabbi David Zwiebel,
executive vice president for Government and Public Affairs,
said: "We fought in congress for passage of RLUIPA in order
to require localities to be more hospitable to religious uses
of property. The Village of Suffern's attempt to deny
Orthodox Jews the ability to visit their sick relatives at
Good Samaritan Hospital on the Sabbath and Jewish holidays is
indefensible on humanitarian grounds — and, as Nat
Lewin has now shown in his brief, it is equally indefensible
on legal grounds."
