Israeli Jews pushing for "Eruv" in Battle in the Hamptons

[dec0der]

A Hamptons holy war is flaring.

A renewed push for a symbolic Jewish boundary on the East End has sparked a bitter battle between supporters of the religious marker and opponents who brand it divisive.

Led by the zionist Manhattan attorney Marvin Tenzer, an Orthodox Jewish group is lobbying to install the boundary -- known as an eruv -- in West Hampton Beach, Quiogue and parts of Quogue and greater West Hampton.

Demarcated by translucent wire strung along the tops of telephone poles, the eruv serves as a symbolic extension of the Jewish home and allows Orthodox Jews to perform certain outdoor tasks on the Sabbath, such as pushing strollers.

Opponents argue that an eruv would gradually lead to an Orthodox annexation of the East End enclave.

The issue has sparked massive controversies in other areas, including Tenafly, NJ, where eruv supporters prevailed after a seven-year legal battle.

Tenzer, who has already mapped out the roughly five-square-mile area of the eruv and plans to push ahead with the project in the coming months, called the loud opposition alarmist and possibly anti-Semitic.

"Putting up the eruv is not splitting the community; the opposition to it is," Tenzer said. "There is no downside to it. People won't even see it. That is what is so egregious about the opposition here. Maybe there is some element of anti-Semitism. I don't know."

But Arnold Sheiffer, a Westhampton resident and vocal opponent of the eruv plan, scoffed at Tenzer's claims.

"There is enormous opposition to it here," he said. "In the end, this is an effort to contravene the wishes of the vast majority of people who live here."

Sheiffer, who is Jewish and organized a group called Jewish People Opposed to the Eruv, blasted Tenzer's claims of anti-Semitism. "We have Holocaust survivors here who are opposed to this," he said. "That is a ridiculous claim."

Westhampton Beach Mayor Conrad Teller said he found the eruv effort unsavory. "This is divisive," he said. "We are a small seaside community where people have always got along. This is dividing us."


Source: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/battle_lines_in_hamptons_oxgIlAXbhyMli23yhNSjJJ

[Satyagraha]

The eruv allows observant Jews to carry needed things in public on the Sabbath.
By Sharonne Cohen
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/practices/Ritual/Shabbat_The_Sabbath/In_the_Community/Eruv.shtml

Shabbat is a day set apart from all others, differentiating between the sacred (kodesh) and the mundane (hol), between the work week and the day designated for rest, family, and spirituality. On Shabbat all activities associated with work are prohibited, and according to traditional Jewish law include formal employment as well as traveling, spending money, and carrying items outside the home, in the public domain.

The prohibition against carrying includes house keys, prayer books, canes or walkers, and even children who cannot walk on their own. Recognizing the difficulties this rule imposes, the sages of the Talmud devised a way to allow for carrying in public without breaking the rule. Through this means, called an eruv, communities are able to turn a large area into one that is considered, for Jewish law purposes, a large private domain, in which items may be carried.

What It Is

The term eruv refers to the act of mixing or combining, and is shorthand for eruv hazerot--the mixing of domains, in this case, the private (rashut hayahid) and the public (rashut harabim). An eruv does not allow for carrying items otherwise prohibited by Jewish law on Shabbat, such as money or cell phones.

Having an eruv does not mean that a city or neighborhood is enclosed entirely by a wall. Rather, the eruv can be comprised of a series of pre-existing structures (walls, fences, electrical poles and wires) and/or structures created expressly for the eruv, often a wire mounted on poles. In practice, then, the eruv is a symbolic demarcation of the private sphere, one that communities come together to create.

To many people, the eruv sounds like a legal fiction, a way to circumvent the spirit and possibly letter of the law against carrying. To them, the eruv risks making the entire Jewish legal process seem absurd to non-Jews and non-observant Jews.

The talmudic Rabbis, however, were concerned with maintaining the integrity of the halakhic (Jewish legal) system while ensuring that the law is livable. Though the eruv makes use of a legal technicality, the fact that it is used--rather than allowing people to just carry anything, anywhere--is itself considered a form of respect for and submission to a legal system that is central and indispensable to traditionalist Jewish life.

The eruv helps enhance an aspect of Shabbat that the Rabbis considered vital-- "oneg Shabbat," the injunction to enjoy the Sabbath. With an eruv, Shabbat events are available to all families--young and old, mobile and less mobile--and individuals are able to carry house keys, reading glasses, or books outside their homes.

(More)

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The article that was posted to start this thread began with this line, "A renewed push for a symbolic Jewish boundary".  The one word that should be emphasized in that sentence got lost in the text that followed. It's "SYMBOLIC".

So if you're not an observant Jew, you probably won't even notice the 'symbolic boundary'.  
If you are not an observant Jew, it won't in any way impede your daily life - you won't be prevented from entering or leaving an area, you won't have any rights taken away by having this 'symbolic wall' strung up on telephone poles in a specific area... basically you will be able to carry on with your daily life and not be affected by it.

It only affects those who choose to live according to Jewish law; and will make it possible for them to carry items (see above) within the symbolically allowed area.

Big deal. Why the tempest in a teapot? Who's behind this revolt against an orthodox Jewish group's wish to have a proscribed area in which they can practice their sabbath, and have some freedom to go about their necessary activities?

Who would complain about something that doesn't affect them unless they WANT to prevent others from practicing their orthodox religious beliefs?

Who gains by preventing this? Hmmm?

(Hint: Which groups seek to destroy all religions in the world, and replace them with Gaia worship?)

[dec0der]

The idea behind the marked patrol car is with ‘crime prevention’ in mind. Every night there are one or two Shomrim members patrolling in their private cars keeping a watchful eye on the neighborhood, while this is good for an immediate response to call's and to spot the crime as it happens, it is not as affective for preventing crime.

Unlike the scooters, the patrol car is a passenger vehicle and residents who are willing to help and spend some of their time to improve the security of our neighborhood, can volunteer and ride along with other Shomrim Members. If you are interested, contact a member you know for more information.

Shomrim (lit. guards) are organizations of volunteer civilian patrols which have been set up in many Jewish neighborhoods around the world to combat anti-semitism and quality-of-life nuisance crimes. They work closely with local police departments, who issue members with official identification cards as members of a registered civilian patrol. In some communities, the organization also acts as a liaison between the police and the local community and helps by testifying as witnesses or assisting that complainants to get to court.

Communities with Shomrim groups

Miami-Dade Shmira Patrol - Founded in 2005 by Issac Rosenberg
Shomrim Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY, USA - founded in 1981
Shomrim Boro Park, USA.
Shomrim Midwood, USA
Shomrim Crown Heights, USA
Shomrim, Baltimore, MD, USA
North West London Community Patrol, UK
Stamford Hill Safety & Rescue Patrol, founded 2005
Community Security Groups, Melbourne and Sydney, Australia
Community Security Trust, Great Britain
more coming.

Jewish police officers throughout the US have a fraternal organization called the Shomrim Society

Sources: crownheights.info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shomrim_(volunteers)

[Dig]

The idea behind the marked patrol car is with ‘crime prevention’ in mind. Every night there are one or two Shomrim members patrolling in their private cars keeping a watchful eye on the neighborhood, while this is good for an immediate response to call's and to spot the crime as it happens, it is not as affective for preventing crime.

Unlike the scooters, the patrol car is a passenger vehicle and residents who are willing to help and spend some of their time to improve the security of our neighborhood, can volunteer and ride along with other Shomrim Members. If you are interested, contact a member you know for more information.

Shomrim (lit. guards) are organizations of volunteer civilian patrols which have been set up in many Jewish neighborhoods around the world to combat anti-semitism and quality-of-life nuisance crimes. They work closely with local police departments, who issue members with official identification cards as members of a registered civilian patrol. In some communities, the organization also acts as a liaison between the police and the local community and helps by testifying as witnesses or assisting that complainants to get to court.

Communities with Shomrim groups

Miami-Dade Shmira Patrol - Founded in 2005 by Issac Rosenberg
Shomrim Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY, USA - founded in 1981
Shomrim Boro Park, USA.
Shomrim Midwood, USA
Shomrim Crown Heights, USA
Shomrim, Baltimore, MD, USA
North West London Community Patrol, UK
Stamford Hill Safety & Rescue Patrol, founded 2005
Community Security Groups, Melbourne and Sydney, Australia
Community Security Trust, Great Britain
more coming.

Jewish police officers throughout the US have a fraternal organization called the Shomrim Society

Sources: crownheights.info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shomrim_(volunteers)

"Can I see your license and evidence of circumcision please"

Not for nothing, but damn that looks like NYPD! How is this legal?