It is a fundamental requirement of Jewish law that all Jews place a mezuzah on the doorpost of their home. Jewish law actually requires that it be placed on the right side of every room in the home--excluding the bathroom. A mezuzah is a piece of parchment which contains two handwritten paragraphs from the Torah. An average mezuzah scroll cost a mere thirty dollars, but for a Jew its value is priceless.
The mezuzah is believed to provide physical and spiritual protection for the home. The paragraphs written on the parchment contain the essential declaration of Jewish faith--the Shema. It is appropriate to check the mezuzah scrolls on a regular basis to make sure that not even one letter has faded. It is also appropriate to look at the mezuzah and consider what it represents each and every time one walks into a room.
Since many people know that a Jew--and especially an Orthodox Jew--cannot live in a home without a mezuzah, the attempt to keep out "undesirable" Orthodox Jews can sometimes come in the form of prohibiting people from putting up mezuzahs on their doorposts. Yes, unfortunately, even in America in the year 2012, there are still places that are trying to exclude Jews.
A recent case in Stratford, Connecticut illustrates this point.
Barbara Cadranel, a Stanford Condominium owner, was given a gift of a mezuzah by her children. When she put up the mezuzah she was told by the condominium that she would be fined $50 a day for every day she left the mezuzah up. The condominium allowed for crucifixes, and Easter and Christmas decorations to be displayed in public places, but it was still forbidding Ms. Cadranel from displaying a mezuzah.
A first amendment expert, attorney Steve Lieberman of the DC law firm Rothwell, Figg, Ernst, and Manbeck told me the condominium was definitely wrong:
"The Federal courts have been very clear that the Fair Housing Acts prohibits condo associations and landlords from harassing or discriminating against tenants based on their religion. In the 2009 case of Bloch v. Frischholz, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit sitting en banc, explained that, in addition to prohibiting discrimination in the rental or sale process, the Fair Housing Act also applies to some types of discrimination that occurs, for example, after a tenant has moved in. In that case, the Court ruled that a tenant could proceed with her case against the condominium association after the association had forced the tenant to remove her mezuzah."
After Ms. Cadranel's attorney, Alyza Lewin of Washington D.C., contacted the condominium board, the attorney for the condominium obstinately continued to claim that Ms. Cadranel was violating condominium policy. The attorney for the condominium, Kurt Ahlberg even responded by sending a letter to Ms. Cadranel's attorney asking for the attorney to "admonish" her and instruct her to remove her mezuzah. It was only after the condominium received an outpouring of international condemnation that Mr. Ahlberg backed off and apologized and permitted the mezuzah to stay up.
But we should not be satisfied with Ahlberg's half-hearted apology and we should not allow the matter to rest.
All too often Jewish residents are intimidated into not putting up a mezuzah even though it is their right. One member of my congregation resides in a sorority on a major college campus. Her sorority has told her that she can't place a mezuzah on the door that leads to the hallway even though not putting up the mezuzah is a violation of her religion. This is despite the fact that the campus is filled with Christian ornaments around the holidays.
Perhaps Federal legislation would help.
Here is what Alyza Lewin told me: "Texas, Florida and Illinois have passed laws to protect residents and to ensure that individuals may affix religious items, such as a mezuzah, to their door posts. As a result of Ms. Cadranel's episode in Connecticut, the Connecticut legislature has introduced similar legislation. Rather than tackle the problem piecemeal, however, state by state, it would be preferable for the U.S. Congress to enact federal legislation that would protect residents in residences covered by federal housing laws who, out of a sincere religious belief, wish to affix a religious item (like a mezuzah) to their door post."
Such Federal legislation was once proposed by Jerrold Nadler. In 2008 he introduced The Freedom of Religious Expression in the Home Act.
The summary of this act states that it: "Makes it unlawful to establish a rule or policy that prevents a person from displaying, on the basis of that person's religious belief, a religious symbol, object, or sign on the door, doorpost, entrance, or otherwise on the exterior of that person's dwelling, or that is visible from the exterior of that dwelling, unless the rule or policy is reasonable and is necessary to prevent significant damage to property, physical harm to persons, a public nuisance, or similar undue hardship."
Unfortunately on September 17, 2008 it was referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary where it has languished ever since. The condominium owners in Stratford have reminded us that this bill now needs to become a law.
Arnold M. Eisen: Holiness After the Death of 6 Million
Mezuzah - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Judaism 101: Signs and Symbols
I worried about the limitation on the right to contract. If people want to live in a condo with nothing on doorposts, that ought to be their choice, and if someone wants a mezzuzah or anything else on his or her doorpost, live elsewhere. There are plenty of places people will turn down because of either rules or reality.
There are Jews who would not be comfortable sharing living space with idolators, and who find crucifixes and other religious objects to be too close to idolatry -- should they be prevented from establishing a community where idolatry is prohibited?
This one is about religion, and there are already balancing tests between free exercise, no establishment, and discrimination. Other times the exact same story hits the press about some brave veteran who is now being denied the right to hang Old Glory from his door. I don't care, but if people choose to live where there is nothing hanging from doors, why must they make an exception for the US flag?
The law as written doesn't seem to accomplish its goal anyway. A rule that prohibited both Jews and gentiles from have mezzuzot would not be prohibiting it on the basis of the resident's religion.
Where you can show these neighborhood standards were enacted specifically to discriminate against Jews, federal law already protects you.
I don't care *what* your religion demands. You chose the religion, so you chose all the behaviors it mandates. It's your job to choose a religion you can live with, not everyone else's job to find a way to live with what you choose. You're just a Trekkie who takes himself way too seriously, and that doesn't mean your neighbors have to put up with you planting wheat in your front yard as an offering to passing Tribbles.
*I* demand equal rights for all people. I oppose any law that specifically gives Jews a right to decorate their doors with mezuzahs, or specifically protects all decorations that a court decides are legitimately "religious". Religious beliefs deserve no more respect than any other beliefs.
What I would support is a law that gives EVERYONE the right to decorate their doors however they want. You put up a mezuzah, your neighbor puts up a little plaque reading, "Live Long and Prosper", and I put up a Darwin fish. We each get to express our beliefs, and none of us needs to convince a court that our belief is "legitimate" because it's irrational.
In the sorority case, as described, it sounds like the woman wants to put the mezuzah on a communal wall. While I don't see any reason why she should not be able to, this does not seem to be a case in which discrimination law really applies. A group of college women have decided to live together. They are ultimately going to decide what to do with the communal laws. It is a bad thing that the non-Jewish women in the group appear to be religious bigots, but is it really shocking that their are sororities whose members are bigoted in this way? This is not a case of dormitory roommates who have been thrown together by the University. These are women who chose to live together and share space. It is hard to see why the law should be able to dictate what is put up in communal space.
These two cases do not seem to suggest an epidemic requiring more laws.
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There's already federal legislation. The Fair Housing Acts prohibit exactly what the condo association did here. How would additional legislation help? The lady would have still needed to get a lawyer, and the condo association would still have been a bunch of knuckleheads over it.
As an atheist I've often wanted to put up a "Proselytizers will be shot on sight" sign, but I worry I'll be arrested for that. I was considering becoming an Orthodox Smith-and-Wessonian to guarantee my right to put up the sign ( by making it a crazy religious belief instead of a crazy secular belief).
But walnuts sound a lot easier.