In July 2017, the municipalities of Mahwah, Upper Saddle River, and Montvale in Bergen County, New Jersey, in the United States, opposed extension of an eruv within their borders. An eruv is a land area surrounded by a boundary of religious significance, often marked by small plastic pipes (called lechis) attached to utility poles. The demarcation permits Orthodox Jews to push or carry objects (such as prayer books, keys, or baby strollers) within the eruv on the Jewish Sabbath that otherwise is considered forbidden under Orthodox Jewish law.
The three municipalities ordered that the borders of the eruv be dismantled having been erected without the appropriate consents. Many Mahwah residents protested against the prospect of Orthodox Jews from Rockland County, New York using local parks or seeking to buy homes there.
After no agreement could be reached, the eruv association brought suit against each of the municipalities. Mahwah's actions in passing a township ordinance to bar nonresidents of New Jersey from its parks, and the hostility of some residents and council members towards those who supported the eruv led Democratic candidate for Governor of New Jersey Phil Murphy and others to make accusations of antisemitism. The presiding judge in the lawsuits, John Michael Vazquez, in January 2018 made it clear he felt the municipalities did not have a strong case and urged them to settle. The three municipalities settled with the eruv association, allowing the eruv borders to remain. Mahwah settled a lawsuit from the New Jersey Attorney General accusing it of discrimination.
Background
The township of Mahwah, and the boroughs of Upper Saddle River and Montvale, are neighboring municipalities in northwestern Bergen County, New Jersey. All three are adjacent to the state line with New York, on the other side of which is Rockland County, where there are large communities of Orthodox Jews.
An eruv (plural "eruvin", or sometimes "eruvim") is an enclosure defined by string, rope, wires, cables, etc., that allows observant Jews, including the Orthodox, to carry or push objects further than is normally permitted on the Jewish Sabbath (or Shabbat). Normally, on Shabbat, an object may not be taken from a private domain, such as a house, into a public one, such as a street or sidewalk, or moved, in a public area, more than 4 cubits (about 6 feet; 1.7 meters). "Domain" is a technical term referring to how enclosed an area is, not property ownership.
Objects may be moved freely if they remain within a private domain, and an eruv effectively extends the private domain through the area it encloses, including streets and sidewalks. The boundary of an eruv is often marked by utility poles surrounding a given area, with the space between regarded as doorways, topped by lintels, the telephone or power wires. The poles are regarded as doorposts and are marked by lechis (singular: lechi), solid objects such as lengths of twine or of plastic pipe, which run from near the ground to just below the wires. In short, the act of stringing such a boundary around a public area by a Jewish community creates the pretense for its members that that public area is enclosed for the limited purpose of allowing the members to do some otherwise forbidden things in that public area on the Sabbath.
There are many requirements for eruvin; the Talmud devotes an entire tractate to the subject. This complexity makes rabbinic supervision and regular inspection mandatory. An operating eruv allows observant Jews to carry prayer books from home to synagogue on Shabbat, or to push strollers or baby carriages.
In Teaneck, in southeastern Bergen County and home to large numbers of Orthodox Jews, an eruv has existed since the 1970s with little controversy, and, as the Jewish population increased, was extended to nearby Bogota and Bergenfield. Other eruvin in Bergen County are in Fair Lawn and in Paramus.
A previous instance in which an eruv had been constructed in Bergen County, and had been challenged by local authorities, occurred in Tenafly, in the eastern part of the county. Attempts by municipal authorities to ban eruvin had failed when challenged in the federal courts, and the settlement in 2006 after a six-year battle obliged the borough to pay $325,000 for the eruv association's legal costs. In most cases involving conflict over whether an eruv should be permitted, the municipality has lost and the construction of the eruv allowed to continue.
Construction and controversy
Orthodox Jews in Rockland County gained a license from Orange and Rockland Utilities (which serves parts of both Rockland County in New York and Bergen County in New Jersey) to construct an eruv using its utility poles in 2015, and in March 2017 the company granted permission for the South Monsey Eruv Fund to install lechis, made from white PVC pipe, on its utility poles in northwestern Bergen County. This was an extension of an existing eruv in Rockland County and was intended to run through Mahwah, Upper Saddle River and Montvale. According to Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, head of the eruv association, the purpose was to accommodate those living in Rockland County close to the border, near New York State Route 59. The boundaries had to be run through New Jersey due to the lack of a road along the state line. Mahwah police noted construction being done on utility poles in May and made inquiries. On learning that Orange and Rockland had authorized the work, they provided police protection, for which the department was paid about $2,000 by the eruv fund. The work in Mahwah was complete by June.
When the matter became generally known in mid-July, there was what local reporter Tom Nobile called a "firestorm of opposition" from local residents, with some expressing concerns that the eruv would allow Orthodox communities in Rockland County to expand into New Jersey. Groups formed on social media, including one named Mahwah Strong, in opposition to the eruv. Mahwah Strong claimed 3,000 members within days; a founder, Robert Ferguson, stated that his group would act as a check and balance to ensure the township enforced its laws, noting, "I don't view this as a hostile takeover of the town." Two hundred people gathered in a Mahwah park on July 22 to support the eruv's removal. An online petition to "Protect the Quality of Our Community in Mahwah", initiated by former township council member John Roth, reached 1,200 names before being taken down due to what Roth called inappropriate comments, made by some signers. Similarly, Mahwah Strong lost its Facebook page following an influx of comments deemed "hateful".
Municipal and public reaction
In early July 2017, the eruv was completed in part of Upper Saddle River. Montvale acted first against the eruv, with Mayor Michael Ghassali issuing a stop work order on July 10, after the eruv association had rented equipment and arranged with local police to provide security. Montvale authorities objected on the grounds that the lechis constituted a sign, forbidden by borough ordinance. This was done prior to construction with the result that the eruv did not extend into Montvale. On July 18, Upper Saddle River's attorney sent a letter demanding the removal of the lechis that had been erected there, with a deadline of July 26, but the borough agreed to let them remain for the time being after two New York State residents filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey in Newark, requesting a temporary restraining order against the borough and Mayor Joanne Minichetti. The borough's agreement was in exchange for an undertaking from the eruv association not to expand the eruv, and the motion for a restraining order was withdrawn. The eruv was vandalized on July 26 and 27, requiring immediate repair work. Mahwah's township engineer, Mike Kelly, sent a letter to the eruv association on July 21, taking a stance similar to Montvale's and demanding the removal of the eruv by August 4. Mayor Bill Laforet stated, "This sends a very strong message to those who choose to violate our sign ordinances."
On June 29, the Mahwah Township Council had passed an ordinance, effective July 27, barring nonresidents of New Jersey from its parks. Residents had complained that out-of-staters were flooding Mahwah's parks, sometimes by the busload. After the ordinance passed, but before it went into effect, Mahwah police chief James Batelli received many phone calls from residents asking that it be enforced against Orthodox Jews. He contacted the Bergen County Prosecutor, Gurbir Grewal, for advice. On July 27, the date the ordinance was to go into effect, Grewal issued a directive ordering Mahwah police to disregard the ban, stating that the ban could lead to racial profiling, unlawful searches and seizures and the illegal targeting of Orthodox Jews. In response, Rob Hermansen, president of the township council, stated that that body would rework the ordinance to continue putting Mahwah residents first.
When the Mahwah Township Council met on the evening of July 27, it did so before an overflow crowd. Despite warnings from the township attorney not to discuss issues of religion, some did. Others complained of nonresidents crowding parks and claimed that they had been visited by people wanting to buy their homes. The lawyer for Mahwah Strong urged the council to enforce the law by requiring the takedown of the eruv. Ferguson was quoted as saying at the meeting, "We do not NOT want these people living in our neighborhoods. We want them following the law."
As the eruv controversy intensified, Mahwah and Montvale, as well as neighboring boroughs, enacted or made stricter ordinances restricting those making unsolicited offers to buy houses from knocking on doors. Municipal officials stated that this was being done because of the concerns of residents, who feared the Orthodox moving in would result in a population explosion, that the schools would suffer, and high-density housing built. Residents cited Lakewood in Ocean County as an example of such problems.
To a standing ovation from some 200 residents in attendance, the Mahwah council on August 10 unanimously voted to issue summonses because the eruv had not been taken down. Mayor Laforet, though, urged the council not to take this step, pointing to the large expense the unsuccessful eruv litigation had cost Tenafly, and advocated negotiation. In response to the council's action, the Bergen-Rockland Eruv Association (of which the South Monsey group is a part) and several Orthodox Jews resident in Rockland County filed suit in federal court against Mahwah on August 11, promising to defy any summonses. Residents of Teaneck and Englewood, each in southeastern Bergen County and home to large communities of Orthodox Jews, had gone to Mahwah and Upper Saddle River to make known their views at council meetings. Council members from Teaneck and Englewood had spoken there in support of the eruv's retention, only to meet a hostile reception. Citizens for a Better Upper Saddle River posted a screenshot of the Teaneck council schedule online, urging members to mark their calendars with the dates. Council member Mark Schwartz of Teaneck stated that visitors would be welcome at council meetings, where they could view how a diverse community functioned. Michael Cohen of the Englewood council stated, "We have repeatedly attempted to communicate to the leadership of Upper Saddle River and Mahwah why it is that the rhetoric and actions being seen and taken by certain members of their governing bodies and by certain members of their communities are being viewed by the outside world as anti-Semitic. However, those attempts have largely continued to fall on deaf ears."
Litigation