A storm is brewing in the normally peaceful town of Westhampton Beach, NY:
Rabbi Marc Schneier, who counts New York Gov. David
Paterson among his friends, wants the Westhampton Beach mayor and
village board to approve the placement of the religious boundary
called an eruv, which would allow observant Jews to perform minor
tasks on their Sabbath or on religious holidays like Rosh Hashana,
which was observed on Tuesday and Wednesday.The proposal has stirred controversy among the 2,000 full-time
residents of Westhampton Beach, a community 75 miles east of Manhattan
where the population can grow to 20,000 in the summer. Mayor Conrad
Teller says 85 percent of village residents oppose the eruv, and
several groups have sprung up to fight it, including Jewish People
Opposed to the Eruv . . . .Opponents worry that if the eruv is established, Westhampton Beach — a
wealthy community but one less glitzy than its better known neighbors
Southampton and East Hampton — may evolve into an Orthodox
enclave.
If what this story suggests is true, that these groups are so adamantly against the building of an Eruv because it might lead to an increase in Orthodox Jews in town, it forces the question: Why is such a development so threatening?
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