Fort Lauderdale, FL – An Orthodox Jewish congregation filed a federal lawsuit against Cooper City today, saying city laws prohibiting houses of worship from operating in commercial districts are a form of religious discrimination.
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Fort Lauderdale attorney Franklin Zemel, filed the suit in the U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale on behalf of Chabad Nova.
The lawsuit alleges that Cooper City's citywide ban against religious assembly in shopping districts is designed solely to keep the tax-exempt organizations from taking profitable land off city tax rolls. ''They have a complete citywide ban on religious assembly in all commercial districts in order to protect their tax base,'' Zemel said. “It's about money for Cooper City.''
Cooper City leaders have argued the ban on houses of worship in commercial districts existed for safety reasons. They have said places like churches and synagogues generate too much pedestrian traffic during a small period of time, creating a hazard for cars passing through the shopping centers.
Chabad Nova, led by Rabbi Shmuel Posner, spent a year trying to get permission to operate out of a Griffin Road shopping center near Cooper City's eastern border. The Jewish outreach center now has a temporary lease at another Griffin Road location in neighboring Davie. [MiamiHerald]
to the one who accused me to be against someone who does mitzvas i was concerned of the chilul hashem but the mitvas i have a little envy in me. who are they to steal all the mitvas in the world give others a chance.
to 3:19 git gezucked next time I pass by time sq and its minche time i’ll do what I have to.
after the hindred in tswantseg when the bes din shel maloh vet fregin why we did not do more mitzvahs and the only answer we will have is I was affraid of the crooked nose ohh geit men shmasen.
when moshiach will come, will we tell him to take a hike bacause he makeing to much traffic, i’am not saying he is in ft lauderdale but their plenty of yideshe neshomos over there, the hate language should only be heard by eisoph who is sonei l’yakov, from every yid to who ever is saving yideshe neshomos litterly as we know their are nebach too many christans who are inzere lost soul’s and every yid has an achrais for one another so hashem should bless chabad who put themself by the gates of the 49th level of point of no return and save our brothers and siters and with this merit moshiach will defintlly have to come “bemheiro”.
anon 1:55
what you are telling us is that ‘the end justifies the means’.
So the whole foundation of your Chabad House/ Shul is based on Chilul Hashem.
how absurd!
You are missing the point
1st Many towns make you problems if you make a Shul in a residential neighborhood and some towns don’t let you have it in commercial space too. So there are extremley few places left to have a Shul and the few that are left are super expensive or not neccesarily right.
2 Not every discussion with the town means a Chilul Hashem it means discussions.
3. Out there in America very often when small towns say no to different things it is not because they are right, but because they have an alternative agenda.
4. Your comments condemning Chabad are out of place in light of all above difficulties and other obstacles like fundraising, tremendous amount of work asscoiated with bringing Yiddishkiet to the masses.
Anon 2:37,
I agree with you. And in this case this seems to be the case.
I am not Chabad but I feel I should comment.
In some areas there is no place that will work for a shul, there are people that plan impediments for you and yes, they are doing it on purpose. If you try a residentiol area they way it will bring too much traffic, if you try a commercial area they say it will bring too much pedesstrian traffic.
There are times you say enough is enough!
anon 1:55
what you are telling us is that ‘the end justifies the means’.
So the whole foundation of your Chabad House/ Shul is based on Chilul Hashem.
how absurd!
To the previous posts
you have no idea how difficult it is to begin to create a Chabad House / Shul from scratch and how hard it is to find a suitable place to rent or use. You speak with a tremendous lack of knowledege and awareness of the daily trials and tribulations which Chabad Shluchim go through
what’s with these Lubabs? Why do they ALWAYS have to be in the limelight?
Is this their definition of ‘kidush hashem’?
Whenever a Yid files a lawsuit against a municipality, they need to be careful not to create a Chillul Hashem. Like the Chillul Hashem created when they threatened to sue the Seattle Airport for not putting up a Menorah on Chanukah.