Freehold Township, NJ – Rabbi Sues To Overturn Zoning Rules.

Freehold Township, NJ – A dispute between an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and the township is being couched as a clash between religious freedom and municipal zoning rules.

The township contends that Rabbi Avraham Bernstein is using his home on Stillwells Corner Road as a house of worship and that the number of people frequently gathering in his backyard are constitutes an infringement on the residential character of the neighborhood.
“This is a zoning issue. We have a zone in which houses of worship are a conditionally permitted use, and in order to establish such a use you have to meet certain conditions,” said Duane Davison, the township attorney.
Davison added that Bernstein’s property does not meet those conditions.

However, Gerald Marks, a Red Bank attorney who represents Bernstein, said the rabbi is protected by law as a clergyman who is pursuing his religious beliefs in his own home. The gatherings in the backyard are family celebrations being generally mistaken by neighbors as religious ceremonies, Marks said. The rabbi has eight children.

“The importance of this case is the attempted abridgement of the constitutional right to practice your own religion in your home, and that is guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, it’s further guaranteed by the New Jersey Constitution and a further act of Congress,” the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, Marks said. [app]