Last update - 00:00 27/09/2006
U.S. sues village for denying building permit to 'Shabbos house'
By The Associated Press
WHITE PLAINS - The U.S. government has filed a lawsuit against a New York village, accusing it of religious discrimination for denying a zoning variance to a residence used by Orthodox Jews so they can visit a hospital on the Sabbath without breaking religious laws.
The government said their lawsuit that in denying the variance for a "Shabbos house," the village of Suffern violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000. It requested an injunction against enforcement of any village laws that would burden the group's religious practices.
A village attorney, Terry Rice, said that while he had not seen the lawsuit, the agency that requested the variance "did not claim it was a religious use."
"The zoning board applied New York state law and had no choice but to deny" the variance, he said.
Bikur Cholim Inc., an Orthodox Jewish service agency, provides meals and lodging for Orthodox Jews in a "Shabbos house" so they can visit patients at nearby Good Samaritan Hospital on Saturdays without violating restrictions on driving and other activities on the Sabbath or other holy days.
The house, about 64 kilometers north of midtown Manhattan, had been on the hospital grounds, but when Good Samaritan expanded in 2004, the service agency took over a newly built house in an area zoned for single-family homes across the street.
The village denied a building permit and a zoning variance that would have allowed use of the house by up to 14 people, the lawsuit says. The house continues to operate pending court decisions.
Rice said it has not been established that such a "hotel-type" use is a religious use, but Paul Savad, a lawyer representing Bikur Cholim in its own lawsuit against Suffern, said visiting the sick is a strongly held religious practice for Orthodox Jews and prayers and services are conducted on the Sabbath at the residence.
The government has invoked the Religious Land Use act in at least two other lawsuits in the region, supporting a Jewish school's new building and a Hasidic boarding school.