AJC Philadelphia Chapter Urges Zoning Board to Reverse Decision Against Congregation Kol AmiAmerican Jewish Committee The American Jewish Committee's Philadelphia Chapter is urging a local zoning board, in Abington, Pennsylvania, to reverse its decision to prohibit a synagogue congregation from purchasing a former convent. "The zoning board's decision flies in the face of recent federal legislation intended to protect houses of worship from discriminatory local zoning laws," said Dr. Murray Friedman, regional director of AJC's Middle Atlantic States.  The Abington Zoning Board denied Congregation Kol Ami the rights to establish a synagogue and Hebrew school at Villa Nazareth, a former convent, asserting that the congregation's proposal to convert the property into a temple and school was "too intensive" for a neighborhood of that size. Congregation Kol Ami currently does not have its own building. Dr. Friedman pointed out that religious institutions belong where people live and are as much a part of the community as are schools." Moreover, the nuns were pleased that selling the property to Kol Ami would maintain the site for religious purposes. "Rejection of this reasonable proposal smacks of the type of burdensome, even discriminatory, application of zoning laws which the U.S. Congress addressed last year by enacting the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act," said Dr. Friedman, who has appealed to the zoning board to reverse its decision and allow Kol Ami to proceed with it plans. RLUIPA protects religious groups from discriminatory land use laws that encroach on the free exercise of their faiths, such as laws that prevent the establishment of religious assemblies and houses of worship in residential areas. The American Jewish Committee played an "indispensable role" in crafting RLUIPA, according to Senator Edward Kennedy.
For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org |
 |
Email Article To A Friend |  |
Link to us! |
