Libraries in Southampton, Westhampton Beach and Quogue, elected leaders of which are being falsely accused in court of "animus" towards Orthodox Jews, must fight those charges and stop massive legal costs.
 Westhampton Library |
According to the suits, which have cost the towns $884,837 thus far in outside legal costs alone, the only way to escape such charges is to agree to allow "lechis" on utility poles that convert public land into a "private domain."
The lechis turn the poles into "doors," something that only the Orthodox believe. Citizens of SH, which includes WHB and Quogue, have to face either accepting this fantasy or continuing in a legal maze of hundreds of court filings and hundreds of thousands of words. They could be hit with further huge legal bills since the East End Eruv Assn. is suing for damages and legal fees.
The mission of the expanded WHB library, built for $7.5 million in 2010, is to "serve the community, cultivate knowledge and inspire lifelong learning."
Rogers Memorial Library of SH and Quogue Library have similar missions.
It's time for them to step into this battle to defend not only the honor of the towns but their treasuries.
Citizens Are Terrorized, Confused
 Confessore |
Citizens of WHB, where we have lived most of the year for more than 35 years, are frightened and confused. It's as though a pack of lions is loose on the street, making it impossible for them to go out. They find it appalling that the government, considering the lions an endangered species, takes the side of the lions.
It time for the citizens to take things into their own hands and chase the lions away.
Legal Case Is Built on Sand
The legal case of EEEA, in six different parts and as complicated as the periodic table of elements, rests on two false premises—that the lechis, plastic strips tacked to utility poles in WHB last summer, are not a religious symbol and are "nearly invisible" anyway, and that a "reasonable" observer would not glean any religious message from them. Another flaw is that no government body that we know of has approved of the alleged eruv, a requirement of Jewish law.
An essay by Mark Williams of the First Amendment Foundation covered in detail the inability of eruv backers to obtain approval of any government body. WHB rejected the eruv as did Suffolk Executive Steve Levy.
 Rogers Memorial Library |
"Reasonable" people today are up to their eyebrows in knowledge and facts about everything via traditional media and the web. We doubt there is a resident of WHB who doesn't know about the eruv and the controversy surrounding it. The way to increase that knowledge and defeat the claim on secrecy is a public display of the mountain of legal filings.
It is significant that Robert Sugarman, lead counsel at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, ducks repeated calls and emails from 27east.com and this website. Nor is anyone from the EEEA ever available for public discussion. They don't have a logical leg to stand on!
The libraries, if they want to live up to their principles, should take up this task. An alternative is for Jewish People Against the Eruv or some other group to rent space in WHB for such a display. A possible site is the former Magic's Pub which has been vacant for the past several years. It was one of only two moderate-priced restaurants on Main st.
NYT Reporter Is Son of Library President
President of the Quogue Library is Lynda Confessore, whose son, Nicholas, is a political reporter for the New York Times. Christine Clifton is library director.
 Quogue Library |
This gives NYT an unrivaled bird's eye view of the battle. Quogue has spent $103,859 so far on outside legal counsel on this dispute. The last NYT story on the WHB eruv was published by reporter Sharon Otterman on Feb. 4, 2013. NYT is ducking this story.
Sugarman addressed Quogue trustees in March 2012, warning them not to reject the eruv application. Sugarman helped the Tenafly Eruv Assn. to win more than $300,000 in costs in 2006 after that town fought unsuccessfully to block an eruv.
A district court sided with the town but was over-ruled by an Appeals Court which said TEA showed that the town had allowed other signs on its utility poles. The issue of separation of church and state was not addressed.
Marketer Heads SH Library
Sandra Klemuk, president of Southampton's Rogers Memorial Library, is a principal of Braun Marketing of Southampton, which handles design, printing and direct mail. Also a principal is her husband, Richard Braun.
Klemuk, a native of SH, worked in New York representing commercial illustrators to ad agencies and magazines. She and her husband, who also worked in NYC, moved back to SH in the late 1980s, opening Braun Marketing.
Klemuk is an experienced communicator and could bring her expertise to bear on the eruv conundrum.
Elizabeth Burns is director of the library.
Library Head Levan Was WHB Village Trustee
Joan Levan, president of the WHB Library, was a trustee of WHB from 2006-2011. Newsday reported June 11, 2009 that she and trustee Hank Tucker thought Mayor Conrad Teller had moved too fast in trying to approve the WHB eruv. Danielle Waskiewicz is director of the library.
 Sandra Klemuk and Richard Braun |
Following is a letter mailed today to 12 of the trustees in the three towns. Email addresses are not available for most of them. The boards should not wait until their next regular meetings but should take up this matter now. A sense of urgency and outrage is needed.
Hello Library Trustee ____________
This is reporter and homeowner in Westhampton Beach since 1987 Jack O'Dwyer who is covering the battle over the eruvim, erected and/or proposed in SH, WHB and Quogue on our website—www.odwyerpr.com.
I hope that the library, whose mission is "educational, cultural and intellectual," will play a role in educating citizens about the legal war that has been declared on SH and its citizens and taxpayers.
Answering in court preposterous charges such as whether Southampton officials "discriminate" against Orthodox Jews, and arguing endlessly over the meaning of "secular," "sectarian," "accommodation," "sign," separation of church and state, what is or is not religious, laws relative to land use (Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000), "strict scrutiny" and other terms, is not only an uncalled-for burden on the town and its citizens but is a giant waste of the legal system's time.
One filing was 70 billion bytes. Judge Kathleen Tomlinson several times has asked for relief from such massive input. A filing on an eruv proposed for Quogue was three inches thick, reported patch.com, a local reporting service. It is an indictment of the legal system of the U.S. that such charges can be entertained by the system.
This has already cost SH $655,860 in outside legal costs and there is no end in sight. WHB has paid $125,118 for outside legal counsel and Quogue, $103,859. Figures were obtained via FOIL requests. Furthermore, the towns are being sued for legal costs of the plaintiffs. Tenafly, N.J., had to pay the Tenafly Eruv Assn. more than $300,000 in 2006 after it lost a battle with TEA that was led by Robert Sugarman of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, who is conducting the fight against SH and its hamlets. I don't think SH citizens are aware of how big the bill for this battle can be.
The educational, cultural and intellectual content of the legal actions against SH and its elected leaders is nil. SH and its leaders and residents are being falsely accused of discrimination against Orthodox Jews who want to use town property to erect eruvim whose only purpose is religious. The EEEA denies that the purpose is religious.
The three towns find themselves trapped in an endless maze of costly legal filings. www.odwyerpr.com is highlighting the costs.
The response of SH has been too dependent on arguing in the courts which are heavily and wrongly influenced by precedent. A repeated claim is that an eruv is nearly invisible and ordinary citizens don't realize it is there. That is nonsense in this Information Age when people can know almost anything immediately.
SH residents are unjustly labeled as bigots and anti-Semites. A typical example is the New York Post article Jan. 9, 2015 hailing the Appeals Court decision Jan. 6 that lets the WHB eruv remain in place. The article says that what is "really driving opposition" is fear of an "influx of Orthodox Jews." It calls that "bigotry."
I hope I can interest the Library in creating a display so that citizens can see the astronomical size of this legal assault and the quandary that it has presented to the community.
Cordially,
Jack O'Dwyer
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