Comedian Black Blasts Westhampton Jewish Boundary

Video of Lewis Black at Westhampton Performing Arts Center posted on his website. He addresses the eruv boundary at 9:09 in the recording.

Comedian Lewis Black, a regular on TV, Broadway, the movies and nightclubs, blasted the proposed eruv Jewish boundary in Westhampton Beach as a violation of separation of church and state.

“There is no discussion here,” he told a sold-out crowd of 450 at the Westhampton Performing Arts Center March 27. “Keep the church out of the state and the state out of the church.”

Black, who has performed for Jimmy Fallon, David Letterman, Conan O’Brien and in his own Broadway show, referred to a story in the March 19 Southampton Press by Kyle Campbell that failed to find claimed “lechi” markers for the Jewish boundary in WHB.

“I keep repeating every night, separation of church and state, that’s the deal,” he said. “You are allowed to establish your imaginary walls, you can have your imaginary walls. There is no need for you to tell the village you have to put up little things to have your imaginary walls. Why? Because they’re imaginary. Right?”

Westhampton theater where Black performed Mar. 27.

Black Pleases Local Blogger Speir

WHB blogger Dean Speir said that Black’s take on the eruv, crammed with many “F-words,” summarized in a few words seven years of anti-eruv campaigning by local citizens.

More than $1 million has been spent on outside legal counsel by WHB, Southampton, Quogue and Jewish People Opposed to the Eruv in their battle against eruvim proposed by the East End Eruv Assn. in 2011. The Hampton Synagogue, WHB, was the initial proposer of an eruv that would include about one square mile of WHB. Claims that such an eruv was created last summer are in dispute. An eruv turns public property into the "private domain" or "home" of the observant.

In addition to his many appearances as a stand-up comedian, Black has authored Nothing’s Sacred, Me of Little Faith and I’m dreaming of a Black Christmas.

He co-starred in 2006 with Robin Williams in “Man of the Year” and appeared as the “fake dean of a fake college” in “Accepted.” He filmed two specials for HBO, “Black on Broadway” and “Red, White and Screwed.”

An author of more than 40 plays including “The Deal,” a “dark” comedy about business, Black has posted an extensive biography on his website.