Hamptons Rabbi Schneier Reportedly Expelled from Council

Jewish media reported June 5 that Rabbi Marc Schneier of the Hampton Synagogue has been expelled from the Rabbinical Council of America because of alleged adultery. He said he has not been so informed.

RCA, the largest rabbinic group of Modern Orthodoxy, "did not deny it had taken the highly unusual step of expelling Schneier," said the Jewish Forward.

Schneier

The report, covered by at least three other Jewish media including the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, which has a worldwide circulation, Jewish Week, and Failed Messiah, focuses national attention on Westhampton Beach, Southampton and Quogue where a five-year-old battle is raging about construction of a Jewish religious boundary called an eruv.

Rabbi Schneier, who founded the Synagogue in 1992, proposed an eruv for WHB in 2008. He dropped the proposal following opposition and it was taken up by the East End Eruv Assn.

Blocking eruvim as a violation of local sign laws or as a violation of the U.S. Constitution would jeopardize 70 such boundaries in New York state and hundreds of others in the U.S.

WHB Candidates Mum on Eruv

Also focusing attention on WHB is an election set for June 19.

Rob Rubio, owner of Rubio Premier Motors in WHB, and Brian Tymann, former SH Trustee and co-founder of the Hampton Cigar Co., are opposing incumbents Patricia DeBenedetto and Hank Tucker.

WHB blogger Dean Speir expressed surprise that neither Rubio or Tymann were at the trustees’ meeting June 4, saying that according to his knowledge they have "yet to put in an appearance at Six Corners (WHB village offices) other than to file their nominating petitions."

Tymann said in an email that Rubio and he are "running on a simple platform of downtown revitalization," calling for a sewer district for Main street. "The current condition of private septic systems is crippling business and the bay is also suffering from excess sewage entering through antiquated septic systems sitting in ground water," Tymann said.

"As for the eruv," he added, I cannot speak for Rubio but as I understand it, the issue is out of the hands of WHB being that it has been ruled on already by the courts and is therefore not an active issue on the board’s agenda anymore."

Eruv Backers Won in Court Jan. 6

Tymann

The U.S. Court of Appeals, New York, on Jan. 6, 2015 rejected moves by Jewish People Opposed to the Eruv to declare invalid an eruv that reportedly has been erected in WHB. A search by the Southampton Press in March failed to find any visible markers of the eruv on 45 utility poles that have been licensed for such a purpose by Verizon and Long Island Power.

Opponents of eruvim cite the 23,424-word decision by Federal District Court Judge William Bassler in 2001 that said "public property should not be permanently allocated to a religious purpose." It ordered an eruv in Tenafly, N.J., dismantled. An Appeals Court over-ruled the decision noting that Tenafly had allowed directional signs and postings by high school students on the poles and could not therefore block an eruv. The 16,981-word decision had links to 238 related cases.

Moore told the June 4 meeting that recent activity on the lawsuit would be posted on the WHB website. The most recent entry among about 70 is for Dec. 22, 2014. One item that should be posted is the 6,000-word discussion of the suit Feb. 26 before Judge Kathleen Tomlinson by all parties involved. It is a public document obtained by an O’Dwyer correspondent copying the transcript by hand since photo-copying was not allowed.

Towns Say Little About Dispute

The SH and Quogue websites make no mention of the battle.

SH complained to Judge Tomlinson about its external and internal costs, saying it is uninsured for the action. Fees to law firm Jaspan Schlesinger totaled $665,860 as of last October and another $10K was appropriated in January.

SH attorney Maureen Schlesinger told Tomlinson that "tens of thousands" have been spent on document discovery since "innumerable computers and hardware had to be searched."

Legal documents involved are in these two photos taken at SH town hall:

None of the four candidates will answer any questions by this website about the eruv issue. Mayor Marie Moore also refuses to take questions on the topic including why doesn’t WHB enforce a law on its books that forbids signs on utility poles on WHB property unless permission is given.

WHB Law Bars Signs on Utility Poles

Article IV 197-30 of WHB says:

D. Prohibited signs defined. Any sign not specifically permitted is prohibited and shall be removed within the time specified by the Building Inspector. Prohibited signs shall include, but not be limited to:

22. Temporary or permanent signs resting on, attached to or inside any vehicles, buildings, fences, telephone poles or any other structures or means of support or otherwise displayed in any manner designed to circumvent the restrictions in this article. [Added 4-7-2011 by L.L. No. 1-2011].

Both SH and Quogue have such laws and their applicability to proposed eruvim is being argued at the New York State level.

Schneier, five times married, was accused of having an extramarital affair with congregant Gitty Leiner in 2010, sources told the Forward, the 22,000-circulation publication/web site based in New York.

The affair was noted in divorce papers filed by Schneier’s fourth wife, Tobi Rubinstein. Pictures of Schneier and Leiner were published in the New York News. Tabletmag.com had a 5,822-word profile of Schneier June 15, 2011, headlined, "Rabbi Marc Schneier’s Hampton Synagogue Caters to New York’s Wealthy."