Westhampton Beach trustees, who have kept the eruv off the agenda for many months, including tonight’s agenda, will face citizens who will bring the subject up and demand answers.
This reporter, a citizen, taxpayer and voter in WHB, will be among them.
It’s significant that the eruv is not even on the agenda although WHB was prominently mentioned in the June 30 Suffolk Superior Court decision that ruled that proposed “lechis” on Southampton utility poles would not be “signs” because no one could see them.
 WHB Board: Rob Rubio, Charles Palmer, Mayor Moore, Ralph Urban, Brian Tymann, counsel Anthony Pasca |
Arnold Sheiffer, head of Jewish People for the Betterment of WHB, has called the decision by Justice Joseph Farneti “outrageous” because it defies logic. Eruvim are highly visible on Synagogue websites, he notes in a letter to the Southampton Press July 30.
Bruce McAllister, a Quogue resident, writes in today’s SH Press that the court’s view that lechis are not signs “seemingly ludicrously” presents the view that they “signify nothing to anyone.”
“Outrageous” and “ludicrous” are apt words for how courts are handling this costly situation that unfairly tars and feathers citizens of SH, WHB and Quogue as anti-Semites.
Shieffer politely says that “no judge has the judicial fortitude to issue a ruling that could cause all eruvs in the U.S. to be taken down.”
A national issue is involved in the eruv battle in the Hamptons.
There was one court decision that was very logical. It was delivered in 2001 by Federal Judge William Bassler in New Jersey. He said Tenafly residents and elected officials harbored no ill will to Orthdox Jews. They just did not want utility poles permanently dedicated to “a religious purpose."
WHB Officials Duck, Duck & Duck
WHB officials have ducked the eruv issue for months but they can’t stop citizens from putting statements on the public record at their meetings that are videotaped and will be available on the WHB website in a few days.
Were the officials truly interested in being “transparent,” a promise regularly made by them, tonight’s session at 7 p.m. would be live webcast so that all citizens could tune in and questions could be presented to the trustees. The technology for this is basic and is widely used in PR.
The attitude and tactics of the officials suggests otherwise.
For the umpteenth year in a row, they have scheduled the second meeting of the new board to be on the same night and at about the same time as a 25-piece “Swingtime Big Band” is playing in the WHB square. The trustees should be meeting on Wednesday or Friday to avoid such a conflict. Perhaps in future years they will do this but we would not bet on it.
Also pointing to officials’ avoiding public participation in governance is the fact that on June 19, election day, there was no notice of this on the WHB website.
Minutes of each board meeting are not posted until a month later, after they have been reviewed at the next meeting.
If the trustees were really interested in having citizens check what is said at their meetings they would supply a transcript the next day. We sent the video of the July 6 meeting to a transcription service and they completed it in one day at a cost of $100. How many people are interested in something that is a month old?
O’Dwyer Speech
Here are the remarks that this reporter will make to the trustees tonight. Other citizens have also said they will speak and seek answers.
Hello Mayor Moore and trustees. This is WHB resident, voter, taxpayer and reporter Jack O’Dwyer.
Neither Mayor Moore or any trustee has sat down and talked to me or even answered a phone call since January. I don’t think I am being treated fairly.
I can’t get the answers to my questions. Obtaining answers from business, organizational and government figures is the service that the O’Dwyer Co. performs for its subscribers and how our employees make their living.
Residents who oppose an eruv in WHB have said they want to know where all the lawsuits stand that affect WHB. I also ask that question, fearful that I will be told that the matter is “in litigation” and cannot be discussed in any way.
That is not correct. The 6,000-word discussion of the eruv battle in the Hamptons at a conference conducted by Justice Kathleen Tomlinson is public record and should be one of the items on the WHB website under the heading, “Eruv Litigation.” Numerous other items also should be there. Most of the items are from 2011. The Jan. 6, 2015 and June 30 court decisions were added this week.
I would like to know why WHB is not opposing the eruv while SH and Quogue are doing so? Prof. Marci Hamilton, of the Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University, writing under contract to WHB in 2008, said WHB “has a range of compelling interests in a closely regulated sign ordinance applicable on both private and public property.”
I ask Mayor Moore and the trustees why isn’t WHB at least trying to enforce its sign laws when SH and Quogue are doing just that? The June 30 Justice Farneti decision saying lechis are not signs because they’re not visible is kooky and should be fought with everything they have.
Hampton residents are faced with an illogical court system pounded by politics but they should not give up. Huge fines, penalties and court costs face the three towns should they lose this battle. Tenafly paid $300,000+ when it lost an appeal.
It’s about time that WHB’ elected officials follow the obvious wishes of the vast majority of WHB residents and join the fight against an eruv. Previous Mayor Conrad Teller estimated that 90-95% of residents are against use of WHB utility poles for religious purposes. Brian Tymann and Rob Rubio were elected by large margins June 19 because they expressed the same opinion.
Mayor Maria Moore of Westhampton Beach has quit the library board after six years. Critics said she should have quit in June 2014 when she was elected mayor. Moore served eight years on fund-raising for the $7.5 million library.
Mayor Marie Moore of Westhampton Beach, responding to nearly 25 minutes of complaints by residents of failure to communicate about an eruv Orthodox Jewish boundary in WHB, has proposed a “community meeting” on the subject. We have suggestions for that.
Hampton residents who are opposed to eruv Orthodox Jewish boundaries in their towns are getting support from the new "Open Orthodoxy" of Judaism that rejects “boundaries, fences, high and thick.” It accepts women as Rabbis and also same-sex marriage.
Westhampton Beach, as well as most of the media covering it, by ducking the threat of multi-millions in costs related to the proposed eruv Jewish religious boundary, are failing to acknowledge the power of the web.
Have a comment? Send it to 
No comments have been submitted for this story yet.