Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Hamptons Eruv Wins Approval From Appeals Court

A federal appeals court upheld the constitutionality of the recently constructed eruv around Westhampton Beach on Long Island.

The 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New York ruled that the plastic strips placed on utility poles in the village to designate the eruv do not breach the separation of church and state.

“No reasonable observer who notices the strips on LIPA utility poles would draw the conclusion that a state actor is thereby endorsing religion,” the three judges wrote in their ruling.

An eruv, which allows Orthodox Jews to perform certain activities in the public domain during Shabbat, was erected in August.

Since 2008, community members have held a contentious debate on the concept of an eruv, with some saying the ritual boundary is an unfair intrusion of religion into public space. Jon Stewart addressed the debate on “The Daily Show” in 2011.

The case was brought by the Jewish People for the Betterment of Westhampton Beach — a group of Jews against the eruv — against the Village of Westhampton Beach, the East End Eruv Association, Verizon and the Long Island Lighting Company, or LILCO. Verizon and LILCO were involved in the construction of the eruv.

A lawsuit in connection with the eruv around Westhampton Beach, a tony area approximately 80 miles from Manhattan, was dismissed in 2013.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.