Rabbi Says Township Is Violating His Religious Freedom

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP, NJ — A New Jersey rabbi has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the township where he lives, saying local officials are conducting an illegal surveillance of his house and restricting his right to pray at his home.

The federal lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Trenton on behalf of Avraham Bernstein, who is represented by the Rutherford Institute, a Charlottesville, Va.-based civil liberties group that focuses on First Amendment and religious freedom cases.

At issue is whether Bernstein, a rabbi with the ultraorthodox Lubavitch Chabad, is allowed to host a minyon, the necessary 10 men to pray under orthodox Jewish law, at his home on Shabbat, Friday night to Saturday night.

The Monmouth County township says he is violating local zoning ordinances because he is using his home as a house of worship, according to the lawsuit.

Bernstein received a zoning violation in February 2007 and a summons in April; in May he filed a lawsuit in New Jersey Superior Court. The township retaliated by “secretly setting up a video camera,” aimed at the Bersteins’ home, which is operated on Friday afternoon before Shabbat until its conclusion on Saturday, the lawsuit alleges.

Bernstein, his wife and eight children live in a 4,000 square-foot single-family home, where they invite friends to celebrate the holiday with them. Since they are not allowed to drive, many are neighbors who walk.

An attorney for the township, Duane O. Davison, did not return several telephone messages left by The Associated Press.