Ccongregation Toras Chaim in North Dallas, TX.

Texas Judge Rules Shul May Operate in Private Home

In a ruling that may have far-reaching implications for Shluchim all over the country, a Texas judge decided yesterday that a North Dallas rabbi will be able to continue holding religious services in his home.

From VIN News by Mitch Stern:

A judge ruled today that a North Dallas Jewish congregation will be able to continue holding religious practice out of their home.

According to a press release issued by the nonprofit Liberty Institute, who represented the orthodox congregation, Toras Chaim will be able to continue holding meetings and practicing their religion from a home in the Highlands of McKamy subdivision after a judge denied the HOA’s request for an injunction.

Liberty Institute attorneys cited that a temporary injunction against the congregation would violate the U.S. Constitution, the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.

According to the Dallas Observer, the dispute between Rabbi Yaakov Rich of the Toras Chaim congregation and neighbor David Schneider started last year, after Schneider stated the traffic from the services and meetings violated deed restrictions in the subdivision and that his property value had declined.

Schneider and the homeowner’s association attorney for Highlands of McKamy were unable to convince the judge that the services being held in the home changed the status quo of the neighborhood, a criteria that needed to be met for an injunction to be issued.

6 Comments

  • Andrea Schonberger

    Couldn’t Toras Chaim have gotten someone else to represent their case besides the Liberty Institute? This is a right-wing Christian group which persist in perpetuating the myth, yes myth, of religious persecution and insisting that America is a Christian nation. Just because the goyim aren’t allowed to trample over the rest of us, as they would if they could get away with it, hardly amounts to persecution–but let me guess? They love Israel, right? So they must be OK!

    • Milhouse

      It is not a myth, as is proven by this and hundreds of other cases that the Liberty Institute, the Beckett Fund, and several other public interest law firms have on their books. There is a war on religion in this country, and it must be resisted.

      And yes, Americans are a Christian people, so Xians are our natural allies in this fight, and we should stand with them. The free exercise of religion is our cause as much as theirs. And so is the prominent place that religion ought to have in public affairs. We believe that the Creator belongs in the public square, every bit as much as they do.

      The de facto establishment of atheism as an official religion is why we have so much crime. The Baal Shem Tov would not ride in a carriage if the driver did not kiss his avoda zara at the beginning of the journey, because if he is not religious then there’s no telling what he will do, and it’s dangerous to ride with him. Better an idolater who believes, then an atheist.

  • Andrea Schonberger

    Sorry Milhouse but I don’t want any truck with those types of organizations. Americans are not all Christians–I’m an American but I’m a Yid so how do you explain that? By your reasoning I should not be. Any person born here is automatically an American but not necessarily a Christian. Christians are idolaters so give me an honest atheist any day.

    • Milhouse

      Andrea, you can bluster all you like, but you cannot honestly deny the plain fact that everyone knows, that Americans are a Xian nation. What kind of idiots do you take the readership for, to imagine that pointing to one non-Xian American somehow changes that? We all know among whom we live, and how good they have been to us, especially compared to the atheists.

      And if you prefer an atheist to an idolater you are contradicting the Baal Shem Tov. An atheist has no basis for morality, so he is capable of anything . A religious idolater fears his god/s and will not harm another person.