When he read the last issue of the Jewish Star on August 5, he became so annoyed that in 10 minutes he drafted an ordinance amending Chicago's Municipal Code. He then reached out for a co-sponsor, and submitted the document to the City Clerk's office that afternoon.
With that action, aldermen Burt Natarus (42nd) and co-sponsor Bernie Stone (50th) may well put an end in Chicago to the possibility that condominium associations could legally ban building occupants from placing mezuzahs on the doorposts into their condo units.
In an independent development a week later, the condo association at 253 E. Delaware Place decided to modify its total ban on hallway objects to permit external mezuzahs.
A report on the ban appeared in the Star's last issue.
"This is crazy. It aggravates me to no end," Natarus said of the August 5 Jewish Star article, which reported on the mezuzah ban by two Chicago condominiums.
"If you're a practicing Jew and you want to tell the Lord of the world you're Jewish, the way to do it is to place a cylinder with a scroll -- what we call a mezuzah -- on your door. ...
"What difference should it make to the condo board" if an occupant places a mezuzah on a doorpost, he told the Jewish Star this month.
Natarus knew that Chicago's Municipal Code, as it relates to condominiums, forbids discrimination on the basis of "race, religion, sex, sexual preference, marital status or national origin" (�13-72-040).
"I'm saying that in a way you're discriminating because you're not allowing a person to practice his religion," he said.
Citing the Torah injunction to place a mezuzah on one's doorpost, Alderman Stone noted that "this is a commandment that we [Jews] repeat [twice] every single day in prayer".
In his 32 years as a city alderman, Stone added, he had never encountered such a case. "This is a clear insult to all Jews," he said.
Both aldermen have mezuzahs at their condos and offices.
The Natarus-Stone proposed amendment adds these words to the Municipal Code:
"No person shall be denied the right to practice their religion by not being able to place or affix on the door, door post or entrance of the unit a religious sign, symbol or relic.
"Any person found violating any provision of this section upon conviction thereof shall be punished under the provisions of Sections 13-72-110 of this Chapter."
Natarus said the amendment was designed to be relevant to all religious groups, and would have a wide appeal.
"I think we're going to win this one," he said. "I think I can get everyone in the Council to sign it."
Stone agreed. "Let them challenge it," he said, referring to the condominium boards.
The Natarus-Stone ordinance stands to impact an increasing number of condo owners in a market which has recently been "condo crazy," according to The Wall Street Journal.
Chicago is among the top three markets in the United States for condo development, the newspaper reported this month.
Correction to email
Natarus acknowledged that when Stephen Jaffe, the lawyer for a condo resident at 253 E. Delaware Place, had contacted him at the end of June about that association's mezuzah ban, an email response had indicated that the condo's bylaws needed to be followed (as reported in the last issue of the Jewish Star).
But Natarus said that the response (though under his name) was actually from a non-Jewish staff member who did not fully appreciate the significance of the mezuzah for Jews.
The ordinance comes up for committee consideration on Sept. 14. Stone said that it was likely to be sent to either the Building Committee (which he heads) or to the Human Relations Committee for consideration.
Either committee would hold a public hearing before making a recommendation to the City Council, Stone said.
Both Stone and Natarus were hopeful that the amendment would be adopted by around Rosh Hashanah, which begins October 3.
Shoreline case
Meanwhile two Chicago condo associations are going their own way concerning their ban on mezuzahs -- one rescinding its rule, the other preparing to argue its case in court.
At 253 E. Delaware Place, the condo association "has chosen a path of reasonableness and satisfactorily resolved its mezuzah crisis," said Howard S. Dakoff, of Levenfeld Pearlstein, LLC. Dakoff has been acting as co-counsel with attorney Stephen Jaffe on behalf of a 253 E. Delaware Place condo unit owner and resident, and as counsel for Jewish condo owners at Shoreline Towers.
For both matters, Dakoff has been handling the cases pro bono.
Dakoff told the Jewish Star this week that E. Delaware association's counsel informed him August 11 that in the next few weeks the board will be "modifying its Association Rules and Regulations to accommodate the hanging of mezuzahs."
"My client is very happy," Jaffe told the Jewish Star, referring to both the E. Delaware Place, and Natarus-Stone, developments.
"Publicity is why this is getting resolved," he said.
At Shoreline Towers, however, the condo association is defending its case, which is being handled by Arnstein & Lehr LLP.
It has filed an August 5 response to complaints to the Chicago Commission on Human Relations at the same time that the Civil Rights Bureau of the Illinois Attorney General's Office is considering seeking a restraining order, and ultimately a preliminary injunction, against it.
The orders would allow Shoreline Towers residents to re-affix mezuzahs on their door, banned by condo association rule. In the latest encounter, the association removed a mezuzah on August 3 at the condo unit of Lynne Bloch.
Melissa Merv, Civil Rights Bureau press officer, has declined to discuss the case with the Jewish Star. Shoreline Towers president Ed Frischholz did not respond to Jewish Star phone calls.
"I think it is likely the court will enjoin them from taking down the mezuzahs until the case is tried," said Professor F. Willis Caruso, of the John Marshall Law School Fair Housing Clinic this week.
JMLS students at the clinic have accepted the case for litigation, and are preparing materials to assist the Civil Rights Bureau as it considers a restraining order.
"It is just extraordinary in our experience that a condo would not take action to lift this prohibition," Caruso told the Jewish Star.
Caruso noted that an allegation in this case is that Shoreline Towers condo association president Frischholz "acted on his own based on his own animosity, and if that is true then he is personally liable".
Said attorney Dakoff: "While we are pleased with the East Delaware Condo Association's decision to allow mezuzahs, we will continue to actively confront the prohibition of mezuzahs by condominium association boards of directors."
Article copyright Star Media Group, Inc.
No comments:
Post a Comment