Rabbi says township is violating his religious freedom
A Virginia group is representing a New Jersey rabbi who filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Monmouth County township where he lives.
Avraham Bernstein claims Freehold Township officials are conducting an illegal surveillance of his house and restricting his right to pray at his home.
The suit was filed today in Trenton by the Rutherford Institute, a Charlottesville-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 single-family home on Shabbat, Friday night to Saturday night.
Town officials say Bernstein’s violating local zoning ordinances because he’s using his home as a house of worship.
source: wdbj7.com
