JNS
New York advocates say the proposal protects religious freedom while preserving free speech.
New York Jewish advocacy groups are urging lawmakers and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to back legislation creating a 25-foot buffer zone from demonstrations near entrances to houses of worship.
The National Jewish Advocacy Center, Orthodox Union, Rabbinical Council of America and National Council of Young Israel submitted a joint letter rebutting the New York Civil Liberties Union’s opposition to the proposal, which is included in the state’s executive budget bill and in stand-alone legislation.
The Jewish groups said that the proposal is narrowly tailored to an important public-safety interest and would still allow demonstrations, leafleting, signs and changing. They would just need to happen just outside the 25 feet.
They also said that entrances to synagogues and other houses of worship are “unavoidable checkpoints,” where crowds can turn sidewalks into sites of intimidation, excessive noise and obstruction.
“There were synagogue protests that violated people’s rights, so the governor proposed a very modest 25-foot buffer zone,” Mark Goldfeder, CEO and director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, told JNS.
The union “manages to be wrong on the facts, wrong on the law and wrong in how it applies First Amendment doctrine to what is, at bottom, an access-and-safety rule at an unavoidable chokepoint,” he said.
The organizations say the legislation would give police an objective standard to enforce and help prevent inconsistent or selective enforcement. They urged lawmakers to advance the bills amid what they described as a rise in disruptive demonstrations and violent threats targeting houses of worship.
The union opposed the proposal in a Jan. 27 statement, arguing that the bill would “strip away some New Yorkers’ free speech rights on an issue of tremendous importance.”
“There is no record of violence, intimidation or interference emanating from the protests in the city,” it stated.
