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Congregation Kol Ami asks federal court for injunction
Congregation Kol Ami has asked U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Weiner to allow it to conduct worship services and other activities at a former Catholic convent and Orthodox monastery in Abington Township, beginning on the Jewish festival of Shavuot on May 27. The Zoning Hearing Board (ZHB) of Abington, a suburb of Philadelphia, voted earlier this year to refuse to allow the congregation to use the convent for worship after some neighbors objected.
Judge Weiner has given the Township until next Tuesday, May 22, to file a response to the motion for a preliminary injunction. Congregation Kol Ami, which is represented in its lawsuit against Abington Township by The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and by Philadelphia attorneys Jonathan Auerbach, of Berger & Montague, and Peter Friedman, of Jaffe, Friedman, Schuman, Sciolla, Nemeroff & Applebaum, will have until May 24 to file a reply.
Congregation Kol Ami is a reform Jewish congregation formed in 1994, and is led by Rabbi Elliot Holin. After years of searching for a permanent home, it agreed to buy a property owned by the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth which had been used continuously for 44 years of uninterrupted use as a Catholic convent and Greek Orthodox monastery. After the ZHB turned down the congregation's request for permission to occupy and use the facility, either as a "continuation of a prior nonconforming use" or through a zoning variance, the congregation filed suit in federal court. The lawsuit charges the Township with violations of the U.S. and Pennsylvania Constitutions and of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 ("RLUIPA"), which requires zoning laws that burden religious exercise to meet a "compelling government interest" using the "least restrictive means," a standard the Abington law does not meet.
The request for a preliminary injunction argues that Congregation Kol Ami is likely to prevail in the lawsuit because of the Township's clear and unambiguous discrimination against places of worship generally (they are no longer permitted in any residential neighborhood—existing churches are grandfathered), and against Jewish places of worship specifically (26 Christian churches are located in residential zones, but no synagogues at all, despite the fact that 20 percent of the Township's population is Jewish). Moreover, under the ordinance, municipal buildings, libraries, country clubs, club houses, pro shops and snack bars would be permitted on the 10.9 acre property. "Apparently, if Rabbi Holin taught miniature golf or tennis lessons instead of scripture, and operated a snack bar instead of offering Oneg Shabbat refreshments, he would be able to do so by special exception," the brief observes.