Jews unite behind Orthodox to support areas 1st eruv

The squabbling over the eruv, a religious boundary, doesn’t extend to Palo Alto’s organized Jewish community, however.

From Reconstructionists to Orthodox, the eruv has received a broad spectrum of support, according to Yitzhak Santis, director of the Peninsula branch of the Jewish Community Relations Council.

Leaders from several local synagogues have attended “educational meetings” with City Council members, and the broad Jewish community demonstrated its support, he said.

Santis predicts that Palo Alto’s Jewish community will show up in full force at the July meeting, when the city’s policy and services committee will recommend a decision to city council.

“This decision is crucial,” Santis said, “because if the eruv fails it will have an impact throughout the entire Bay Area Jewish community.”

An eruv is a contiguous boundary denoted by string or natural markers (such as creeks) that enables Orthodox Jews to carry items or push baby strollers within its borders during the Sabbath.

Although most Palo Alto Jews have kept a low profile regarding the eruv, and have not held public demonstrations, Santis said Jewish leaders have been vocal in their support.

“We’ve been living in Palo Alto for 30-plus years,” said Stan Sussman, a member of the city’s Orthodox Congregation Emek Berecha. “There’s always been a strong sense of togetherness among the different denominations here.”

Sussman, the founding president of the Palo Alto Community Eruv Corporation (PACE) — the nonprofit that would foot the roughly $40,000 cost of installation — said the area’s exploding technology industry makes the need for an eruv more pressing.

“There’s a large Orthodox presence involved in the high-tech world that won’t live here due to the lack of an eruv,” Sussman said.

“It’s not just an Orthodox issue,” said Rabbi Sheldon Lewis of Palo Alto’s Conservative Congregation Kol Emeth. “This is something that’s really innocent, and would help a lot of people out. To me, the eruv is a big part of an established, mature Jewish community, and it creates a sense of community for everyone — regardless of how they identify themselves.”

Of course, just because the organized Jewish community is rallying around the eruv doesn’t mean the rest of the community is marching in tune.

“At this point, there’s a lot of fence-sitting,” said Santis.

The ongoing debate has driven a wedge into the community, according to Palo Alto City Council member Nancy Lytel.

“I can’t help but wonder what went wrong,” she said. “This debate has really dissolved into a discussion about prejudice, anti-Semitism and preferential treatment.

“It’s really polarized the community. The City Council meetings remind me of Rome, with the attorneys acting as gladiators. It’s just gotten real ugly.”

Joe Webb, perhaps the eruv’s most vocal opponent, said the controversy was generated by a “flagrant violation” of the constitutional separation of church and state.

The Woodside resident blanketed the city with fliers, urging residents help defeat the proposed eruv. “The eruv is state-sponsored religious colonization,” he wrote. “Some would argue that the eruv creates a Jewish ghetto, into which non-Jews are incorporated against their wishes…”

Ariel Calonne, Palo Alto’s city attorney, fears the city may be slapped with some lawsuits. “There are several organizations and private individuals that likely will sue the city if this [the eruv] passes,” he said.

“However, even if the risk of lawsuits is high, the risk of losing those lawsuits isn’t all that great.”

Supporters of the eruv are buoyed by the fact that they have legal precedent on their side.

In 1987, the American Civil Liberties Union sued Long Branch, N.J., over a proposed eruv– and lost. The state Supreme Court ruled that an eruv was akin to fixing the sidewalks outside of a church, essentially deciding that both provided a secular vehicle for practicing religion.

Since then, more than 100 eruvim have been formed — many with little or no dissent from the larger communities. The Palo Alto eruv would be the first in the Bay Area.

The community of faith supporting the eruv extends beyond the Palo Alto synagogues. The Rev. Jeff Zamos of the First Presbyterian Church said it has his full support and that of the Palo Alto Ministerial Association, which he headed for the past two years.

“I mean, it’s not like they’re putting on a Nativity scene in the middle of City Hall,” he said. “It’s just a piece of string, so what’s the big deal?”

If that vexing question is resolved next month, it will come none too soon for council member Lytel.

“The city of South Miami Beach approved one of these things in 20 minutes, and it’s taken us more than a year,” said Lytel.

“One way or the other, it should have been resolved a long time ago.”

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