Synagogue sues Haverstraw after plan rejected; cites religious discrimination, RLUIPA

A group of Orthodox Jewish residents of Haverstraw have filed a federal lawsuit against the town, its planning board as a whole and three planning board members individually, claiming they conspired to block K'hal Bnei Torah of Mount Ivy's plans to convert a single-family home on a residential street into a synagogue.

The suit alleges that three members of the Town of Haverstraw Planning Board − Glenn Widmer, Joseph Michalak and Robert Sambrato − "succumbed to toxic anti-Semitic rhetoric from an angry group of their neighbors inresponse to Plaintiff’s efforts to establish a house of worship in the Town of Haverstraw."

The lawsuit cites antisemitic comments from a neighbor during a planning board hearing that drew rebuke on the local, state and national levels.

Those comments, which referenced running over Orthodox Jewish children, were made on Nov. 10, 2021.

The federal lawsuit was filed exactly a year after that inflammatory public hearing, on Nov. 10, 2022, in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The lawsuit said the planning board members denied synagogue members the ability to freely exercise their religion and violated state and federal law. Orthodox Jews cannot drive during the Sabbath, the lawsuit said, and most congregants live within a half-mile of the planned synagogue.

Ira Emanuel, attorney for K'hal Bnei Torah of Mount Ivy, did not immediately return a request for comment.

Haverstraw Town Supervisor Howard Phillips, citing advice of counsel, declined comment.

RLUIPA looms over Haverstraw, Rockland

The lawsuit called the board's refusal to grant the synagogue's application religious discrimination and a "capitulation to the discriminatory animus clearly voiced by the 'generalized public opposition' to the project."

The suit cites the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000. The law is designed to protect individuals, houses of worship and institutions against restrictive zoning and other laws being used to impede the free exercise of religion.

RLUIPA has long been a hot-button issue in Rockland County, especially in the abutting town of Ramapo, where a growing Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish community has built shuls and yeshivas. While RLUIPA was enacted as a shield against religious discrimination, critics say it is used as a sword to beat back any challenges to development.

Surprise 'no' votes, then applause

K'hal Bnei Torah submitted its application to convert a house into a synagogue in January 2021.

After a months-long process and variance and environmental approvals, the planning board on Aug. 10 rejected by a 3-2 vote the synagogue's plan to create a house of worship at 62 Riverglen Drive in the hamlet of Thiells.

The vote was clearly a surprise to audience members, who erupted in applause, and to the town's land-use attorney, Christie Addono, who was seen sitting at the dais with her head in her hands.

The resolution she had read before the vote referenced RLUIPA seven times in explaining why the board would vote to approve the plan.

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Planning Board Chairman Sal Corallo and member Anthony Gizzi voted for the approvals. They are not individual defendants in the congregation's federal lawsuit.

Antisemitic comments draw rebuke

The proposal had been controversial from the start. Public hearings overflowed with neighbors saying the planned synagogue was in the wrong place and could cause traffic headaches.

The town's granting of variances also stirred ire. The neighborhood is buffered by a conservation easement and residents said they had been denied variances to go mere feet into the easement. But the synagogue proposal was allowed to use part of that protected property.

The project gained national attention after a speaker spewed antisemitic threats during a planning board meeting.

After saying that members of the Orthodox Jewish community walk in the street − there are no sidewalks in the neighborhood − and don't wear reflectors at night, Riverglen resident Nick Colella told the planning board that if he were to hit them with his vehicle, he would “of course back over them again.”

The governor and state attorney general condemned the comments.

Haverstraw Police Captain John Gould said Friday that an investigation into the incident had been closed with no charges filed.

Phillips has said Colella is banned from Town Hall.

Staff writer Asher Stockler contributed to this report.

Nancy Cutler writes about People & Policy. Follow her on Twitter at @nancyrockland. 

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This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Synagogue lawsuit against Haverstraw cites discrimination