Legislation setting boundaries for demonstrations at places of religious worship in Suffolk could be voted on by the county Legislature this month.
Similar measures have been introduced before governmental bodies in neighboring Nassau County and New York City. Also, a comparable measure has been introduced in the State Legislature.
All the bills stem from a large and, as was reported, boisterous pro-Palestinian protest that took place in November outside the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan, with protesters chanting, “Globalize the intifada,” “We don’t want Zionists here” and “Death to the IDF.”
The Suffolk measure is titled “A Local Law to Prohibit Demonstrations Within Ten Feet of Another Person Entering or Leaving a Place of Religious Worship and Not Within Thirty-five Feet of an Entrance.”
Its sponsors are Legislator Stephanie Bontempi, a Centerport Republican, and Nick Caracappa, a Selden Conservative who runs with GOP endorsement. He is the legislature’s majority caucus leader. Bontempi is an immigrant to the United States from Sweden, a naturalized U.S. citizen. A Huntington Town resident for 30 years, she won election to the Suffolk County Legislature in 2021 and took office in January 2022. Previously, she was an elementary school teacher. Caracappa, formerly a union leader, has been a legislator since 2020.
The Suffolk Legislature could vote on the measure when it next meets on April 21 in Hauppauge. Last month in Riverhead, at what was set as a public hearing on it, no one spoke for or against.
The measure begins: “This Legislature hereby finds and determines that individuals have a constitutional right to practice their religion and to safely travel to and from religious institutions without physical obstruction, interference, intimidation or risk of injury.”
“This Legislature also finds and determines that public safety and the right to religious freedom are threatened when demonstrators enter or remain in close proximity to those who are attempting to enter or leave places of worship,” it says.
“Therefore, the purpose of this local law is to protect public safety and the right to religious freedom by ensuring that demonstrators exercising their right to free speech be prohibited from demonstrating within thirty-five feet of the entrance area or driveway of a place of religious worship and from approaching within a ten-foot distance of persons entering or leaving a place of religious worship before, during and after services.”
It defines a “place of worship” as including “any church, synagogue, mosque, temple.”
“It shall be unlawful,” it says, “for any person to knowingly approach within ten feet of an individual, without such individual’s express consent, for the purpose of demonstrating, picketing, protesting, distributing literature, displaying signs, engaging in oral advocacy.”
And “it shall be unlawful for any person to demonstrate, picket, protest, distribute literature, display signs, engage in oral advocacy or other forms of expression or symbolic conduct, whether conducted individually or in groups, within thirty-five feet of the entrance area or driveway of a place of religious worship, beginning one hour before the scheduled start of any religious services, community meeting or ceremony or other congregational, educational or organized meeting or event and ending one hour after the conclusion of any religious service, community meeting, ceremony or other congregational, educational or organizational meeting or event.”
Violating the law would be a misdemeanor. Penalties are “a fine of not more than two hundred and fifty dollars or imprisonment of not more than one year, or both.”
The protest on November 19 at the Park East Synagogue, founded in 1890 and located on East 67th Street, was organized by the Palestinian Assembly for Liberation NY/NJ. It took place while the Jewish group Nefesh B’Nefesh was holding a workshop inside the synagogue about immigration to Israel.
The synagogue’s senior rabbi, Arthur Schneier, was quoted in the New York Post as saying: “I’m a Holocaust survivor. I saw my synagogue burn on Kristallnacht with the police standing by and not intervening.” He was referencing the burning of more than a thousand synagogues and businesses by the Nazis in 1938. “Thank God in the United States, the police are protecting us against the hate-mongers.”
There was substantial NYPD presence at the November protest.
Interestingly, Schneier, who has been at the Park East Synagogue for more than 60 years, is known for working internationally for interfaith dialogue. He is the founder of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, an “interfaith coalition of business and religious leaders” dedicated to promoting “peace, tolerance and ethnic conflict resolution.”
He also has a Suffolk County connection—his son, Rabbi Marc Schneier, founded The Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton Beach in 1990.
The Hampton Synagogue’s website includes information about how Marc Schneier, too, “trailblazed the field of Muslim-Jewish relations globally. Throughout his work in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Palestine, Singapore, throughout Europe, South America and the Southern Hemisphere, Rabbi Schneier has pioneered dynamic programming and discussion among Jews and Muslims to remind them that they have more that united them than what divides them.”
The New York Times, in an article on the November protest, reported that shortly afterwards, then New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani “called Rabbi Marc Schneier…who suggested that the mayor-elect back legislation barring demonstrations directly outside of houses of worship.” Schneier was quoted as saying “He [Mamdani] told me, ‘Rabbi, I love the idea…’”
In Nassau County in December, a “Religious Safety Act” was unanimously passed by the Nassau Legislature. Nearly identical to the Suffolk County measure, it was introduced by Republican Legislator Mazi Melesa Pilip of Great Neck, a Jew from Ethiopia who immigrated to Israel when she was 12 and came to the U.S. in 2005.
A similar bill, the Schools and Houses of Worship Access and Safety Act, was passed last month by the New York City Council by a 44-to-5 vote. It was introduced by Democrat Julie Menin, elected this year as speaker of the City Council. She is a daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors.
A spokesperson for Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine has said that Romaine supports the Bontempi-Caracappa measure.