Pope Francis this week ordered an investigation into a Polish ban on the ritual kosher slaughter of animals, a move that could ally the Catholic Church and religious Jews in a battle for religious freedom. Let’s hope the pontiff joins the fight here in New York.
The pope’s action came after a meeting with the president of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald Lauder, where they also reportedly discussed efforts to ban or regulate circumcision.
That’s a hot issue here in New York, where do-gooders in city government are using laws on human rights and public health to go after the right of the most Orthodox Jews to freely exercise their religion.
No doubt what animates the pope is the recognition that a challenge to the freedom of one religion is a challenge to the liberty of others. That is, if efforts to restrict the most vulnerable and orthodox communities are allowed to succeed, then larger and more comfortable congregations, Jewish or not, could themselves face government interference.
Here in New York, the city is fighting in court for the right to regulate circumcision in the name of public health and, under the guise of anti-bigotry laws, to prevent Jewish shops from asking their customers to dress modestly.
The circumcision case involves the practice of metzitzah b’peh, or oral suction of the blood from the circumcision wound. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which won an early round in federal court, claims the practice could transmit herpes.
In fact, the Orthodox Jews who follow this practice have, over the decades, taken much greater risks with their children than the extremely rare case of herpes to find a haven in which to live lives according to religious law.
They are appealing to the Second Circuit. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has filed a brief asking the court to protect the rights of the Jewish fundamentalists and insist on strict scrutiny of the city’s action.
Becket’s brief cites a climate of “deep hostility towards Orthodox Jews” that it says obtains “in American society in general and in New York in particular.” From a distinguished legal outfit, that’s an eye-popping allegation.
Meantime, Mayor Bloomberg is fighting shops in the Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, over the kinds of dress codes that are routinely maintained at the fancy restaurants and clubs the mayor frequents.
The city Human Rights Commission argues that the dress codes discriminate against non-Jews and women. Indeed, it charges that the codes — which usually say something like “No shorts, no barefoot, no sleeveless, no low cut neckline allowed in this store” — are “expressly intended” to deny accommodation to patrons because of both their gender and creed. The city is swearing it believes these claims even though the policies apply to persons of both genders and all religions.
It’s ridiculous, or worse. Marc Stern, one of the great religious-freedom lawyers in town, told Haaretz, “The only bias I see in these lawsuits is a stereotype by the City Commission of Human Rights that ‘all Hasidim must be guilty of discrimination because they’re all misogynists.’ ”
It’s similar to the problem that has caught the pope’s attention in Poland in that the government, under the color of a high-minded cause like fighting bigotry or protecting health, is moving against small and vulnerable religious communities.
This looks more ominous now that ObamaCare mandates are threatening the ability of millions to keep faith with the laws of their religions. Scores of Catholic dioceses and groups are now in federal court seeking protection against the anti-religious mandates that turn out to come with the health-care law.
So far, Pope Francis hasn’t swung behind these lawsuits in a public — political — way. It would be something if that’s what he’s preparing to do.