Want a seat for the High Holidays? Register to vote : NPR

Shaare Zion (photo in 1995) began as a small congregation in the 1940s. It is the largest Syrian synagogue in New York, and is in a lively street in the Gravesend district of Brooklyn.

Bebeto Matthews / AP

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Bebeto Matthews / AP

Two and a half weeks before the start of the Jewish New Year, the Shaare Zion Congregation in Brooklyn sent a letter to his faithful with an unprecedented request. He said that to guarantee seats for high holiday services – the most holy days of the Jewish year – you must show proof of the registration of voters.

The synagogue letter comes from weeks before the New York mayor’s elections on November 4. It reads in part: “We think we have to do our best to try to avoid a very serious danger that can affect us all.”

The letter does not mention any candidate by name. He also does not say with what the party, or who vote against or against. But this warns that the outcome of the elections could lead to “very serious problems” for the Jewish community, and that consequently, the synagogue had no choice but to make this requirement.

Shaare Zion is the largest Syrian synagogue in New York, and an important and influential part of the Sephardic Jewish community. This includes the Jews with roots in the Iberian peninsula, and sometimes Mizrahi Jews in the Middle East and North Africa.

Synagogue-State relations

Researchers who study the relationships of the church state say they don’t remember another worship that has ever taken this kind of step.

“Asking a congregator to register with the implications that it is for the mayor elections in a Jewish congregation implies a lot of a divine sanction for the vote and perhaps leaning in one way or another,” said Mark Valeri, professor of religion and politics at the University of Washington in St. Louis.

“My assumption is that there is afraid of [Zohran] Mamdani is elected, “said Valeri.

Mark Treyger is CEO of Jewish Community Council relations and former member of the municipal council who represented the district of South Brooklyn which includes Shaare Zion. He says that the concerns raised in the letter are those he heard elsewhere on Mamdani, who won the Democratic primary in June.

“Given his victory, he aggravated the existing concerns that were raised before this primary occurs on public security and the future of the police and how to manage the demonstrations and how to protect shuls [synagogues] And schools, “said Treyger.

Is it religiously allowed?

Even thinking of these concerns, there are persistent questions about the ability of a synagogue to demand the registration of voters.

Valeri says that due to the careful research of the letter – she does not name a candidate or does not tell people how to vote – there is no obvious legal problem with him.

Religiously, the question is different.

“It’s terribly unusual,” said Rabbi David Bleich, a high -ranking rabbinical authority and respected at Yeshiva University in New York. “The question is not whether it is unusual – it is if it is allowed.”

By “license”, Bleich means according to Jewish law.

“On what reasons would a religious organization impose all kinds of conditions that have nothing to do with religion or spirituality?” said blue.

The Bleich Rabbi says that synagogues often have membership requirements. And – he thinks of people should vote. But combine both – have requirements to attend services? This does not suit him.

“The only way they can even work under any color of religious law is to claim that these people are in violation of a religious duty,” said Bleich. “And I answer by asking – Do you need that any entering Jew is also an observer of the Sabbath? It’s a bit ridiculous.”