California – California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill that protects the right of Jewish residents to place a mezuzah on their doorposts, including dormitory rooms and apartments.
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Senate Bill 652, known as the “Mezuzah Bill,” mandates that property owners “shall not enforce or adopt a restrictive covenant or any other restriction that prohibits one or more religious items from being displayed or affixed on any entry door or entry door frame of a dwelling.”
A mezuzah is a parchment scroll with Torah verses handwritten on it by an expert scribe placed on the doorpost of a Jewish person’s home and often on interior rooms of the home.
The bill was authored by Legislative Jewish Caucus chair Sen. Ben Allen. Each member of the caucus, which is comprised of seven state senators and nine assembly members, signed on as co-authors. The bill passed four committee hearings, and floor votes in the Senate and the Assembly, with sweeping support.
“Enforcement of otherwise neutral and generally applicable rules that prohibit altering the appearance of an exterior doorway has posed a unique hardship for some Jews in California who have been ordered to remove their mezuzahs or face a daily fine,” said Nancy Appel, California legislative director of the Anti-Defamation League, which co-sponsored the bill. “Although ADL has successfully advocated for affected Jews to enable them to post their mezuzahs on a case-by-case basis, this bill guarantees that they won’t have to face this impossible dilemma in the first place.”
(JNS)
There in not one Frum Jew affected by this. This is all precipitated by non religious Jews insisting on their “rights” as they felt unduly set upon when someone told them they can’t do it. Any frum Jew would put it on the inside of the door post. Big deal, but no we need to have a new law instead of just moving our Mezuzah by an inch. This was not in any way antisemitism. Wait until these films see the huge crosses on people’s doors for everyone to see and then what? Another law suit that their feeling were hurt from xtian images on the door. This is identity politics only and has nothing to do with Judaism orJewish law. Period.
Bucky:
A Mezuzah is explicitly meant to be affixed to the EXTERIOR of a door!!! This is an inherent part of the fulfilment of the Mitzvah, and is especially applicable to exterior doors which are the focal location for the Mitzvah.
To imply any deviance from this is a disregard for an inherent feature of the Mitzvah.
Better a Mezuza be affixed on the front-facing side of the doorpost next to the door (when no doorpost area extends outwards for the proscribed side mounting) than be affixed beyond the actual door.
Be well.
Shneur, you are in error. While is ideal to have the mezuzah outside the door way, the halacha requires the mezuzah be under the mashkif (lintel). with some reverse opening doors, that means the mezuzah ends up inside the entrance.
Has anyone here had a problem with this sort of thing? Is a law needed? I have no idea.
This law was needed as there were home owners associations and others in CA, in cases I am aware of, who forbid mezuzahs and it required law suits etc. to overcome the possible fines, threats of evictions etc.
As mentioned in the article, “Although ADL has successfully advocated for affected Jews to enable them to post their mezuzahs on a case-by-case basis, this bill guarantees that they won’t have to face this impossible dilemma in the first place.”