25 October 2006
Orthodox Jews in southern California who want to use a strand of fishing line several miles long to create a symbolic religious enclosure are getting entangled in a dispute with beachfront residents and California environmentalists, who fear the string will snag birds and spoil the ocean view. "Associated Press" reports that the 70 or so families who attend a synagogue on Venice Beach have asked coastal regulators for permission to string the line above one of Southern California's most popular stretches of sand. Within that enclosure, the Orthodox would be free to do things they are forbidden to do outside their homes on the Sabbath, such as pushing strollers and carrying bundles. However, Californian law calls for the protection of public views along the coast and the habitats of nesting shore birds. Some fear that endangered California least terns that nest nearby will fly into the fishing line and get killed. Others say that the galvanized steel poles that will be erected to hold up the fishing line along the beach will be an eyesore.
Orthodox Jews cannot do work or certain physical tasks outside the home on their day of rest and prayer, which begins at sundown Friday and ends at nightfall Saturday. "It's a major social inconvenience," Lea Geller, who is spending Saturdays indoors with her newborn while her family walks to prayer at the Pacific Jewish Center, told AP. The way around these restrictions for some Orthodox Jews is an "eruv", a Hebrew word for the symbolic extension of an area considered private into the public domain. An eruv is often created by stringing a line between manmade and natural landmarks to create an unbroken enclosure.
