The current issue of the Baltimore Jewish Times has a nicely observed cover story about the murky future facing the Congregation of Israel, a small shul in the Eastern Shore hamlet of Pocomoke City that decided not to hold High Holiday services this year for the first time in its 130-year history. Managing editor Alan H. Feiler writes:

This evening, as the first faint traces of darkness fall on Pocomoke City — a picturesque but economically depressed town about 40 minutes southeast of Salisbury — Congregation of Israel’s humble, 60-year-old building will remain silent, solemn and empty at the start of Rosh Hashanah. Once a community of 20 to 25 Jewish families and considered the epicenter of Eastern Shore Jewry, Pocomoke City today has, at best, only an estimated handful of Jews.

“It’s really sad,” said Pocomoke City Mayor Michael A. McDermott. “A lot of the families had stores here and in other communities around here, and they organized this synagogue. But a lot of the families relocated or their children moved on, so it dried up. Having the synagogue in the city, even if it was lightly used, was unique. It was slowly ebbing away, but there’s a real sense of loss. We’ve lost a part of our heritage.”

Tammy Green and her family first stumbled upon Congregation of Israel while vacationing in Delaware during the High Holidays in 1972, Feiler reports. They have been back every year since.

“We wanted something intimate and different than our synagogue in Bethesda, and it’s become an important part of our lives,” she says. “Back then, there were three families to make sure that everyone had a home to go to for dinner, like an extended family. But the people started to die off. I don’t know what we’ll do this year for the holidays. [Congregation of Israel] is very close to my heart.”

Read the rest of the story at jewishtimes.com.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 2:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The president of the Baltimore chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee acknowledges that security guards might have a legitimate reason to ask people to remove facial coverings. But he is also urging respect in the wake of an opinion by Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler that deputy sheriffs can require visitors to remove such coverings before allowing them to enter a courthouse.

“This is really about personal identify and religious freedom,” Bash Pharoan tells Laura Smitherman in today’s Baltimore Sun. “A woman who wears the hijab is obeying the call of God.”

Gansler, responding to a request from the office of Prince George’s County Sheriff Michael Jackson, has opined that deputies could require a visitor to remove a mask, veil or other face covering “without regard to whether the individual claims a religious basis for remaining masked or veiled,” as long as the sheriff’s office has a “neutral and generally applicable policy of requiring removal of face coverings for security purposes.”

The opinion is not binding, but represents the “considered opinion” of the attorney general's office following research and review of the legal issues raised by the question, according to a spokeswoman. Jackson’s office had asked if a deputy sheriff assigned to court security could require an individual to remove a covering, whether it matters if the individual asserts a religious reason for remaining covered, and what procedures would be appropriate to enforce such a requirement while demonstrating respect for religious practice.

Gansler wrote that “it would be useful” if security details included both male and female officers and a private space were available for “those individuals whose religion discourages removal of a head covering in public.”

Continue reading "Muslim reaction to Gansler veil opinion" »

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

Deputy sheriffs in Maryland may require visitors to remove veils or masks before allowing them to enter a courthouse, Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler has written in an opinion that could affect Muslims and others who wear such garments for religious or cultural reasons.

Responding to a request from the office of Prince George’s County Sheriff Michael Jackson, Gansler opined that deputies could require a visitor to remove a mask, veil or other face covering “without regard to whether the individual claims a religious basis for remaining masked or veiled,” as long as the sheriff’s office has a “neutral and generally applicable policy of requiring removal of face coverings for security purposes.”

The opinion signed last week by Gansler is not binding on any individual or agency, but represents the “considered opinion” of his office following research and review of the legal issues raised by the question. Jackson’s office had asked if a deputy sheriff assigned to court security could require an individual to remove a covering, whether it matters if the individual asserts a religious reason for remaining covered, and what procedures would be appropriate to enforce such a requirement while demonstrating respect for religious practice.

Gansler wrote that “it would be useful” if security details included both male and female officers and a private space were available for “those individuals whose religion discourages removal of a head covering in public.”

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 6:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)