Whether religious discrimination is in the hearts of those, both government and constituents, would be difficult to determine for certain. This of course wouldn't preclude any of us from forming an opinion as to the validity of the claim would it?

To me this circumstance demonstrates one of the fallacies of man's law. When did our society decide that the letter of the law was greater than the intent? Has this been a gradual process, one that I failed to recognize, or was it overnight?

Sol,

I would think that your claim of discrimination would be better supported if you could demonstrate that another religious organization, or any organization for that matter, received a variance from the current zoning ordinances for a similar purpose in the same neighborhood or another in the community with the same zoning designation. In my opinion using what may very well be applications whose existence precedes the current zoning ordinances is not a very strong way to support your contention that the decision was based upon discriminatory mind sets.

There may be other variance applications that are clearly decided to be non-desirable by those in the community, including the Orthodox Jews, that would then be allowed by way of adjudication simply because of the precedent of allowing the use you have written about.

All that said doesn't mean that I agree with the results of the actions thus far. Actually I find them troubling. Not because of the potential discrimination aspect, although if indeed discrimination is what motivated the decision that would be very troubling, but because to me it shows that as a society we are taking less responsibility in deciding the issues that concern our living together cohesively by simply deferring to the words of some written ordinance.

I wish you and Bikur Cholim much success in this most benevolent endeavor. As with all peaceful co-existence the concerns of all need be considered and middle ground need be sought. This should not be a case of one side "winning" over the other but rather a case of how all sides of the issue find a satisfactory solution. Ideal, absolutely, but as well absolutely necessary if we are to live together in peace with-out harboring ill feelings towards one another. Ill feelings that unfortunately have the potential to negatively influence our perceptions of one another and therefore our peaceful co-existence.

Peace,
Ed