Two and a half weeks before the start of the Jewish New Year, Congregation Shaare Zion in Brooklyn sent out a letter to its congregants with an unprecedented request. It said that in order to secure seats for High Holidays services — the holiest days of the Jewish year — you must show proof of voter registration.
The synagogue's letter comes weeks before New York City's mayoral election on November 4. It reads in part, "We believe we must put in our best effort to try to avoid a very serious danger that can affect all of us."
The letter does not mention any candidate by name. Nor does it tell congregants what party to register with, or who to vote for or against. But it does warn that the outcome of the election could result in "very serious problems" for the Jewish community, and that as a result the synagogue had no choice but to make this requirement.
Shaare Zion is the largest Syrian synagogue in New York City, and an important and influential part of the Sephardic Jewish community. That includes Jews with roots in the Iberian Peninsula, and sometimes Mizrahi Jews from the Middle East and North Africa.
Synagogue-state relations
Scholars who study church-state relations say they cannot recall another house of worship ever taking this kind of step.
"Asking a congregant to register with the implications that it's for the mayoral election in a Jewish congregation implies very much a divine sanction for voting and perhaps leaning one way or the other," said Mark Valeri, professor of religion and politics at Washington University in St. Louis.
"My surmise is there is fear of [Zohran] Mamdani being elected," said Valeri.
Mark Treyger is CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council and a former city councilmember who represented the south Brooklyn district that includes Shaare Zion. He says the concerns raised in the letter are ones he's heard elsewhere about Mamdani, who won the Democratic primary in June.
"Given his victory, it has compounded existing concerns that were raised before this primary occurred about public safety and the future of policing and how to handle protests and how to protect shuls [synagogues] and schools," said Treyger.
Is it religiously permissible?
Even with these concerns in mind, there are lingering questions about a synagogue's ability to require voter registration.
Valeri says because of the letter's careful wording — it doesn't name a candidate or tell people how to vote — there's no obvious legal issue with it.
Religiously, the question is different.
"It is terribly unusual," said Rabbi David Bleich, a high ranking and respected rabbinical authority at Yeshiva University in New York. "The question isn't whether it's unusual — it's whether it's permissible."
By "permissible," Bleich means according to Jewish law.
"On what grounds would a religious organization impose all sorts of conditions that have nothing to do with religion or spirituality?" said Bleich.
Rabbi Bleich says synagogues often have membership requirements. And — he thinks people should vote. But combining the two – having requirements in order to attend services? It doesn't sit well with him.
"The only way they can even work under any kind of color of religious right is by claiming that these people are in violation of a religious duty," said Bleich. "And I respond by asking — do you require that any Jew entering be a Sabbath observer also? It's a little bit ludicrous."
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