Suit was filed this month in an Ohio federal district court by a home-based synagogue in a Cleveland suburb alleging that the city's land use regulations violate the Religious Land Use an Institutionalized Persons Act, as well as the federal and state constitutions. The complaint (full text) in Aleksander Shul v. City of University Heights, Ohio, (ND OH, filed 10/13/2021), alleges in part:
Since 2009, Rabbi Shnior Zalman Denciger ... has engaged in prayer services at his residence.... The Property has become known throughout the City as the “Aleksander Shul,” ... that offers Orthodox Jewish prayer services in the Polish Chassidic style, and according to the unique customs of the Aleksander Chassidic sect, which was decimated by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
The City for many years permitted the Aleksander Shul to operate informally at the Property. For many residents of the City, the Aleksander Shul is the only place for them to exercise their religion because, pursuant to their Orthodox Jewish beliefs, they do not travel in cars on the Sabbath....The City, however, has taken various actions to shut down Orthodox Jewish shuls, including the Aleksander Shul, and the City’s zoning scheme makes it impossible to locate any parcel within the City where a place of worship can legally operate.
News 5 Cleveland has additional background on the lawsuit.
