Despite Petition, County Grants the Chabad Permit to Expand : Oak Park: Orthodox Jewish group gets unanimous approval to operate small synagogue in residential area. Neighbors may sue.

After a three-hour hearing that raised the emotional issue of religious bigotry, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors unanimously agreed to allow an Orthodox Jewish group to operate and expand its small synagogue in an Oak Park residential neighborhood.

“I have asked myself, ‘Would I really want this next to me?’ ” Supervisor Maria VanderKolk said as she introduced a motion to approve a permit for the group. “And I have to tell you that I would welcome having a Shtibal next to me today.”

The Chabad of the Conejo had appealed to the supervisors after the Planning Commission failed to muster a quorum Sept. 8 to approve the group’s request for a conditional use permit.

As Supervisor Maggie Kildee voiced her approval, she said she hoped neighbors and members of the Chabad, at odds for months over whether the group should be allowed to conduct and expand services in the neighborhood, would soon be able to settle their differences.

“I believe that all of you together in that neighborhood face a challenge,” Kildee told the group, which swelled to nearly 200 people at the height of the debate. “At the moment you are a very divided community.”

That division was evident after the hearing, as the two groups stood on opposite sides of the lobby discussing the decision.

Howard Fox, the attorney retained by the group opposing the Chabad, said residents have not yet decided whether to proceed with a threatened lawsuit against the county.

“We’re very disappointed,” said Joe Santoro, a member of the Medea Creek Neighborhood Alliance and one of the 17 neighbors who spoke against the permit at the hearing. Santoro’s property is adjacent to the Conifer Street property owned by the Chabad. “We’ve spent a lot of money and a lot of time on this.”

Members of the neighborhood group, which had gathered 400 signatures on a petition asking the county not to grant the Chabad’s request, said they need some time to consider their options.

But Chabad leader Rabbi Moshe Bryski said he hopes to begin mending fences with his neighbors immediately.

“We will continue to strive to be good neighbors,” Bryski said, adding that Chabad was willing to pay a landscaper to plant bushes, heighten fences, and otherwise ensure the privacy of the synagogue’s immediate neighbors.

About a dozen neighbors told the supervisors they were concerned about noise levels in the neighborhood because of the Chabad.

Santoro said he lies in bed on Sunday mornings listening to cleaning crews and trucks at the Chabad.

“Sunday mornings is when they clean office buildings,” Santoro protested.

But Albert Melshenker, who lives four doors down from the Chabad, said the minimal noise he hears coming from the synagogue has never bothered him.

“I would much rather hear noise coming out of that house than the rap music coming out of my son’s room,” Melshenker said.

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Neighbors also raised fears that traffic will increase in the residential neighborhood’s narrow streets.

Chabad leaders countered with protests that only five members drive to the synagogue for services. Most worshipers walk to services in observance of Jewish law forbidding use of machinery on Saturdays and holidays, Bryski said.

“We are not talking about a convenience store, a place of profit, of gain for anyone,” said Bryski. “We are talking about a house of worship.”

Religious beliefs and the question of discrimination came up repeatedly during the contentious hearing. Chabad supporters referred to a lack of tolerance in the neighborhood for people who looked and behaved differently from most people in this affluent community near the Los Angeles County line.

Some suggested that an undercurrent of anti-Semitism might be to blame for the opposition to the synagogue. Several speakers made pointed references to the Holocaust, including Ben Gross who mentioned that his parents had both been imprisoned at Auschwitz. He said he feels his constitutional right to practice religion as he chooses has been threatened by the vehement opposition to the Chabad.

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“The problem I fear right now in this country is that people want freedom from religion, not freedom of religion,” Gross said.

Members of the neighborhood group opposing the proposed expansion denied any charges of anti-Semitism. Many of the speakers pointed out that they too are Jewish, including attorney Fox.

“You are not being asked to vote against God,” Fox said. “You are only being asked to vote on whether this particular house is appropriate for the use requested.”

Resident Forrest Andrews asked the supervisors not to be sympathetic to Chabad simply because it is a religious group.

“This is not about religious suppression or the Holocaust,” Andrews told the board. “You cannot allow this matter to become a referendum on religious intolerance.”

In giving his support to Chabad’s appeal, Supervisor John Flynn acknowledged that he wrestled with his own instinctive bias toward supporting religious institutions before deciding that the Chabad deserved the permit because it had properly met the county’s conditions.

“I sometimes wish that we had a religious institution in every neighborhood,” Flynn said.