Quogue agrees to allow Jewish group to create eruv

Quogue Village officials have agreed to drop their opposition to a Jewish group seeking to create a symbolic enclosure called an eruv on the East End.

The March 7 court settlement cleared the last obstacle preventing the East End Eruv Association from completing an eruv they have sought for years in the villages of Quogue and Westhampton Beach and the unincorporated areas of Quiogue and Westhampton.

Eruvs are defined areas where Orthodox Jews can push strollers and perform other tasks not normally allowed on the Sabbath and High Holy Days. They are invisible except for markers along their borders — in this case, pieces of black pipe attached intermittently to utility poles.

Orthodox Jewish leaders affiliated with the Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton Beach have fought in court since 2011 to establish the eruv amid resistance from Hamptons officials and residents — a dispute that gained notoriety when it was mocked in a 2011 episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Hank Sheinkopf, spokesman for the nonprofit East End Eruv Association, said the group is “completing the necessary logistics” before extending the eruv into Quogue and unincorporated parts of Southampton Town, beyond where it already exists in Westhampton Beach.

Quogue Mayor Peter Sartorius said in an email that recent court decisions favoring the eruv group were the “principal factor” in the village’s decision to settle. Eruv association leaders agreed not to seek damages or attorney fees.

A 2014 court decision allowed synagogue leaders to establish an eruv that year in Westhampton Beach. Litigation is continuing between the eruv group and officials in that village.

A September settlement with Southampton Town would allow the eruv to expand into the unincorporated areas of Quiogue and Westhampton.

Clint Greenbaum, a Hampton Synagogue member for 21 years and a plaintiff in litigation against the villages and town, said synagogue members were “thrilled” about the settlement with Quogue, but looked forward to the end of the remaining case with Westhampton Beach.

Greenbaum said the eruv “helps people who want to be able to use the eruv, it does not affect those who aren’t wanting to be affected by it, and there’s no reason why we all can’t live together and be happy.”

Synagogue leaders first proposed the eruv in 2008.