Dan's Papers - September 12, 2008

Four times during the past two months a woman named Irene Barrett has called the Westhampton Beach police to complain that there are Jewish people going to a house at 112 Jessup Lane in Westhampton Beach to pray to God. She says this makes it a synagogue, and that synagogues in that neighborhood are illegal. Barrett does not live in Westhampton Beach. She lives on Notamiset Road in Quiogue.

But for those who share Barrett's perspective about Jews getting together to pray in a residential zone, it is good that she raises her voice against such behavior, even if it is four miles away, to point out these goings-on to the police there. Barrett was quoted as saying to a reporter from The Southampton Press that in that neighborhood, praying and holding services is against the law.

The police did not respond to the first three of Barrett's phone calls because, having checked with their chief, they concluded that praying to God is not necessarily a bad thing and doing it in one's home has an aspect of "a man's home is his castle." Also, since Barrett lives four miles away and was not calling her own police but the Westhampton Beach police where this Jessup Lane house is located, they would just note the phone call and then leave it be.

Nevertheless, when her fourth complaint was filed, the police dispatched Village Building Inspector Paul Houlihan to stake out surveillance of 112 Jessup Lane.

Therefore, on two consecutive Saturday mornings in August, which is to the Jewish people what Sunday mornings are to the Christian folk, Houlihan, in an unmarked car, went down to the suspected home to observe the suspects from inside his car parked on the street a few hundred yards away. He kept the house under surveillance from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on those Saturdays.

What he found was astonishing. There WERE people in there praying. He noted how many of them there were, which, at various times, was as few as 10 and as many as 20, and he wrote down this information and other information, such as that they were wearing yamulkahs. Coming out of the house at one point, a man looked up, apparently to heaven. Houlihan reported his findings to the authorities he works for at Village Hall. But he took no further action.

"There was no mob outside," he said after his first visit. "It was hard to distinguish that and other houses in the Hamptons having guests." After his second visit, he said, "There is not a lot of activity there. There have been websites that talk about this. But it's low-key enough. There are no outward signs - no parking problems, noise, debris. It's hard for me to classify it as a synagogue."

A subsequent investigation has determined that the home in question has been rented by a Rabbi Eli Popack, a Jewish person who emigrated here from Capetown, South Africa. He is currently employed by a company called Map International in Manhattan where he has a job in the electronic financial infrastructure field. A search through records has determined that he has rented the house as a vacation home for five summers. The first summer no praying was reported there. But now there is, according to Barrett and her vigorous and repeated complaints. The home is where Jessup Lane and Dune Road meet up which is a district Residential Type 3 Zone. The rabbi has people in his house praying to God and wearing yalmukas not only on Saturday morning, but also on Friday night and Sunday morning.

Further investigation has determined that this summer, in July, the people inside this home were seen to be blessing a scroll of some sort, which surveillance devices have determined was a "torah," or book of laws. It came from another country to get here. That country is believed to be Israel. At one ceremony, it was determined that this "torah" was written in longhand by other Jewish people. Don't ask how that was found out.

Other members of a local anti-Semitic group - I am not supposed to give the name of this organization - say that there is a little-known website they have uncovered, which can be viewed at beachminyan.org, which Jewish people and some of their hangers-on know about.

A "minyan" is a small group, but it has to include more than 10 men so God pays attention. A "chabad" is the next step up, where the prayer is in conformance to the traditions of a particular sect. Above that, even larger still, is what they call a "synagogue," which is a place to pray, and similar to, well, a church, in Christianity.

This newspaper has received printed copies of pages from this alleged beachminyon.org site, which say that "Beach Minyan is a place for social, religious, educational, cultural and family events and where people seek guidance and advice for whatever issue life presents. The Beach Minyan is available and accessible to every single Jewish man, woman and child."

Apparently there is no limit to the number of people that would be permitted to pray at this "private home."

Rabbi Popack was asked by a reporter about what goes on in his house, and after saying he didn't want to talk about it because of accusations of so called anti-Semitism in town, he agreed to say a few words.

He said that there are Jewish people who live on Dune Road who would like to go to the services at the Hampton Synagogue in downtown Westhampton Beach but cannot because according to the Orthodox Jewish law they ascribe to, they cannot do work on the Sabbath and they are not allowed to operate electrical devices or drive a car or even sit in a car being driven by others on that day. A walk of two miles each way is just too far to walk, particularly if they want to go to prayers on Friday night, Saturday morning and Sunday morning. Some of them have family members in baby carriages or wheelchairs. And so, when they want to pray, they come pray at his house.

He noted that there were people gathering at a different house on Dune Road for several years to pray - apparently this shocking behavior had gone on without Barrett's knowledge - but that his house was more centrally located to those of this faith, and so this year they have decided to pray in his living room so everybody who comes to it walks about the same distance.

A meeting of the authorities was held in Westhampton Beach Village Hall to discuss these developments. After the meeting, Building Inspector Houlihan said, "Small groups of people, regardless of their religious background, are allowed to gather inside private homes in all areas of the village."

Has anyone looked into what sort of behavior goes on at the Quiogue home of Irene Barrett?