In his latest salvo against local leaders, Florida’s attorney general is promising to protect the Orlando Torah Center against religious “animus” as the Orthodox Jewish congregation fights in federal court to reverse an Orange County decision denying it permission to build a bigger synagogue.
Attorney General James Uthmeier sent a broad warning in a letter Aug. 8 to Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings and the Board of County Commissioners that their “land use decisions must never be motivated by discriminatory bias against the religious practices of applicants.”
He offered no evidence of such motivation, but alluded to the board’s denial July 1 of the Torah Center’s request.
Despite his ominous tone, Uthmeier did not promise specific punishment of local leaders based on the issue, as he did recently when he vowed to remove commissioners who were insufficiently cooperative with federal immigration officials.
Still, Uthmeier’s letter reflects how the Torah Center decision — which county commissioners said was based on concerns the proposed three-story structure would conflict with the surrounding residential neighborhood — is being spun increasingly as an assault on religious freedom.
A federal lawsuit filed by the Torah Center against Orange County makes similar arguments.
Uthmeier cautioned commissioners to “avoid even an appearance of unequal treatment or religious bias and ensure its decisions do not burden the free exercise of religion. Departures from these constitutional and statutory obligations — intentional or not — will bear serious legal consequences.”
County Attorney Jeff Newton answered Uthmeier’s missive with a three-paragraph reply, insisting the county made an appropriate land-use decision.
The vote, he wrote, “was based on fair and neutral legal criteria. It was in no way based on religious animus, discriminatory bias against religious institutions or this specific applicant or on antisemitism.” He said a more detailed reply was inappropriate citing the pending litigation.
Commissioners turned down the Orlando Torah Center’s request for a special exception from zoning rules to build a 9,300 square foot, three-story expansion of its synagogue which operates from a single-story house the congregation converted into a worship center.
Sand Lake Hills residents argued the proposed size was too big for their neighborhood and the center’s three-quarter acre plot.
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The zoning board and commission hearings on the proposed synagogue expansion were both crowded and long.
Lawyers for the Orlando Torah Center allege in their 83-page federal complaint that the proceedings “were characterized by false statements from the public demonstrating animus toward Orthodox Jews, and the county decisionmakers were responsive to those statements.”
The filing also alleged some hostility was aimed at the growth of the Orthodox Jewish community.
“Neighbor complaints repeatedly conflated the Orlando Torah Center with any action by any Orthodox Jewish person or resorted to antisemitic ‘dog whistles,’ ” the lawsuit claimed using a term to describe language which delivers a coded message though spoken aloud.
The neighborhood, a mix of ranch-style and split-level homes, is located across Apopka-Vineland Road from Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge, about 12 miles southwest of downtown Orlando. Supporters of the Torah Center reasoned the proposed expansion would fit in with other religious complexes along “church row,” the nickname for a stretch of nearby Apopka Vineland Road.
Those churches occupy larger sites.
Four sit on nine acres or more. Holy Family Catholic Church and School, a mile and a half away, takes up 25 acres.
Uthmeier’s letter mirrored claims in the lawsuit. He wrote, “Reports indicate some residents have called the Jews at the Center ‘rabid dogs,’ claiming the ‘neighborhood is going down the drain,’ and they don’t want their community to ‘become an enclave like Manhattan.’ ”
He did not cite a source for the reports.
Uthmeier issued a similar warning in June to Clearwater officials over their dealings with the Church of Scientology.
He suggested the Gulf Coast city’s position “may be influenced by religious animus…” and reminded Clearwater leaders that state and federal law prohibit a government from making land use decisions based on bias or in a way that burdens religious exercise.
Orlando Torah Center’s appeal for bigger synagogue fails
Commissioner Nicole Wilson, whose west Orange district includes the Sand Hills Lake neighborhood, said she began a community meeting to discuss the Torah Center application by urging all neighbors to be respectful of one another, and she felt her guidance was heeded.
“I’m sure there was some talking going on in the back of the room but I did not hear anything that I would have identified as antisemitic,” said Wilson, who is Jewish. She said neighborhood objections focused on the proposed size “not the people or religion being practiced.”
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During her five-year tenure on the board, Wilson has listened to other zoning appeals involving what she termed “out of scale” requests by religious institutions — notably a Hindu congregation’s request to build a 33,000-square-foot worship center with a 43-foot-tall spire in Gotha.
Commissioners ultimately said no to that project, which would have been by far the tallest structure in the rural settlement.
The Torah Center’s federal lawsuit argues the neighborhood synagogue is critical to its congregants’ observance of Orthodox Jewish tenets which prohibit driving on the Sabbath and Jewish holidays. Members generally live within walking distance of their synagogue.
Most of the Torah Center’s congregants live in Sand Lake Hills.
The congregation has more than doubled in five years, according to the lawsuit. Their religious exercise is restricted by space limitations which do not allow for children or adult educational programs, private areas for nursing mothers or even enough room for everyone to sit.
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