Los Angeles – Orthodox Jews who want to use a strand of fishing line several miles long to create a symbolic religious enclosure are getting entangled in a dispute with beachfront residents and California environmentalists, who fear the string will snag birds and spoil the ocean view.
The 70 or so families who attend a synagogue on Venice Beach’s boardwalk are asking coastal regulators for permission to string the line above one of Southern California’s most popular stretches of sand.
Within that enclosure, the Orthodox would be free to do things they are forbidden to do outside the home on the Sabbath, such as pushing strollers and carrying bundles.
The problem: California law calls for the protection of public views along the coast and the habitats of nesting shore birds.
Some fear that endangered California least terns that nest nearby will fly into the fishing line and get killed.
Others say that the galvanized steel poles that will be erected to hold up the fishing line along the beach will be an eyesore.
Orthodox Jews cannot do work or certain physical tasks outside the home on their day of rest and prayer, which begins at sundown Friday and ends at nightfall Saturday.
“It’s a major social inconvenience,” said Lea Geller, who dreads spending Saturdays indoors with her newborn while her family walks to prayer at the Pacific Jewish Center.
The way around these restrictions for some Orthodox Jews is an “eruv” – a Hebrew word for the symbolic extension of an area considered private into the public domain. An eruv is often created by stringing a line between landmarks to create an unbroken enclosure.
Efforts to enclose much of Santa Monica, Venice and Marina del Rey began in 2002. The final step would be linking about 4 miles of beachfront and an inland area to the current eight-mile patchwork of chain-link fences or walls along freeways and other major roads.
