National Jewish organizations indicated today that they were studying the implications of a State Supreme Court ruling in Mineola, Long Island holding that a Conservative congregation had lost a portion of its immunity from taxation because it has leased part of its property for commercial use.
The decision was made by Justice Howard T. Hogan against Temple Beth Sholom in East Hills and the Roslyn Summer Day Camp. The decision reportedly stemmed from the first lawsuit in New York state brought by a taxpayer to force a religious agency to pay taxes on a commercial operation with which it was involved. The suit was brought by Mrs. Selma Winter of East Hills, a former member of the synagogue. According to the suit, the camp used the 12-1/2 acres of synagogue grounds and all rooms except the sanctuary for the campers.
Dr. Bernard Segal, executive director of the United Synagogue of America, the association of Conservative congregations, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the United Synagogue’s position has been that any house of worship which makes its facilities available for commercial purposes should be prepared to pay the taxes on such earnings. He said that this position applied to the East Hills ruling.
Spokesmen for the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Reform congregational agency, and for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, indicated that the Mineola ruling was under consideration. The UAHC spokesman said the issue had been under study for some time.
Earlier this year, the Synagogue Council of America, the national coordinating agency for the lay and rabbinic arms of Reform, Conservative and Orthodox Jewry, said the SCA had been considering the issue for some time. The statement was made by Rabbi Henry Siegman, SCA Executive vice-president, in response to an inquiry by the JTA on the reactions of Jewish organizations to an announcement that the United States Supreme Court had agreed to hear, this fall, a challenge to the constitutionality of state laws exempting church property from real estate taxes.
Rabbi Siegman explained that the SCA had been “grappling with the issue” of tax exemption from real estate taxes because of earlier taxpayer suits against exemption for non-religious affiliated church property.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
