Massachusetts’ Supreme Court, highest tribunal in the state, upheld this weekend a lower court ruling, holding that a congregational dispute about seating women on the main floor of an Orthodox synagogue is a religious matter, and not an issue for the civil courts.
The suit had been brought by Theodore Solomon, of Revere, and eight other members of Congregation Tifereth Israel at Revere. They had complained that a congregational vote, taken August 3, 1960, approving mixed seating, was against the Mosaic law and contrary to the tenets held by Orthodox Jewry. Their suit had been dismissed by Superior Court Judge Edward O. Gourdon, and the complainants appealed to the Supreme Court.
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