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Bill on Misrepresented Mezuzas Stirs Controversy Among Jews

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Times Staff Writer

As a Jewish scribe, Rabbi Shmuel Miller observes the traditional strictures for writing mezuzas and other religious objects.

In his Fairfax-district living room, the rabbi painstakingly records two biblical passages in accordance with strict Jewish custom, which calls for scribes to write the mezuza’s 713 letters by hand on parchment and in a precise Hebrew script.

The passages declare the unity of one God and assure that the observant will be rewarded. A high quality, post card-sized scroll could retail for as much as $50. In most cases, they are folded into decorative cases and, according to biblical direction, mounted to the right doorpost to mark a Jewish home.

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Tradition Seen as Jeopardized

But a Los Angeles Orthodox Jewish group contends that inexpensive, photocopied or mass-produced mezuzas jeopardize the kosher tradition as represented by Miller’s meticulously prepared mezuzas. Agudath Israel of California--an educational and lobbying group--estimates that many of the thousands of the scrolls sold every year in Southern California as authentic kosher objects are bogus.

Agudath Israel has spearheaded a campaign to educate Jews about what it regards as fraudulent mezuzas. It is also seeking passage of a bill by Assemblyman William J. Filante (R-Greenbrae) aimed at preventing the mass-produced mezuzas from being sold as the higher-priced, handwritten objects.

Filante’s bill, which was approved 4-0 by the Assembly Consumer Protection Committee on Thursday and sent to the Assembly floor, has stirred controversy within the Jewish community and highlighted differences among segments of Judaism over what constitutes a mezuza.

Filante said in an interview that the bill’s goal is simply “to lessen consumer deception.” It would require all religious items to be labeled with the name of the manufacturer and importer. Agudath Israel leaders said that would allow them and other interested consumers to determine the authenticity of the mezuzas.

Said Rabbi Chaim Schnur, director of Agudath Israel: “We’re asking for the same rights as anyone else as consumers” to obtain an authentic mezuza, “not just a piece of paper.” He said the legislation would not be “an unwarranted . . . entry of the state into religious life.”

Schnur’s organization acts as a lobbying group for Southern California’s growing community of strictly observant Jews. In the past two years, it has won passage for several bills, including legislation aimed at stopping fraudulent sales of non-kosher meat. Kosher laws usually apply to the preparation of food but can also apply to the preparation of such religious articles as mezuzas.

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Spokesmen for the Jewish Union of Orthodox Congregations and the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly said they agree with Agudath Israel that a mezuza should be prepared by a scribe and written on parchment. They said they support Filante’s proposal.

However, spokesmen for the Jewish Public Affairs Committee and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Pacific Southwest Region, have questioned the need for the legislation. Neither group testified on the bill at Thursday’s Assembly committee hearing.

Concerned About Bill

David Nagler, executive director of the public affairs committee that represents a number of organized Jewish groups in Sacramento, said in an interview that his organization is concerned that the bill attempts to define “what is kosher.” He said he believes there are adequate anti-fraud statutes to deal with any problems.

Rabbi Lennard Thal, director of the Reform movement’s Pacific Southwest Region in Los Angeles, criticized the legislation on several grounds.

” . . . By and large, Reform Jews will not care very much whether it is done by hand by a scribe . . . or whether it is mass-produced,” Thal said. What is important, he said, is that the mezuza scroll include the appropriate Biblical passages. Thal said his group is “unalterably opposed to running to the state Legislature to solve a problem that might well be remedied through internal mechanisms of the Jewish community.” He said the bill’s supporters might have one set of standards for mezuzas, but other Jewish groups have other standards.

“I don’t believe the state should be involved in policing that kind of distinction,” Thal said.

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Other Reform rabbis said that before Agudath Israel turned to the state for help, it should have sought assistance from other Jewish groups to resolve the issue.

Said Rabbi Sanford Ragins of Leo Baeck Temple in Los Angeles: “For any relatively small group within the Jewish community to seek to impose its will upon the rest of the community and, moreover, to impose its will with the use of the state’s power is outrageous.”

The issue of fraudulent mezuzas was first raised by traditional Jewish scribes a decade ago in New York, which has enacted a law similar to the one introduced by Filante. The scribes formed Vaad Mishmereth Stam, a Brooklyn-based group whose Hebrew name translates into an organization that safeguards mezuzas and other sacred works.

Rabbi Yakov Basch, the group’s executive director, has been called “the Ralph Nader of mezuzas” because of his educational campaign and efforts to certify authentic mezuzas. For Jews, he asserted, “mezuzas have tremendous spiritual value.”

He estimated that at least 650,000 mezuzas are sold in the United States every year but as many as 80% fail to meet kosher standards. Most mezuzas are imported from Israel and sold in bookstores and synagogues.

Whatever happens in the Legislature, Miller, 35, said he will continue to write mezuzas and other objects following the kosher customs. His only concessions to modern times are an illuminated magnifying glass and an electric eraser.

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Miller is often called upon to determine the authenticity of mezuzas. He said he supports Agudath Israel’s attempts to educate Jews on how to detect an authentic mezuza but has no position on the legislation.

He underscored the extent of the problem by bringing out a plastic bag crammed with scores of mezuzas that he judged as bogus. For Miller, the proliferation of these “fake” objects dilutes the significance of the mezuza in Jewish life, which he said is to remind Jews as they come and go from their homes “of the oneness of God and the love of God.”

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