County Legislator Judah Holstein
Westchester County Legislator Judah Holstein wrote the following letter to Governor Kathy Hochul, requesting that she support legislation to create a 25-foot buffer zone around religious institutions.
“Today I sent this letter to Kathy Hochul following recent incidents in NYC and here in Westchester. The negative response in NYC to similar proposed protections has been shocking. In my district, two synagogues have had protests outside their entrances. We must ensure that people of all faiths can access their houses of worship safely.
“Dear Governor Hochul,
I am writing to urge you to pass legislation establishing 25-foot buffer zones around religious institutions across New York State.
This is not hypothetical for my district. In recent months, two synagogues in District 10 have had protests outside their entrances. People attending services and community events have had to walk through crowds, noise, and confrontation just to get inside. That’s not what religious freedom should look like in practice. Safe and secure access to houses of worship must be guaranteed.
We’ve addressed this issue in other contexts. Westchester enacted protections around reproductive health care facilities to ensure safe access, with support from the NYCLU as a constitutional balance between access and free speech. The same principle applies here.
This bill does not prohibit protest. It sets a reasonable, narrowly tailored boundary so that exercising one right does not interfere with another. Even strong free speech advocates, including FIRE, recognize that content-neutral time, place, and manner restrictions can be appropriate.
If we don’t act, we are permitting intimidation at the entrance to houses of worship. That is not consistent with the
First Amendment, which protects both free expression and the free exercise of religion.
This is a straightforward step with immediate and long-term impact. It ensures safe access now and helps prevent these tactics from spreading to other religious institutions, including churches and mosques. People of all faiths should be able to enter their houses of worship without fear or obstruction.
I urge you to take this up and move it forward immediately,” writes Holstein.
