Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Fair Housing, Fair Play הזכות לדיור

Referring to kibbutz and moshav intake and vetting committees, Alexandre Kedar writes:

“[This] is how some towns, moshavim, and kibbutzim sort through those who want to join them. This filter was limited by the Kadan ruling, in which the Supreme Court made [sic] the town of Katzir allocate land for Adel Kadan, an Arab citizen. The ruling appears to apply to agricultural communities as well.”

I assume that by “agricultural”, he means “rural”. Yet what difference should a community livelihood make? On the other hand, does being an income-sharing community exempt us from anti-segregation laws?

I’ve always felt like a community’s having an intake committee is, if not exactly a ticking bomb, then quite challengeable legally. We’ve always taken it for granted that a kibbutz having a “Jewish members only” clause in its bylaws is legal. But is it? If Katzir can’t, why can we?

I’ve also always been curious as to what defines a private club. How come country clubs can restrict their membership, yet it’s illegal for a company to not hire a candidate or not promote an employee because of race or religion (although it’s difficult to prove)?

Can a church refuse membership to a non-Christian because it’s a tax-exempt organization? JCCs can’t refuse anyone membership because they’re United Fund recipients. So the formula seems to be: If you receive public funding, you can’t restrict membership. Can anyone confirm, deny, or otherwise untangle this conundrum?

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