A federal judge temporarily barred Montgomery County, Md., from enforcing its handgun restrictions against the Silver Spring Jewish Center on Thursday, just in time for Rosh Hashanah.
“I’m very pleased that the judge has granted our preliminary injunction, especially on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, as many Jews will gather in synagogue and ask, ‘Who will live and who will die?’” the plaintiff, Rabbi J. Menashe Shapiro, told JNS.
“We now have the ability to ensure the protection of our institution as we go into this critical time,” he said.
Rosh Hashanah begins on Sept. 11 at night.
Deborah Chasanow, a senior judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, granted the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction in part. Her decision applies only to the Silver Spring Jewish Center, an Orthodox congregation in a heavily Jewish neighborhood, and not to other county synagogues.
The county law prohibits firearms within 100 yards of a place of public assembly, including a house of worship. The injunction does not block enforcement of the buffer around the synagogue.
The Jewish Center and Shapiro argued that the prohibition prevented licensed members of the congregation’s volunteer security team from carrying guns at the synagogue.
In a 72-page memo, Chasanow found that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their Second Amendment and free exercise claims. She determined that the county had not established a sufficiently widespread historical tradition of prohibiting firearms in houses of worship.
The judge also found that the law treats houses of worship differently from comparable private properties, whose owners can decide whether to permit guns.
