Is nothing sacred?
Orthodox Jews who observe the sabbath are trashing the city Sanitation Department over its stricter evening curbside garbage drop-offs, saying they are getting slapped with fines for adhering to their religion.
In some heavily orthodox neighborhoods like Crown Heights, trash has to be brought to the curb on Friday for Saturday pickup — when residents are preparing to to observe sabbath.
“The city’s new regulations regarding garbage collection now directly infringe on our religious liberties and seem to overturn nearly 100 years of precedent,” fumed Crown Heights resident Kan Tzivah.
He noted that for about half the year, the sabbath starts before 6 p.m. — but the new city rules don’t allow residents to bring trash to the curb until later, when observant Jews are supposed to refrain from activities viewed as work.
“I even tried explaining this to a DSNY worker who was issuing tickets right before Shabbos on our block recently,” Tzivah said. “Unfortunately, he simply said that while he was sympathetic to our problem, he was following orders and couldn’t make exceptions.