The city manager of Cambridge, Mass., home to Harvard University, has reportedly asked the city council to approve transferring $540,000 from its surplus to fund Harvard Chabad. The monies would be part of a settlement of a lawsuit against the city’s zoning restrictions against the Jewish center.
The suit, filed in September against the city and its zoning appeal board, alleges religious discrimination against the Chabad, as it sought to renovate its buildings.
The settlement has not been made public, and both the city manager and Harvard Chabad’s lawyer said it is still being finalized. The agreement reportedly includes zoning board approval for a substantially larger expansion, quadrupling Chabad’s indoor size and permitting it to build a five-story, 70-foot-high structure along the same street where the religious center and a synagogue already sit.
The Chabad, which services Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and smaller local Jewish communities, requested to build a connection between two of the three buildings it owns in adjacent lots. The changes would allow it to host regular events indoors, instead of under a tent outside, including during bitter Boston winters.
Chabad alleged that similar accommodations have been made routinely for applicants in similar situations.
The lawsuit cited violations of the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which prohibits zoning laws that substantially burden religious exercise. It also alleged violations of the U.S. Constitution’s protections for the free exercise of religion, due process and equal protection and provisions of the Massachusetts Constitution and the state Civil Rights Act.
The lawsuit also claimed that opponents of Chabad’s requests tried to scrub discriminatory references in their published opposition to the plan, but previous on-record comments indicated their motivations.
