[Avodah] Crown Heights Rav's Psak On Voting In Church Raises Storm

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Nov 06, 2020 at 01:32:58PM +0000, Prof. L. Levine forwarded to
Areivim from
https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/1916361 : 
> Residents of Crown Heights are facing a halachic issue on Tuesday as
> their voting booth station is in a local church and although residents
> made efforts to have the location changed, they were unable to do so,
> COL reported.

> Rav Yosef Braun, the Rav of Crown Heights, paskened this week that voting
> in a church is only permissible when the actual voting booth is in a room
> that does not serve as the prayer room since it is then apparent to all
> that the purpose of entering the room is not for prayer. Furthermore,
> it is only permissible if there is no other option.

> "One may enter a church to vote, provided it is not in the sanctuary,
> but rather they specifically set up a room for this purpose, e.g. the
> basement or a different room, since everyone knows that you are there
> to vote and not for anything else," Rav Braun stated.

And then RYL added:
> See the above URL for more.

> At one time my voting place was in a Reform Temple. I wonder what the
> psak about such a place is.

Since this is a halachic question, I'm moving it here.

When the Torah Center of Hillcrest was under construction, Rav Dovid
Lifshitz zt"l told R Zvi Flaum that it was okay to hold services in
the local C-nagogue's library, as long as we entered and left through
a different door than the C congregation and could hang a sign for our
shul by that door. Because then, it would be clear we weren't going in
order to participate in C services.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Imagine waking up tomorrow
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   with only the things
Author: Widen Your Tent      we thanked Hashem for today!
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