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Free keywords:
planning law; religious diversity; urban space; Judaism; eruv; Australia
Abstract:
This paper considers a planning dispute that surrounded the construction of a Jewish religious installation(called an eruv) in the public urban space of an Australian suburb. The aim of this case-study is to exam-ine the role of law in regulating Jewish difference–a topic that has to date received little attention in thesocio-legal literature concerned with the governance of religious diversity. In analysing residents’objec-tions to the eruv, the paper explores long-standing anxieties about Jewish particularity in Australia andbeyond as they surfaced in opposition to the eruv. It shows how the law continues to exclude certainforms of Jewish difference that are perceived as transgressing dominant religious and racial norms.Moreover, the paper highlights the particular ways in which planning law assigned value to these anxietiesand legitimised the marginalisation of Orthodox Jews, emphasising the significance of local law as a sitefor exclusion and inequality.
