Here’s one the Separation of Church & State folks ought to be made aware of — if there’s anything to it.
A woman of my acquaintance in Manhattan just bought the apartment above the duplex she’s owned for years, and plans to remodel it all into a triplex for her growing family. However, she’s run into a kink in the NYC building code that I find hard to believe. The new place (of course) has its own kitchen, and according to my friend, the code demands that any single apartment with two kitchens must have both certified kosher –regardless of the owner’s religious affiliation.
My parents’ contractor, who’s originally from Colombia but grew up in this area, says he’s always understood the regulations exactly that way. Nonetheless, I remain skeptical.
I can’t see as culturally diverse a metropolis as NY having gotten a piece of code like this passed without a controversy — and apparently there just never was one.
Is there anything to it but urban legend? Has it perhaps been confused with some other arcane bit of municipal and/or rabbinical boilerplate? And if it is for real — what’s the idea?
IANAL, but here’s a WAG - maybe the law is meant to prevent the setting up of multiple kitchens in one residence for some reason, but an exception is made for Orthodox Jews who wish to have separate kitchens for the sake of keeping kosher (e.g., one kitchen for meat and one for milk, or one for year-round use and one for Passover use)? In which case, the person probably doesn’t need a rabbinic certification, like restaurants do, but merely to declare that his need for multiple kitchens of for the sake of Kashrut?
Perhaps to make it harder to illegally subdivide a single apartment in to two? If you have a rent control apartment that is to big for your needs, I can see the temptation to install an extra kitchen and a wall and rent the unused part for market rent.
I’m guessing…again, this is just a WAG…that they don’t want people taking one-family residences and renting out half of them without all the legal requirements of a two-family residence. A second functional kitchen without some reason why said kitchen might be required (e.g., Kashrut) might indicate the owner is renting on the sly.
What does it mean to have a kitchen certified Kosher? Do you have to have constant rabbinical supervision while you cook or what? Two drawers for silverware so you can separate meat and dairy?
I’m certain that this is the reason. When I was a kid, some of my family members had extra kitchens in their undivided basements ( the only place large enough to fit the whole extended family for Easter or Christmas dinner) and I remember hearing it mentioned that it was done on the sly to avoid the basement being considered a separate apartment, causing the real estate taxes being raised.
My friend works in a bakery, and a few years ago they got themselves declared Kosher. I forget all the specifics, but you have to get a rabbi to certify that your facility doesn’t break any of the Jewish dietary laws.
Probably to avoid using a one-family as a two-family or renting rooms with a kitchen. Over in NJ, you have to get a permit for a “summer kitchen,” whatever the hell that means. It’s just to verify that the building is still being used as a single-family.
All interesting possibilities. (My friend bought both places, thus making rent control a nonissue.) It does have the feeling of a quick 'n dirty way to enforce the unenforceable.
I still have one question no one’s touched: Constitutionally speaking, can a US city demand this level of compliance with any religious body – however well connected?
I’m not sure that is the situation. It appears to be a religious exemption to a zoning rule, not a requirement that you must get something approved by a particular religious body.
Google “RLUIPA” or “Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.” It’s Federal law. Basically, zoning regulations cannot put up any barriers that would prevent the reasonable free exercise of religion. (There’s exceptions and grey areas, but discussing them is beyond the scope of this thread.)
Preventing an observant Jewish family from installing a second kitchen would be a restriction against the exercise of religion, and therefore a violation of RLUIPA. It’s not so much a local government requiring rabinnical approval for a second kitchen, but rather not preventing a Jewish family from having one.
I’ve seen zoning codes for cities with large Jewish populations that exempt sukkot huts from regulations governing the location of sheds. Again, RLUPIA.
I think I get it now. So everybody’s probably just been saying it backwards. Ie: the real deal is that NYC code will not allow two kitchens in a single dwelling —and the only practicable exemption would be on kosher grounds.
