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MAHWAH, N.J. (AP) — The Latest on a New Jersey town accused in a lawsuit of using town ordinances to discriminate against Orthodox Jews (all times local):
11 p.m.
A New Jersey town facing federal and state lawsuits over ordinances alleged to discriminate against Orthodox Jews has changed course on a parks ban that stoked the controversy.
Mahwah's town council voted Thursday night to amend on an earlier ordinance that would have restricted public parks to local residents.
The town faces a federal lawsuit brought by a Jewish group and another suit brought by the state.
The lawsuits allege the parks ordinance and another measure were attempts to keep out Orthodox Jews who cross the nearby New York border, but the council's president denies that.
It wasn't immediately known how Thursday's action would affect the lawsuits.
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2:30 p.m.
A New Jersey town facing federal and state lawsuits over ordinances alleged to discriminate against Orthodox Jews is rethinking its position.
Mahwah's town council is expected to vote Thursday night on an earlier proposed ordinance that would have restricted public parks to local residents. Some town residents had complained about overcrowding at the parks and their use by Orthodox Jewish families coming from towns across the nearby New York border.
Earlier this month, the council reversed part of an ordinance that effectively banned eruvs (A'-roovs), pieces of plastic piping attached to utility poles that serve as boundary markers for Orthodox Jews.
The lawsuits allege those measures are an attempt to keep Orthodox Jews from New York out of Mahwah.
Mahwah's council president says anti-Semitism played no role in the decisions.
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