MAHWAH – A crowd of 200 people gathered Monday to back the township's recent demand that a New York Jewish group remove piping it installed on local utility poles to create a religious enclosure known as an eruv.

In Jewish tradition, Orthodox Jews within an eruv can perform tasks outside of their home that are otherwise forbidden on the Sabbath. Those tasks include pushing a stroller or carrying keys.

At a local park Monday night, town officials heard the crowd's concerns over out-of-state residents venturing across the New York border into Mahwah.

The township acted Friday by ordering the South Monsey Eruv Fund to cease building the boundary, arguing it violates township zoning regulations that prohibit signs on utility poles. The group has until Aug. 4 to remove the eruv or face summonses.

Mahwah Strong, a Facebook group that organized the meeting, will serve as a check and balance for Mahwah to enforce its ordinances, said creator Robert Ferguson.

The group has amassed 3,000 members in six days.

“I don’t view this as a hostile takeover of the town,” Ferguson said of the Monsey group. “All I want is for them to follow the law and stay within the bounds of the ordinances that exist."

An online petition titled “Protect the Quality of Our Community in Mahwah” emerged last week, calling for the eruv’s removal to “prevent further illegal incursions into our community." Its creator, former town Councilman John Roth, said he closed the petition shortly after reaching 1,200 signatures, due to inappropriate comments made on the web page.

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Two more Bergen County towns within the eruv — Montvale and Upper Saddle River — are taking action similar to Mahwah's.

On Monday, Montvale Mayor Mike Ghassali said he had issued a stop-order letter to the Monsey group weeks ago.

“According to our ordinance, we don’t allow signs of any kind on our poles,” said Ghassali.

So far, he said, the group has complied with the order. But if the installation of pipes continues into the borough, he said Montvale is prepared to remove them and issue a summons.

An attorney for Upper Saddle River made similar demands in a July 18 letter to Orange & Rockland Utilities, which granted the Monsey group permission to install the piping on its poles in March. The borough is insisting that the pipes be removed immediately.

In a letter dated July 20, legal counsel for Orange & Rockland cautioned the group to refrain from furthering its eruv until it has made “all necessary municipal consents for such attachments."

A representative for the Monsey group did not respond to an email seeking comment Monday.

The group, which is based in New York, wants to expand its 26-mile eruv into Bergen County.

Eruvs currently exist in 22 locations across New Jersey, including Paramus, Fair Lawn, Passaic and Tenafly.

The Tenafly eruv was the subject of a six-year legal battle between the borough government and the Tenafly Eruv Association.

The association sued the town after the Borough Council banned eruvs in 2000. The U.S. District Court sided with the borough, ruling that it had the right to restrict access to the utility poles because they are not a public forum.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision, finding that Tenafly officials made exceptions on a case-by-case basis, allowing signs on utility poles for local churches and lost pets.

Ghassali on Monday argued that Montvale has always strictly enforced its ordinance restricting signs on poles.

Mahwah has done so as well, said Mayor Bill Laforet.

“We’ve established a history of enforcement, enough to justify the letter we sent," he said.

Email: nobile@northjersey.com