page_title: Chicago Jewish Star
section_title: Legislation affecting the Jewish community
hierarchical_section_title: Chicago Jewish Star / Controversies and Issues / Legislation affecting the Jewish community
caption_attribution_description: English: An unsecured Chicago Jewish Star newsbox in the South Loop, 2005.
context_page_description: The Chicago Jewish Star was an independent twice-monthly general interest Jewish newspaper based in Skokie, Illinois, and published from 1991 to 2018. It provided news analysis and opinion on local, national and international events of relevance to the Jewish community, with a focus on literature and arts, politics, and the Middle East. It was a continuation of The Jewish Star, a Canadian newspaper operated by the same principals from 1980-90.
context_section_description: Although a common custom among the vast majority of Jews, affixing a mezuzah on a doorpost became an act increasingly likely in Chicago to come in conflict with the rules of condominium associations, as that city typified a country which "has been condo crazy the past few years." In May 2004, two Jewish condo owners at Shoreline Towers Condominium in Chicago protested the association's instruction that all exterior objects, including mezuzot, be removed. Later, other condo associations in Illinois, Florida and Texas were revealed to have adopted a similar restriction. In Chicago, unable to successfully resolve the matter by bringing pressure on the condo associations, litigation followed in 2005.
  Detailed reporting on the controversy by the Jewish Star resulted in city and state legislation prohibiting mezuzah banning. After reading the first media coverage of the dispute, by the Jewish Star in July 2005, Chicago Alderman Burton Natarus composed in 10 minutes an ordinance amending Chicago's Municipal Code to legally prohibit condo associations from banning mezuzah placement on exterior unit doorposts. Four months later, the ordinance was adopted. Meanwhile, though there were signs that the condo boards would resolve the legal dispute, Illinois State Senator Ira Silverstein, having read the same Jewish Star report as Natarus, was likewise appalled and introduced a bill in the Illinois Senate to prevent such rules by condo boards. The law came into effect in January 2007.
  Notwithstanding this legislation, lawsuits continued involving Shoreline Towers Condominium Association. At one point, the Jewish Star successfully fended off an attempt to subpoena its records; at another, an Illinois law barring intimidating lawsuits was applied for the first time; and in yet another instance, a Federal Appeals Court in Chicago overruled an earlier decision, and determined that the Fair Housing Act can prohibit discrimination that occurs after homeowners occupy a dwelling.
caption: A Chicago Jewish Star news box 
  (in green) in the South Loop, 2005.
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