British housing company apologizes for threatening to strip tenants’ mezuzahs

A housing company in the London area apologizes to Jewish residents for threatening to take down their mezuzahs if they did not remove the religious object themselves.

Warwick Estates, located on the northern edge of the British capital, writes in a statement that it was sorry for its “overzealous” letter to residents of Cedarwood Court, near the heavily Jewish London area of Stamford Hill.

The letter concerns hanging mezuzahs on front doors, stating that this breached the terms of the residents’ leases and they could be billed if they did not take them down, The Jewish Chronicle of London reports.

Last week’s letter said that hanging objects outside company-owned homes was a violation of its terms. It mentioned specifically the mezuzah, a rolled-up scroll of parchment that Jewish families hang on the frame of their front doors usually in a decorative case.

One resident said that she had never seen anyone complain about the mezuzahs in 10 years of living in the area. On Monday, the company backtracked.

“We apologize for the letter sent to some of our customers asking them to remove religious items from their property, specifically their mezuzahs,” a company spokesperson tells the Chronicle.

“The letter was overzealous in its nature and not in keeping with our business values… We wish to make it very clear that residents of the block in question are not required to remove their mezuzahs and they will certainly not be removed by Warwick Estates or any representatives working on our behalf,” the company also tells the newspaper.

— JTA