Lawmakers Seek to Prevent HOAs From Banning Mezuzahs

When Monica Lundeen Smith and Michael Smith got a letter from their condo owners association asking them to take down “the item” on their doorframe, they assumed it was a simple misunderstanding.

The association, the couple figured, must not have known that the object was a mezuzah, a small box with a scroll inside that Jews traditionally affix to their doorposts.

“We thought we just needed to have the opportunity to explain to these people that it’s part of our religion, that we can’t take it down,” said Lundeen Smith, who was renting the Houston condo with her boyfriend, who is now her husband.

But the association persisted, she said, and two years later, the Texas Legislature is considering a bill inspired by their experience.

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