New York Governor Andrew Cuomo placed a traditional Jewish religious item on the entrance to the Governor’s mansion in Albany, New York last week, after he received it as a gift from a Jewish school.
On Friday, Cuomo tweeted a picture of a green mezuzah he had placed at the main entrance to the governor’s official residence.
The governor received the Jewish religious item from students at the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway (HAFTR) during a visit to the school last Wednesday.
“Thank you to the STEM students from @OfficialHAFTR for this beautiful mezuzah now gracing the Governor's mansion,” Cuomo tweeted on Friday.
“This is a long-standing Jewish symbol of protection. May this protection extend to all the people of New York.”
According to a report by Hamodia, the mezuzah case was designed by the students and created with a 3D printer.
“I want to thank you very much for this mezuzah,” Cuomo said after he received the gift. “You know where I’m going to put this? I’m going to put this on the front door of the governor’s house in Albany, so everyone will see it who goes there. It means a lot to me.”
Prior to becoming governor, in 2009, then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo charged a homeowner’s association with religious discrimination after it restricted the right of residents to place mezuzot and other religious items on their entrances.
"This country guarantees every individual the right to express his or her religious beliefs," Cuomo said in a written statement. "The practices employed by the Dix Hills Homeowners Association went against the fundamental protections and promises of our laws, and I commend them for reforming their bylaws and practices to ensure that no resident will be the victim of this kind of discrimination."
