On Sydney's North Shore, where unchecked development is steadily defacing a genteel precinct, it's not the proliferation of nondescript high rises or the disappearance of federation homes stirring controversy. Rather, it's a clutch of standard-issue utility poles and interconnecting strands of wire piquing the interest of journalists and politicians alike, and catalysing the prejudices that lurk within this superficially harmonious community.
The dissent resulted from the proposed construction of an eruv, a symbolic wall that would envelop most of the suburb of St Ives, home to around 3000 Jews, many of whom share South African heritage. Eighty-five per cent of the eruv exists already in the form of utility poles; 11 residents have given consent for additional poles to be constructed on their land.
Common to cities such as Washington DC, London, Paris, Johannesburg and Sydney's own Bondi, the eruv's presence enables observant Jews to leave their homes and undertake activities otherwise forbidden outside of the home on the Shabbat and holy days: the pushing of prams, the use of walking sticks, the carrying of children.
The media blew the dog whistle at once with provocative headlines such as 'Jews seek religious freedom with a ring around St Ives' in the Sydney Morning Herald and 'Renewed Jewish push for St Ives "enclosure"' in the North Shore Times. The headlines captured not just the essence of a local news story, but the deep fears of a broader society whose much-vaunted religious and cultural tolerance is not necessarily observed in practice.
The more rational objections were aired by people fearful of the change an eruv might bring to St Ives' leafy skyline. With the battle against big developers already lost, residents are wary of further threats to their rapidly changing streetscapes.
'We're going towards undergrounding wiring [and] having less posts and poles ... [H]ere we are getting a proliferation of poles and wiring when it's totally unnecessary for the wider community and just convenient to a small fraction of the population,' said Christiane Berlioz, President of the St Ives Progress Association.
The proposal also drew the ire of atheists who, critical of the supposed irrationality of an eruv, labelled it an 'imaginary fence' and a 'piece of string' that adults believe will enable them to 'pick up keys on the Sabbath'.
Implicit in these comments is derision for all faith-based beliefs: the transformation of the Eucharist into Christ's body during a Catholic mass, the reincarnation of