{"id":2833,"date":"2026-04-14T15:47:01","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T15:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/?p=2833"},"modified":"2026-04-14T15:47:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T15:47:19","slug":"shlomo-danzinger-jewish-leaders-sue-to-delay-surfside-mayor-runoff-over-passover-conflict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/en\/shlomo-danzinger-jewish-leaders-sue-to-delay-surfside-mayor-runoff-over-passover-conflict\/","title":{"rendered":"Shlomo Danzinger, Jewish leaders sue to delay Surfside Mayor runoff over Passover conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"
The lawsuit cites Florida\u2019s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, arguing vote-by-mail won\u2019t ensure full participation before Passover.<\/div>\n
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Eleven days before Surfside voters are set to choose a new Mayor, one of the candidates is seeking a one-week postponement on religious grounds.<\/p>\n

Former Surfside Mayor\u00a0Shlomo Danzinger<\/strong>, who faces Vice Mayor\u00a0Tina Paul<\/strong>\u00a0in an April 7\u00a0runoff<\/a><\/strong>, has joined a group of Jewish organizations, rabbis and local voters in filing an emergency lawsuit to delay the election until April 14.<\/p>\n

They argue the current date conflicts with\u00a0Passover<\/a><\/strong>, one of Judaism\u2019s holiest holidays.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0verified petition<\/a><\/strong>, filed Friday in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, lists as plaintiffs\u00a0Chabad of Surfside<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0United Orthodox Synagogues of Surfside<\/a><\/strong>, multiple rabbis and individual voters, including Danzinger himself.<\/p>\n

Defendants are the Town of Surfside and the Surfside Canvassing Board, with Miami-Dade County also referenced as administering the election.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs, represented by lawyers affiliated with the\u00a0National Jewish Advocacy Center<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0GS2Law<\/a><\/strong>, seek a temporary injunction blocking the April 7 runoff and ordering it rescheduled to April 14 \u2014 or another date that does not conflict with Passover.<\/p>\n

Passover runs April 1-9 this year, during which time many traditionally observant Jews are prohibited from activities including driving, writing and using electronics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t about politics; it is about the right of every Surfside resident to practice their faith and cast their vote without being forced to choose between the two,\u201d Danzinger said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cHundreds of our neighbors, people who care deeply about this community, will be unable to vote on April 7 because of their religious observance. All we are asking for is one week \u2026 so that every resident of Surfside, regardless of their faith, can participate in choosing their next Mayor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of Surfside\u2019s more than\u00a05,700 residents<\/a><\/strong>, an estimated 2,500 are Jewish, with a\u00a0significant share<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0of them identifying as Orthodox or Conservative.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s filing lays out a detailed constitutional argument under the First Amendment and Florida\u2019s\u00a0Religious Freedom Restoration Act<\/a><\/strong>, which prohibits governments from substantially burdening a person or religious organization\u2019s exercise of religion.<\/p>\n

The law, enacted in 1998, requires the state to demonstrate a \u201ccompelling government interest\u201d in imposing any such burden, while using the least restrictive means in doing so.<\/p>\n

The Surfside filing contends the April 7 election date indeed imposes a substantial burden on observant Jewish voters, in part because some interpretations of Jewish law prohibit voting during Chol Hamoed \u2014 the intermediate days of Passover, between the first two and last two days of the eight-day holiday \u2014 while others make it impractical due to travel and holiday preparation.<\/p>\n

And vote-by-mail doesn\u2019t solve the issue, the plaintiffs argue, since the runoff was\u00a0triggered March 17<\/a><\/strong>, leaving limited time to request and return absentee ballots before many residents depart for the holiday.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also precedent. Nearby Bay Harbor Islands unanimously moved its election to April 14 to avoid Passover, and in 2010, the petition notes, then-Gov.\u00a0Charlie Crist<\/strong>\u00a0postponed a Special Congressional Election for similar reasons, as was also done in states like New York and New Jersey.<\/p>\n

The filing also takes exception with a\u00a0blog post<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0outgoing Surfside Mayor\u00a0Charles Burkett\u00a0<\/strong>wrote this month detailing how Paul should communicate with voters about what he called Danzinger\u2019s \u201cfearmongering\u201d about a \u201c(non-existent) threat\u201d of antisemitism in the town.<\/p>\n

In the post, titled \u201cThe Letter Tina Paul Should Write,\u201d Burkett \u2014 who served as Mayor\u00a0both before and after<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Danzinger\u2019s only mayoral term from 2022 to 2024 \u2014 took exception with Danzinger flying Israel\u2019s flag at Town Hall and a \u201ccottage industry based on division\u201d he said the candidate employs while seeking and after winning office.<\/p>\n

Danzinger took 857 votes in the General Election, representing roughly 25% of the total number of registered voters in Surfside. Of those, \u201ca solid 850\u201d were \u201creligious voters\u201d whom Danzinger \u201cfrightened and misled\u201d into voting for him, Burkett said before arguing that the \u201cremaining 75%\u201d of the town\u2019s electorate should choose Paul in the runoff.<\/p>\n

Paul is also Jewish. Burkett is not.<\/p>\n

The filing characterized Burkett\u2019s remarks as evidence of the current Mayor\u2019s \u201cdeep-seated animus toward the Jewish people\u201d and argues that the \u201cfacially neutral\u201d runoff date set by the town charter can no longer be considered such, because a \u201cgovernment official is actively encouraging non-Jewish voters to turn out on a date when Jewish voters\u201d are unlikely to do so in as large a number as they otherwise would.<\/p>\n

Speaking with Florida Politics, Burkett said he harbors no ill will toward the Jewish community, members of whom he has lived beside for decades and considers himself an honorary member \u201cby osmosis.\u201d But he takes exception, he continued, with Danzinger \u201cinciting one group against another\u201d and flying a flag representing one religion or nation other than the U.S., but no others.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about any one religion,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about his intolerance for anybody else, his intolerance for any other views.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burkett added that he is open to delaying the election by a week, as the petition seeks, and would have likely agreed to do so had Danzinger asked Surfside to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than filing a lawsuit, all he had to do was call me up and ask me if I would have a special meeting and move the date. He didn\u2019t bother to do that because it would have been the easy and less controversial thing to do,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s no skin off my back. It never was, and that issue is 100% separate from the way voters feel about Shlomo Danzinger conflating some sort of malicious, dark secret to try to disenfranchise people before you even ask the question.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danzinger, who\u00a0took 49% of the vote<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0to Paul\u2019s 36% in Surfside\u2019s General Election this month, is no stranger to election-focused litigation. While running for Miami-Dade County Mayor, he filed two lawsuits challenging incumbent\u00a0Daniella Levine Cava<\/strong>, one seeking to\u00a0remove her from the ballot<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0over alleged paperwork irregularities and another to\u00a0overturn the race<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0after she won.<\/p>\n

The first complaint failed. He withdrew the second.<\/p>\n

Danzinger is a Republican. Paul is a Democrat. Burkett has no party affiliation.<\/p>\n

Surfside\u2019s elections are technically nonpartisan, though party politics can and often still influence town races.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The lawsuit cites Florida\u2019s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, arguing vote-by-mail won\u2019t ensure full participation before Passover. Eleven days before Surfside voters are set to choose a new Mayor, one of the candidates is seeking a one-week postponement on religious grounds. Former Surfside Mayor\u00a0Shlomo Danzinger, who faces Vice Mayor\u00a0Tina Paul\u00a0in an April 7\u00a0runoff, has joined a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2833"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2835,"href":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2833\/revisions\/2835"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}