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A California rabbi is threatening legal action after he says the city of Irvine has unlawfully fined him for months for hosting private prayer meetings in his home.
First Liberty Institute sent a demand letter to the city of Irvine on June 12 demanding the city immediately cease its enforcement actions and revoke past citations against its client, Rabbi Rafi Dadon.
Dadon, an Orthodox Jew, regularly invites friends to his home for prayer, Torah study, and Shabbat and holiday meals. His attorneys say these gatherings are private, by invitation only and central to his faith.
First Liberty attorney Ryan Gardner told Digital that Dadon has been fined approximately $5,000 since the city began fining him in August 2025.
First Liberty Institute sent a demand letter to the City of Irvine, CA demanding it stop penalizing Rabbi Dadon. (iStock)
ORTHODOX JEW ASKS SUPREME COURT TO HEAR CASE AFTER CITY ALLEGEDLY TARGETED HIS HOME PRAYER GROUP
According to the letter sent by Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and First Liberty Institute, the city’s justifications for the fines have frequently changed.
The city initially claimed that Dadon was engaging in unpermitted “Church activities” that required a Conditional Use Permit, under local zoning regulations. Later, officials dropped the reference to “Church activities” and alleged Dadon was violating zoning rules related to “Accessory Use” and “commercial activity” and suggested his home was operating as a “place of worship,” according to the demand letter.
“The City’s shifting and inconsistent characterization of Rabbi Dadon’s activities… raises serious concerns that the enforcement action is pretextual and directed not at any neutrally applied land-use issue, but rather at protected religious exercise,” the demand letter states.
The letter suggests the city could be violating the Free Exercise Clause, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) and the Fair Housing Act with its actions and says it must preserve any documents and communications related to the matter in anticipation of potential legal action.
Rabbi Dadon hosting a religious gathering in his home. (First Liberty Institute)
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“It is chilling that City of Irvine officials have resorted to serving fines to a small group of Jewish residents who meet together for worship, prayer, and religious observances,” Gardner said in a statement. “Rabbi Dadon has a constitutional right to engage in religious exercise at his home with family or friends, free from government burden and interference.”
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According to First Liberty Institute, the City of Irvine claimed Rabbi Dadon was using his house as a synagogue in a residential area. (First Liberty Institute)
Dadon’s case mirrors a similar case in Brooklyn Heights, Ohio, where Daniel Grand, an orthodox Jew, said city officials targeted his home prayer group, accused him of violating local zoning ordinances and demanded he apply for a permit that would’ve converted his home into a commercial house of worship. Although the city later dropped this permit requirement, Grand’s attorneys argue his rights were violated and have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his religious liberty case.
The city of Irvine did not immediately return Digital’s request for comment.
