(J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) – A bill to ensure the right of Californians bill to hang mezuzahs on their door frames is moving through the state legislature, and is on its way to the desk of Governor Gavin Newsom. SB 652 bars landlords and condo associations from prohibiting “the display of religious items” of a certain size on doors and door frames. Known to some as the “mezuzah bill” – though it also has the support of secular organizations, as well as Catholic and Hindu groups – the bill follows complaints from Jewish renters and condo owners who were told to remove their mezuzahs because of a building or apartment complex policy. The bill is sailing through the statehouse in Sacramento, where it passed the Assembly 72-0 on July 8 after being approved by the Senate on May 6.

The bill has the strong backing of the ADL, which last month sent a letter of support to the chair of the Assembly’s Judiciary Committee, Rep. Mark Stone. “For millennia, Jews have posted mezuzahs on the entry doorframes of their homes in fulfillment of a religious obligation rooted in the Torah,” states the letter, signed by the ADL’s San Francisco-based state legislative director, Nancy Appel.

“Posting a mezuzah is not a decorative choice for Jews,” Appel wrote, “or indeed a choice of any kind.”

The bill’s diverse backers include the National Association of Social Workers, the Jewish social justice agency Bend the Arc, the California Catholic Conference and the Hindu American Foundation.  Five other states – Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Rhode Island and Texas – already have similar laws in place, the ADL said.