Menorah fight rekindled in Closter

Borough officials hope some holiday diplomacy will help avoid a First Amendment fight with the Closter Menorah Committee. The group, which has staged menorah-lighting ceremonies on public property for the last 25 years, threatened to sue the town last winter, when officials considered shutting down the event following a raucous time the year before.

The Borough Council allowed the ceremony last year under tighter restrictions and, in a divided vote last week, chose to allow it again. But officials want the Dec. 6 event to move from the front lawn of Borough Hall to a park one block from downtown. "Right now, we have a council that feels very strongly that the way to safeguard religion is to keep it out of government," said Mayor Sophie Heymann, an observant Jew who cast a tie-breaking vote to allow the event. "I voted for it because at this time, I didn't want to spend borough monies for potential suits which they have been threatening. What I'm trying to do is change the venue so it will be satisfactory to everyone."

The council shelved the notion of moving the event to the clock tower at the heart of downtown, due to concerns about having to shut down the road and potential disturbances to neighbors. Officials instead will ask the committee to hold the ceremony at Veterans Park on Herbert Avenue. "We don't want a fight with anybody," said Philip Gotthelf, head of the committee. "As long as it's a reasonable location, we're willing to move ... But I think this is more of the same nonsense."

He said officials have unjustly linked the committee's ritual of a menorah lighting, singalong and hot chocolate with a spectacle two years ago by the Lubavitch Jewish community of Monsey, N.Y. "They paraded dozens of cars round and round the borough with large menorahs attached to the roofs of the cars, and in the meantime they had the party with music blaring from Borough Hall," Heymann said. "It was just inappropriate. So last year, we held them to a higher standard and they did meet that."

That standard included posting $2,000 in refundable monies for an insurance certificate, signing a hold-harmless agreement, limiting the event to an hour, and agreeing to cover any additional costs such as police services. The Lubavitch of Monsey helped out this year by covering the menorah committee under its insurance, but Gotthelf said he otherwise has no ties to the group. The Lubavitch are simply the only group in the area willing to fight for Jewish religious freedoms, he said.

In Tenafly, the Lubavitch recently helped an Orthodox Jewish group defeat town efforts to block the installation of an eruv -- a religious boundary -- along utility poles. The suit cost the town $1 million in legal fees, Heymann said. Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union and non-Jewish town residents also challenged Closter council efforts to shut down the menorah ceremony. "[The committee] is more than ready to take us to court. They see it as their right of free speech," Heymann told council members Tuesday.

"We can't be coming at this from a position of weakness," responded Councilman John Kashwick, who dissented along with Councilman David Barad in a 3-2 vote. "This is a very bad precedent to set." Borough officials have allowed Christians to place the creche, or nativity scene, on Borough Hall's front lawn for more than 20 years. Heymann said officials cannot allow one religious display while banning another. She plans to speak with Gotthelf on Monday about relocating the event to Veterans Park. The Dec. 6 ceremony is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

First they came for the Christian Nativity, but I said nothing for I wasn't a Christian. Then they came for the Jewish Menorah, but I didn't say anything because I wasn't Jewish........

Sound all to familiar????

Disband the ACLU!!!

2 posted on 11/25/2007 5:07:10 PM PST by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country. What else needs to be said?)

“I believe in states’ rights.” —Ronald Reagan

I just came home from Bolivar, MO and while there went to a public park with scores of lighted Christian Christmas scenes on display. I might be wrong, but I think if the ACLU showed up down there they’d get their tails shot off.

Actually, if you go to NYC you’ll be able to see menorahs because they have been deemed to be cultural symbols. Anything to do with Christmas is religious and thus forbidden.

this sounds like a hate crime because the targets werent christians!

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