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The menora wars [The Christmas Haters Attack Chanukah]
Jerusalem Post ^ | Dec. 20, 2004 | David Eliezrie

Posted on 12/19/2004 9:01:28 PM PST by Alouette

On the third night of Hanukka, 11-year-old Menachem Felzenberg, decked out in a black hat and suit, lit the Hanukka menora in the White House.

Standing next to the president and first lady were his mother, brothers and sisters. He was chosen for the honor since his father is serving as a chaplain in Iraq. The leaders of the Jewish establishment filled the room.

For years, some of these leaders had battled menora lightings in public places. Now they were gathered in the most public space in the country watching as a young yeshiva student lit the menora in the presence of the president of the United States.

The Menora Wars have been a feature of Jewish life in the last few decades.

It was 25 years ago when the American Friends of Lubavitch sponsored the National Menora in front of the White House, despite Jewish opposition. Time and again a Chabad rabbi would put up a public menora at city hall, park or public square. Jewish community leaders would meet in consternation.

"It contravenes the principle of church and state," they would declare. At first the leadership would meet to try to appease the Chabad rabbi. The rabbi would argue that this was a great tool for outreach and that it would ignite Jewish pride.

In some communities this worked and community leaders agreed. In some cities they continued to pressure, but Chabad held firm. At times they would threaten: "Put up the menora and we will cut off your funding."

Others would tell him: "Go back to Brooklyn, you don't belong here."

Failing to change the rabbis, they would do as all good Americans do – sue. The lawyers of the American Jewish Congress, its cousin the American Jewish Committee, ADL, the ACLU, and even occasionally the Reform movement would march into court claiming to represent the community against public menoras.

When I put up a menora in the Orange County Civic Center, the American Jewish Congress dispatched a lawyer from Los Angeles to argue in court against the menora. I sat in the courtroom in shock as he said, "The Christmas tree can stay, but the menora must go."

At the time he won an injunction. Everything changed when the US Supreme Court ruled that menoras can be placed on public property as long as they are paid for with private funds.

So the menora returned.

This year, menoras were placed in hundreds of US communities. In a few, minor protests were heard, but each invariably failed.

The Tallahassee City Council, for example, refused to accept the pleas of local Jewish leaders to ban the menora, and the same was true in other communities across the country.

The claim that public menoras violate the separation of Church and State was just camouflage for a deeper issue.

As historian Charles Silberman described almost 20 years ago in his book A Certain People, the dominant attitude in modern Jewish life when he was growing up was, "Shhh, let's not make too much noise."

One might think this attitude had changed, given the strides American Jews have made since then; but its roots are evidently deep.

Two decades ago a young Chabad rabbi moved into a well-established southern community. On his first Hanukka he organized a menora lighting in the largest mall in town.

Summoned by the senior rabbi of the community for a meeting, he was accosted: "How could you put a menora in a public place?"

The young rabbi retorted that the mall was owned by a private corporation.

"You don't understand – the problem is that it is too public," the local rabbi replied.

The Jewish establishment wanted a quiet Jew, one who didn't draw too much attention to himself.

On the first day of Hanukka we had a spirited debate at a class in an Orange County, California law firm about this issue.

One retired lawyer, who had grown up in the depression, said, "Why put up the menora? You will wake up anti-Semitism." The rest, mostly younger, did not share his view.

It was this attitude of insecurity that Chabad wanted to shatter with its public menora campaign.

In his recent book American Judaism Brandeis professor Jonathan Sarna says that Lubavitch "promoted mass candle-lighting ceremonies in outdoor public places, flouting the beliefs of Jews who felt that religion should be confined to the private sphere, in the home or synagogue."

Of course there were true believers in the church-state issue.

Alan Dershowitz, a Jew who never hides his identity, told me when I congratulated him on lighting the menora in Harvard Yard: "It's private property. I'm still opposed to the menora on publicly-owned property."

Perhaps such attitudes are finally changing. Historian Arthur Hertzberg, who served as president of the American Jewish Congress, the group that was most persistent in its campaign against public menoras, told me: "We believed that a Jew should be a citizen on the street and a Jew in the home.

"The Rebbe believed that if you were a Jew on the street, then you would be a Jew in your home. "We were wrong, and he was right."

The writer is president of the Rabbinical Council of Orange County, California.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: chanukah; jews; nationalmenorah
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1 posted on 12/19/2004 9:01:28 PM PST by Alouette
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To: 1bigdictator; 1st-P-In-The-Pod; 2sheep; 7.62 x 51mm; A Jovial Cad; A_Conservative_in_Cambridge; ...
FRmail me to be added or removed from this Judaic/pro-Israel ping list.

WARNING: This is a high volume ping list

2 posted on 12/19/2004 9:02:02 PM PST by Alouette (9 kids, 0 abortions, no kidding)
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To: Alouette

http://www.cross-currents.com/archives/2004/12/19/pay-back-time-for-jewish-supporters-of-the-president/#more-51


3 posted on 12/19/2004 9:05:35 PM PST by hlmencken3 ("...politics is a religion substitute for liberals and they can't stand the competition")
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To: Alouette
Alan Dershowitz, a Jew who never hides his identity, told me when I congratulated him on lighting the menora in Harvard Yard: "It's private property. I'm still opposed to the menora on publicly-owned property."

The how come we have to hear his point of view in public owned court rooms.

A display, a speech, they are the same Alan.

4 posted on 12/19/2004 9:08:56 PM PST by Last Dakotan
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To: Alouette; Thinkin' Gal

Why are they stealing the h from our menorahs?


5 posted on 12/19/2004 9:13:54 PM PST by dighton
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To: Alouette

Our Christian friends need to have the courage to stand up to the Left which says faith has no place in the public square. Its about time to push back the ACLU's decades long assault upon religious freedom in America.


6 posted on 12/19/2004 9:19:12 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: dighton; aculeus; Lijahsbubbe; Alouette; dennisw
Why are they stealing the h from our menorahs?

Hei that's not funny. And if that isn't bad enough, there's

Hanukka

I suspect that the same thiefs are pulling this stunt with the Ch in Chanukah. They even stole the final h.

Grinches.

7 posted on 12/19/2004 9:22:15 PM PST by Thinkin' Gal
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To: Thinkin' Gal

Grinces, in teir lingo.


8 posted on 12/19/2004 9:25:45 PM PST by dighton
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To: Alouette
"Why put up the menora? You will wake up anti-Semitism.

That is one sick person. The biggest blessing God has given us in this country is our ability to blend, the melting pot.

I live in a Jewish neighborhood that respects my Christianity as I respect their Judaisms. That's the way it should be. It's actually fun to be invited to partake in their Chanukah and invite my Jewish friends to be part of my Christmas.

I'm envious of the food they serve, their envious of how decorate my house! All in all we all have a hoot!

9 posted on 12/19/2004 9:45:17 PM PST by lizma
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To: Alouette

Why is it when a Christian says homosexuality is wrong in his Church he is guilty of a hate crime, but when someone attacks someone elses menorahs or Christmas displays publicly it is not hate?

Does this mean that Churches and Synagogs should show up at Gay "Pride" events and publicly attack them and it would not be hate? Me thinks "Freedom from Religion" is their religion, and their hatred is obvious to all, but those who want to use bogus laws to push their agenda.

I think hate is best demonstrated not by what you think, but by what you do. Celebrating something is not hateful, but attacking someone else celebrating clearly is.


10 posted on 12/19/2004 9:45:42 PM PST by American in Israel (A wise man's heart directs him to the right, but the foolish mans heart directs him toward the left.)
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To: goldstategop
Chanukah is a good holiday to push back on since it represents a celebration of a military victory by religious Jews to preserve their faith against an assault by an unholy alliance of pagans and secular Jews.

Make no mistake-- the assault on religion by our modern day alliance is nothing more than an attempt to impose atheism as the state religion on all of the rest of us.

11 posted on 12/19/2004 9:48:02 PM PST by Vigilanteman (crime would drop like a sprung trapdoor if we brought back good old-fashioned hangings)
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To: Vigilanteman
the assault on religion by our modern day alliance is nothing more than an attempt to impose atheism as the state religion on all of the rest of us.

I totally agree with you. I think communism is alive and well in America under the p.c. blanket and most Americans are too apathetic to notice. Sooner or later there will be a battle.

Well I at least hope there will be. Hate too see the wrong side win. Freedom needs to be valued, always.

12 posted on 12/19/2004 10:13:39 PM PST by lizma
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To: All

It's so funny how Christians and Jews have been coming together in the past decades, with unprecedented cooperation in the recent years with Israel/American relations at a high point and with typical average Jews and Christians getting along and defending one another. It makes me proud to be an American, and this is EXACTLY what the founding fathers had in mind when they wrote the first amendment. GOD bless America :-D


13 posted on 12/19/2004 10:19:30 PM PST by edmond246 (*With that much B.S. you've gotta flush both the Johns*)
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To: Alouette
"Shhh, let's not make too much noise."

Yes I do believe that is it. And I cannot say I blame them entirely, these are mostly the 1st generation born after the Holocaust. They don't want to draw attention to themselves.

But, they are losing the essence of being Jewish in the process of hiding it. No need to fear, what will be will be. Meanwhile, live as you are and do good deeds.

14 posted on 12/19/2004 11:05:06 PM PST by monkeyshine
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To: sarasmom; wardaddy; FreedomSurge

ping


15 posted on 12/19/2004 11:22:02 PM PST by rmlew (Copperheads and Peaceniks beware! Sedition is a crime.)
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To: Lindykim; DirtyHarryY2K; Siamese Princess; Ed Current; Grampa Dave; Luircin; gonow; John O; ...

Moral Absolutes Ping.

Some people don't want signs of Christmas; some don't want signs of Chanuka.

The real question is: Can a person - or SHOULD a person - keep his spiritual identity separate from his public or civic identity?

I think the questions is answer at the end of the article.

Let me know if anyone wants ON/OFF or BACK ON this list.*

*I lost most of the names on the pinglist a few days ago...sniff!


16 posted on 12/19/2004 11:29:05 PM PST by little jeremiah (The "Gay Agenda" exists only in the minds of little jeremiah and his cohort. - Modern Man)
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To: Alouette

Chabad has definitely been the leader in getting Menorah's in public places. I've seen this through the years. If nothing else, this is good for Jewish children who feel left out at Christmas time.


17 posted on 12/19/2004 11:34:55 PM PST by dennisw (Help put the "Ch" back in Chanukah)
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To: Thinkin' Gal

Keep your eye on the matzah ball.


18 posted on 12/19/2004 11:37:00 PM PST by Lijahsbubbe
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To: Alouette
One retired lawyer, who had grown up in the depression, said, "Why put up the menora? You will wake up anti-Semitism." The rest, mostly younger, did not share his view.

Come Christmas time, the scummy ACLU with it's secular Jewish lawyers wakes up anti Semitism. Right or wrong, the ACLU is perceived as Jewish outfit that is a prime mover removing public Christianity and promoting homosexuality and atheism to replace it

19 posted on 12/19/2004 11:41:25 PM PST by dennisw (Help put the "Ch" back in Chanukah)
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To: Alouette

"Okay... This is a song that uhh.. There's a lot of Christmas songs out there and uhh.. not too many Hanukkah songs. So uhh...I wrote a song for all those nice little Jewish kids who don't get to hear any Hanukkah songs. Here we go..."

Put on your yarmulke,
Here comes Hanukkah!
So much funukah,
To celebrate Hanukkah!
Hanukkah is the festival of lights.
Instead of one day of presents, we have eight crazy nights.

When you feel like the only kid in town
Without a Christmas tree,
Here's a list of people who are Jewish just like you and me:

David Lee Roth lights the menorah.
So do James Caan, Kirk Douglas, and the late Dinah Shore-ah.

Guess who eats together at the Carnegie Deli?
Bowser from Sha Na Na and Arthur Fonzarelli!
Paul Newman's half Jewish, Goldie Hawn's half too.
Put them together, what a fine lookin' Jew.

You don't need "Deck The Halls" or "Jingle Bell Rock",
'Cause you can spin a dreidel with Captain Kirk
and Mr. Spock -- both Jewish.

Put on your yarmulke
It's time for Hanukkah
The owner of the Seattle Supersonicahs
Celebrates Hanukkah

O.J. Simpson - not a Jew.
But guess who is? Hall of famer Rod Carew -- he converted
We got Ann Landers and her sister Dear Abby.
Harrison Ford's a quarter Jewish -- not too shabby!

Some people think that Ebenezer Scrooge is
Well he's not, but guess who is -- All Three Stooges!
So many Jews are in showbiz,
Tom Cruise isn't - but I heard his agent is.

Tell your friend Veronica
It's time to celebrate Hanukkah.
I hope I get a harmonicah
Oh this lovely, lovely Hanukkah.
So drink your gin and tonicah
And smoke your marijuanikah.
If you really, really wannakah
Have a happy, happy, happy, happy Hanukkah!
Happy Hanukkah!"


20 posted on 12/19/2004 11:43:26 PM PST by RichInOC (...you don't have to be Jewish to like Adam Sandler.)
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