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.
Sheesh. Few things bring a smile like loud, happy, Jewish noise.
Put on your yarmulke
Its time for Hanukkah
So much funnaka
To celebrate Hanukkah
Hanukkah is the festival of lights
Instead of one day of presents
We get eight crazy nights
When you feel like the only kid in town
Without a Christmas tree
Here's a new list of people who are Jewish
Just like you and me
Winona Ryder,
Drinks Manischewitz wine
Then spins a draydle with Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein
Guess who gives and receives
Loads of Hanukkah toys
The girls from Veruca Salt and all three Beastie Boys
Lenny Kravitz is half Jewish,
Courtney Love is half too
Put them together
What a funky bad ass Jew
We got Harvey Keitel
And flash dancer Jennifer Beals
Yasmine Bleeth from Baywatch is Jewish
And yes her boobs are real
Put on your yarmulka
Its time for Hanukkah
2 time Ocsar winning Dustin Hoffmanaka
celebrates Hanukkah
O.J. Simpson
Still not a Jew
But guess who is,
The guy who does the voice for Scooby Doo
Bob Dylan was born a Jew
Then he wasn't
but now he's back,
Mary Tyler Moore's husband is Jewish
'Cause we're pretty good in the sack.
Guess who got bar-mitzvahed
On the PGA tour
No I'm not talking about Tiger Woods
I'm talkin' about Mr. Happy Gilmore.
So many Jews are in the show biz
Bruce Springsteen isn't
But my mother thinks he is.
Tell the world-amanaka
It's time for Hanukkah
It's not pronounced Ch-nakah
The C is silent in Hanukkah
So get your hooked on phonica
Get drunk in Tijuanaka
If you really really wannaka
Have a happy happy happy happy Hanukkah!
It's good for Christians, we love it. We like houses decked in blue lights too.
I like outdoor Christmas displays at homes. They get better each year with inflatable Santas and lit up reindeers with moving heads. Christ-child in manger scenes too. I like it all. (me being Jewish)
Did you ever notice that it is the trendy leftist "multiculturists" who are offended whenever Jews practice Jewish traditions and Christians practice Christian traditions? You have different communities of faith that are not "offended" by one-another and then step in angry "multiculturists" who claim they are "offended" thanks to their superior "sensitivity" and then the "multiculturists" demand that Jews stop being Jews, Christians stop being Christians, etc.
The reason some Jews want to keep menorahs off of public property is very simple -- if a menorah is acceptable, why not a creche? They are so determined to bar expressions of Christianity on public property that they are willing to bar expressions of Judaism, as well. At least they are being consistent. A "holiday" tree may be tolerated, though.
Well, here is one Christian that does not, repeat, does not find a public display of the menorah offensive, whether it is in the public square or in someone's yard. I wish all these "sensitive" "multiculturalists" who get "offended" when someone breaks wind the wrong way would hush up and go get a life! They want to try and remove God from everything except maybe in the private home or specific religious building (as long as no public displays). Feh, bunch of no-count carpetbaggers trying to finish Lenin's work for him! I'm still waiting to see if the ACLU and similar nests of vipers start kicking up a fuss when a Muslim display is put in a public place. Dollars to donuts I'll greatly age while I wait. It is only Christianity and Judaism that the ACLU and similar rodents want to silence.
It's more like the older Jew's in America still remember the religious discrimination from the 30's, 40's, and 50's.
Such as limits to the number of Jew's allowed in Ivy League universities. Or private golf clubs that were Judenrein.
They had to hide their Judaism to progress in their careers and fear that possibly broadcasting one's Jewishness might lead to another case of religious intolerance in America.
If you'd like to see a movie that does a very good job in highlighting American religious intolerance toward Jews in the 1940s, try the 'Gentleman's Agreement' produced in 1947 directed by Elia Kazan. It is about a newspaper reporter who pretends to be Jewish in hopes of getting a good news story.
Christian Protestors Face 47 Years in Jail for Encounter at 'Gay Pride' Event in Philadelphia
LOL! Oh, please. Let's not make too much noise, we're too humble and modest, but let's sue the hell out of this municipality? Again, please.
This has been a season of unprecedented cynicism, so I'll add my own cynical take--these litigious organizations oppose the menorah display because they need a legal ground to oppose any display of Christian symbols. And Christians hope that having menorahs displayed may bring more tolerance for Christian displays. We'll see how it all shakes out--and shakes down in court.
Ah, this old chestnut. When trotting it out for uber-sympathy among Americans, do keep in mind that you just might be talking to people who couldn't afford to go to school at all in this bright land of opportunity, and that they might laugh at "Gee, Dad couldn't get into the country club of his choice in America! Poor little me! "-I'm afraid this one doesn't break my heart in the least.
You're talking about exploiting the struggles of your ancestors to make pity points in the present? Well, I'd be happy to talk about my Cherokee forebears who picked up chestnuts along what is now the Blue Ridge Parkway in order to have enough money to buy a pair of shoes to go to school--in America.
Enough with the "Uncle Mo couldn't play golf with Episcopalians!" It's gotten very tiresome, particularly after having watched 76% of US Jews vote against the pro-Israel presidential candidate.
Still a schmuck I see.
Unfortunately, you are spot on.
I guess the difference is Homosexuals who attack Church goers are lifted up as heros, and Church goers get prison sentances a lot longer than murderers do.
It is called persicution in the dictionary, look under pogrom, the next step.
Your post sounds like the old canard - "It could be worse."
I'll admit, it could have been worse. Britain could have won the Revolutionary War. Or the South could have beaten the North. Or any number of scenarios.
Just because a circumstance isn't the worst evil imaginable doesn't give you an excuse to ignore it.
If something is wrong, then it should be corrected. EVEN IF IT COULD BE WORSE.
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