Posted on 12/11/2006 5:52:47 PM PST by Mr. Mulliner
Well here we go again. It is so utterly predictable. Like clockwork. It’s December and time for another skirmish in the annual battle against Christmas. What compels me to comment is that this time it's not the usual secular fanatic who's responsible for doing things that evict Christianity from the culture. No, on this sad and alarming occasion it's a deeply religious, well-intentioned rabbi who has unwittingly stumbled into a situation that will place his denomination (and mine) —Orthodox Judaism— in a terrible, negative light.
For at least ten years, Sea-Tac Airport near Seattle has displayed several large, beautifully decorated Christmas trees each December. With lawyer in tow, a local rabbi recently threatened to sue the Port of Seattle if the airport didn't add a Chanukah menorah to the holiday display.
Yielding to the ultimatum was not an option for airport management, skittish at the best of times since 9-11. Understandably, they interpreted the rabbi’s threat as only the first. It would not be hard to imagine Seattle’s Islamic community stepping forward with their own lawyer to demand a Moslem symbol be included as well.
With deft turn of phrase, Sea-Tac public affairs manager Terri-Ann Betancourt explained that at the busiest travel time of the year, while Sea-Tac was focused on getting passengers through the airport, she and her staff didn’t have time “to play cultural anthropologists.”
Threatening a lawsuit, I feel, violates the Jewish principle known in Hebrew as Kiddush HaShem, interpreted in the Talmud, part of ancient Jewish wisdom, as an action that encourages people to admire Jews. One need only read the comments on the Internet following the news accounts of the tree removal, to know that most people are feeling indignant and hurt. They certainly are not feeling more warmly toward Jews as a result of this mess.
Here I disclose that I know the rabbi involved, am friendly with him, and am sure that he didn’t intend this outcome. I like him, which makes it painful for me to point out that when one throws a punch (which is what bringing a lawyer and threatening to sue is equivalent to) and one gets decked in return, one cannot plead that one didn’t intend that outcome.
The outcome, whether intended or not, is that now vast numbers of passengers, most of whom are probably Christian, will be deprived of the cheerful holiday sight of pretty Christmas trees. What is more, they will know that their deprivation was caused by a Jewish rabbi. The rabbi’s lawyer told a television reporter, “There is a concern here that the Jewish community will be portrayed as the Grinch.”
No, Mr. Lawyer, it is not that Jews will be “portrayed” as the grinch. Sadly, now we are the grinch. You made us the grinch.
Now what is to be done? I have three requests:
I am asking every reader of this column to sign a petition on the Toward Tradition website beseeching Sea-Tac management to restore the Christmas trees.
I am asking every reader of this column to forward it to others who might be willing to sign this petition.
I am asking Jews in the Puget Sound region to join national radio host, Michael Medved, and me in offering our volunteer labor to Sea-Tac. We hope they will allow us to provide the labor necessary for replacing the trees so that airport staff need not be deflected from their important duties.
You can cancel your hissy fit now.
I love the Christmas season....it's my favorite time of year and since I don't celebrate it, it's easier to appreciate the sights, sounds and smells of the holiday. I'll take one day to go into the city and see the decorations and everyone scurrying around to get all their shopping done. Do I wish I were a part of it? Yes and no...but it makes me feel good and isn't that important, too?
Admiration for those you bow down to, BS, I think you're lying.
Like it or not, there are thousands of Menorahs displayed throughout the US and the world.
That ruins your Christmas?
I suppose you could wear dark glasses, maybe you won't see them, but I find your attitude and the attitude of your fellows in arms odd.
Nothing to do with the 9th, this issue has been settled for decades. Publicly funded displays can't favor one religion and bar another. Sea-tac would have lost.
Aren't you being a bit dramatic? We had an idiot rabbi, bigger idiots at the airport, and now the whole matter has been reversed. I hope everyone learned a lesson about freedom of religion: the Founders meant to have MORE not less.
Yes, but the display of a Christmas tree is not "an establishment of religion" in the constitutional meaning of those terms. A tree displayed does not make the Episcopalians, Congregationalists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Catholics, or Quakers the official government church which is what "establishment" means. Trees do not rise to a constitutional issue relating to "establishment" of religion, an inter-denominational issue. The idea that the Constitution refers to promoting secularism over Christianity is an invention of 20th-century secular humanist extremists.
The idea that the Constitution intended to protect people from being offended by seeing Christmas symbols is the product of borderline mental illness.
i don't care if the trees are back up. the threat with the legal gorilla was made.
it will not be forgotten.
i guess any opinion with which you do not agree is a hissy fit?
when the self-righteous hand out insults there's this hollow sound with no substance behind it.
your sand box is calling.
i don't care if the trees are back up. the threat with the legal gorilla was made.
it will not be forgotten.
i guess any opinion with which you do not agree is a hissy fit?
when the self-righteous hand out insults there's this hollow sound with no substance behind it.
your sand box is calling.
Wow.
Just, wow.
being a bit dramatic? was not the rabbi being a bit dramatic? are trees with decorations a threat to someone's well being? were any threats made? was someone else's desire to recognize a holiday somehow incorrect and to be considered in bad taste?
bigger idiots at the airport you say? should they have genuflected in the face of such secular power? the problem is that they considered it a nuisance and not worth the bother. you don't like the power being considered a nuisance, do you? any one with an opinion different from yours is beneath contempt.
the founders meant to have more, not less. so now your all-encompassing wisdom speaks for the founding fathers. it's no wonder that the arrogance drips from your message.
Happy Birth of Jesus Day to you!
"apparently, some people were so much against it, that they decided to take the trees down instead of allowing a menorah to be shown in public."
it's a little tiring to continually hear accusations of anti-semitism veiled in such a cute way. one would think there was a little anti-christianity in the original complaint or is it ridiculous to think such a thing. maybe i should be reported to the thought police.
a bunch of secularists, hiding behind religion, screaming anti-semitism and not taking any responsibility for the apparent hint at intolerance of anything christian.
I am one Catholic who finds the Channukah story to be part of the religious heritage of us all. The story is well worth reading in Maccabees even for those reformed Christians who reject Maccabees as apocrypha. We should all hope to behave as well under persecution of our faith as did the brothers Maccabee. The Channukkah story is one which is of the miracles of G-d and also is an example of religious resistance to governmental hatred of G-d.
I am one Catholic who finds the Channukah story to be part of the religious heritage of us all. The story is well worth reading in Maccabees even for those reformed Christians who reject Maccabees as apocrypha. We should all hope to behave as well under persecution of our faith as did the brothers Maccabee. The Channukkah story is one which is of the miracles of G-d and also is an example of religious resistance to governmental hatred of G-d.
Rabbi Daniel Lapin wrote the article at the beginning of this thread for the wonderful Orthodox Jewish group Toward Tradition. Michael Medved, for those unfamiliar with him, is a Yale alumnus who is a very conservative layman and radio talk show host and movie reviewer. Don Feder is also affilated with Toward Tradition.
Finally, the Christmas trees are going back up with an offer of volunteer labor by Seattle/Tacoma area Orthodox Jews including Michael Medved and the earnest plea from Toward Tradition that they go back up. Hopefully there will be a Menorah next year. Hopefully, Catholics and other Christians will be present in prayerful respect when the Menorah is lighted if that is acceptable to the Jewish community. Those who cannot be present physically should be present spiritually via prayer.
I said the rabbi is an idiot who should be driven from town. The airport idiots should have told him to go f**k himself. But they didn't. The rest of your comment is just unintelligible. What arrogance? What is your point? You don't seem to have one.
The extremism of these anti-Christmas types is phenomenal. A Christmas tree is not even a religious symbol in the way that a Hannukiah (menorah) is. The menorah commemorates the Jewish God's miraculous provision of sanctified oil when the Temple was cleansed after Antiochus Epimanes (nee Epihanes) was given the boot. The Christmas tree commemorates hot chocolate and wooden drummer boys. Suing over Christmas trees is like demanding removal of Dreidles or Latkes from the airport.
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