For the second year in a row, this normally serene university town at the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains is embroiled in a dispute over holiday symbols.while Hawaii grabs its ankles:
The controversy, similar to recent wrangling over Christmas trees at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, centers on the refusal by Fort Collins to allow a menorah to be displayed downtown during Hanukkah, near a Christmas tree and other Christmas displays.
In November 2005, Rabbi Yerachmiel Gorelik of the Chabad Jewish Center of Northern Colorado asked the city to place a nine-foot menorah near a Santa’s workshop display in Old Town Square, a popular gathering spot surrounded by shops, art galleries, restaurants and bars.
Despite a dustup in Seattle over whether Christmas trees and menorahs have a place in that city's airport, both were put up this season at airports throughout the Hawaiian islands without controversy.OK, lets get this argument over with.
"In light of everything that's going on, we thought it was a good idea to approach the state ... and see if we can put the menorahs up there. And we got a very, very favorable response," said Rabbi Itchel Krasnjansky, director of Chabad of Hawaii.
The national Chabad organization has put up menorahs in public places throughout the country, including one in Waikiki, which Gov. Linda Lingle was to help light Saturday night to celebrate Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish festival of lights.
A Menorah is a religious symbol and a sacramental. Candles are lit. Jews pray over it. Desecrate a menorah and jews will cry.
Christmas trees are decor, and are thrown in the trash or rendered into mulch by the millions every year.
Christmas is a national holiday.
Hanukkah is a religious observance, and a rather insignificant one at that.
Christmas celebrants out number Hanukkah worshippers by about 50-1. If jews dont like it, they can always move to Israel, and put up all the menorahs they want (and still be on land supported by the American taxpayer) or retreat quietly to their synagogues where we dont have to listen to them. Maybe they could practice some of that tolerance they keep demanding of the rest of us?
Christmas has long and deep roots in American cultural history. Jews need to respect that, and stop demanding their own religious displays on taxpayer supported property.
3 comments:
Gino, seriously, this is beyond the pale. You need to know that using words like "Jewhadist" reflects very poorly on you.
what term of irreverancy would you use for a type of jew waging a relgious struggle for relevence?
the holiday they want publically celebrated it not about tolerance. it stems from victory in a war against those who were not like them, to drive away the outsiders who believed differently than their 'true' way.
they would shudder in horror if the trees were replaced with truly religous symbols, like a crucifix, next their menorah. try it, and see just how accepting and tolerant they really want to be.
it stems from victory in a war against those who were not like them, to drive away the outsiders who believed differently than their 'true' way
Ummm...Antiochus of Syria came down, invaded, killed thousands of people, and declared himself God. If you want to fault the Jews for a lack of tolerance of of Antiochus' spiritual beliefs...well, all righty then.
It does not matter that the vast majority of Americans celebrate Christmas and only a tiny fraction celebrate Hanukkah. Please refer to our Constitutional e-expert Little Cicero, who I am sure can explain to you that the government is, and has been from the beginning, prohibited from making explicit endorsements of any religion. The Supreme Court continues to hold this view.
The reason is not because liberals are trying to use the government to stamp out religion; it's there for the protection of religion. Our founding fathers remembered all too well what happened for centuries in Europe with official state religions: millions of people died; in England for over a century people kept dying everytime the monarchy went back and forth between reformed leaders and catholics. We actually don't need to look back three hundred years to see why this is so bad. Let's look at the middle east today, where government and religion are often inseparably entwined. That's a BAD thing, for a variety of reasons.
Jewish people, being a minority, have every right to be vocal about making sure that their faith is not politely disappeared even by innocuous acts like Christmas trees in public spaces.
By the way, Jesus would have celebrated hanukkah.
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