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Public Menorahs

In 1989, the County of Allegheny with the support of Chabad defended itself in court all the way to the United States Supreme Court from the ACLU in County of Allegheny v. ACLU over the display of a public Menorah owned by Chabad.

The city of Burlington, Vermont denied the local Chabad chapter, headed by Chabad Rabbi Yitzchok Raskin permission to erect a Menorah in the city’s main park during Chanukah. Raskin appealed the decision on two occasions after an initial hearing in 1987 found the display to be unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The ACLU assisted the city of Burlington in a final appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1991, and the Menorah ban was upheld.

A similar case occurred in Chicago in 1990, and the court found the same way, as did a court in Iowa in 1986. Another similar case in Cincinnati had the same judgement, as did a case in Georgia.

A similar case in White Plains led to the Common Council unanimously rejecting the display of a Menorah in a public space in the town with the support of many Jews, affirming a local tradition of keeping parks free of religious and political displays.

In 1988, the American Jewish Congress produced a 28-page report, entitled “The Year of the Menorah”, criticising Chabad’s Menorah campaign and the litigation that went with it. It complained of the increase in the number of Menorahs placed on public lands, arguing that it was causing tension both within the Jewish community and with non-Jews.

In 2002 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Chabad of Southern Ohio was entitled to light an 18-foot Menorah in Cincinnati’s Fountain Square. Justice John Paul Stevens ruled that the city could not ban the Chanukiah and other religious displays from the square.

SeaTac Airport

In December 2006 a controversy emerged after Chabad Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky complained that the SeaTac Airport was displaying a Christmas Tree but not a Menorah. In response to this complaint the airport management removed the tree, and Bogomilsky was widely criticised in the press for “having the tree removed”. After considerable press and TV news coverage, the tree was replaced.

Chabad’s “War on Christmas”

A controversy regarding these issues arose in 2002, when the New York City public school system banned the display of Nativity scenes, but allowed the display of supposedly less overtly religious symbols such as Christmas trees (which they called “Holiday trees”), Hanukkah menorahs, and the Muslim star and crescent. Such a policy angered many, including commentator Bill O’Reilly, who in 2006 said such a policy was “anti-Christian.”

Comment from Truth Uncensored Africa: The Whitehouse displays a very large menorah on its grounds beside the Christmas tree every year.