Town Denies Jewish Group’s Request to Display Menorah

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New Hampshire officials are under fire for denying a 10-foot-tall (3-meter) menorah to be displayed next to a tree decorated annually at a local park.

Town Administrator Todd Selig said the local Chabad Jewish organization asked for the menorah to be put next to the tree, but town officials said no, citing vandalism concerns.

“The fact that the city allows for some to publicly express their culture is a good thing, and we hope that continues,” Rabbi Berel Slavaticki of the University of New Hampshire and Seacoast Chabad Jewish Center said in a statement. “To stop people from openly expressing their particular faith seems un-American and would be a terrible loss for our town and our country.”

“Not allowing a menorah for fear of anti-Semitism only emboldens and enables those who hate,” he said. “After all, that’s exactly what they’d want to see; our menorah not allowed.”

Read more at NY Times.

{Matzav.com}


7 COMMENTS

    • Although many great people agree with you, and even Chabad might admit that too, they also consider the outreach they accomplish with these displays.

      While their opinion differs from others on this, they may counter that the good they do with these lightings outweighs the bad. And this stems from their own leadership, who tells them that it is the correct thing to do.

    • Actually, Haimy is correct and you are not. We only light in our homes or in shul. The shittah that one can light other than those two places (ie. Public menorah lighting) is limited to the Lubavitcher Rebbe zt”l and R’ Binyamin Zilber zt”l

    • “Your the biggest idiot I have met.
      Learn hilchos Chanukah about persumei Nisa.”

      Hilchos Chanukah aside, a little shmiras halashon learning may not be a bad idea for you.

  1. I hope you live a long life and get to understand what a true idiot is.

    Please note that the halacha is that private individuals have an obligation to light, and we customarily also light in shuls.

    There is no obligation to go to Non Jewish places and light menorahs, which is why no one other than Lubavitch does this.

    As stated, there are certainly reasons why Lubavitch feels that they are doing good in these lightings, but many others disagree, and they certainly are in line with Jewish history, because it has never been done. It is certainly not required by halacha.

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