No Yom Kippur . . . No Christmas : W. Hollywood Tells Santa to Take a Hike

In their brief political careers, the members of West Hollywood’s first City Council have generated more than their share of controversy and endured more than their share of abuse.

But early Friday morning, they outdid themselves. They canceled Christmas.

Informed last week by the city attorney that a five-month-old city holiday ordinance violated constitutional protections against the separation of church and state, the council backed down on its attempt to make the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur a city holiday.

As its Thursday night session stretched on into Friday morning, the council--which has recently taken controversial stands in favor of tough rent controls and gay rights--voted to eliminate any city holidays with religious overtones.

As a result, the city government will operate not only on Yom Kippur, but on Christmas.

“The council decided that if they have to remove one religious holiday from the list, they would remove them all,” said City Atty. Michael Jenkins.

“The council is saying that all religious holidays are on the same footing,” explained City Manager Paul Brotzman. “We understand that the U.S. Supreme Court considers Christmas a secular holiday, but the council takes issue with that and views Christmas strictly as a religious holiday.”

Over at the fledgling city’s City Hall, employees already have begun referring to the council’s new holiday ordinance as “the Grinch Law.” An anonymous caller from Citizens for West Hollywood Shopping warned a city aide that members of the group would henceforth buy all their Christmas gifts in Beverly Hills stores.

And City Councilman Alan Viterbi, who started it all, was answering his phone Friday morning with more than a hint of dread. “I guess we’re the Grinches who stole Christmas, right?” he said.

Viterbi, an observant Jew, was the author of a law passed by the council last March that would have stopped all non-emergency city operations on Yom Kippur, the “Day of Atonement,” a holiday when observant Jews are expected to pray for forgiveness for past sins.

Jewish community leaders have estimated that at least a third of West Hollywood’s 35,000 residents are Jewish, many of them elderly or recent emigres from the Soviet Union.

“When I made the Yom Kippur proposal, I was trying to make sure that we weren’t having meetings and government operations on a day when a substantial part of the city wouldn’t have access,” Viterbi said.

Jewish Opposition

Ironically, not long after the council adopted Yom Kippur as an official holiday, several members of the local Jewish community began voicing their opposition to the law.

Ira Stein, an attorney who has complained about a number of the city’s new laws, wrote a letter to the city attorney, complaining that the law violated constitutional protections against separation of church and state. Stein threatened to sue the city over the issue.

Doug Mirell, also an attorney and regional vice president of the American Jewish Congress, warned that recent rulings by the California Supreme Court on separation of church and state issues would spell certain death for the Yom Kippur law if it were challenged in court.

Despite the vote, Viterbi said that city workers will still have the option of staying home on either holiday. City workers will be given 4 1/2 holiday days each year to use as they desire.

“It’s a floating holiday system,” Mayor John Heilman explained. Employees “can take Yom Kippur, Christmas Day, Hare Krishna day, whatever day they want.”