Religious Symbols: ‘Tis the Season for Contention

In Downey’s Civic Center, Mary, Joseph and the Three Wise Men are huddled around the manger. They always show up this time of year, whether the American Civil Liberties Union likes it or not.

In Beverly Hills, a giant menorah, symbol of Hanukkah, stands vigil across the street from City Hall. Gentiles may be surprised to learn that many Jews have objected.

In Santa Monica, a menorah placed inside the City Hall lobby was ordered removed. A dreidel, judged to be constitutionally kosher, was put in its place.

And in Los Angeles, symbols representing both Christmas and Hanukkah have been shut out of the City Hall rotunda for the first time in years. Instead, a Christmas tree and menorah can be found outside. New policy, the bureaucrats explain.

All of which adds up to a peculiar aside to celebrations of the holy holidays. ‘Tis the season not only for worship, for family and friends and for spending money, but ‘tis the season for contention.

The separation of church and state is getting its annual testing. Although the courts have laid down a set of guidelines that allow certain types of holiday-oriented displays on certain types of public property, the debate persists, stirring the passions of faith and principle.

In San Diego, hundreds of callers recently deluged city officials and Jewish leaders--including dozens of blatantly anti-Semitic messages--after the city attorney issued a ruling that would have forced cancellation of a traditional display of a life-sized Nativity scene at Balboa Park after this year. The city attorney’s ruling, prompted by inquiries from the Jewish Community Relations Committee, was recently modified to allow the creche to be displayed if other cultural and religious symbols could be displayed along with it, including a menorah.

This season in Los Angeles County, the controversies have not generated such intensity. Although there have been no significant recent developments, the ACLU has two cases pending in Los Angeles County, one against Downey for its traditional creche display, another against Los Angeles for displaying a menorah in the City Hall rotunda. The case against Los Angeles “may be moot” because of the city’s new policy, the ACLU’s Carol Sobel said.

The biggest running debate, it seems, is within the Jewish community.

On one side is the Orthodox Jewish order, Chabad Lubavitch, which has sponsored several menorah-lighting ceremonies this Hanukkah, which ends Wednesday. On the other, is a coalition of secular Jewish organizations that have taken a hard-line position on the separation of church and state, more stringent than advocated by the courts.

In a letter widely distributed to elected officials in November, the American Jewish Congress, the Community Relations Committee of the American Jewish Federation, the Jewish Labor Committee and the Anti-Defamation League urged that government bodies shun religious displays,.

A firm separation of church and state will maintain the freedom of religion guaranteed under the First Amendment, said Esther Shapiro, a spokeswoman for the coalition.

Allowing religious statues or symbols on public property, their letter said, “constitutes a dedication of the premises to one sect or creed at the exclusion of others.”

The placement of religious symbols, they said, “divides the community along religious lines and brings about both interreligious and intra-religious disharmony.”

The Jewish Chabad synagogues believe that letter itself stirred disharmony. The orthodox group has made a campaign of public menorah lightings on public lands as a demonstration of the Jewish faith. Chabad groups set up the menorahs in Beverly Hills, on the 1st Street steps of Los Angeles City Hall and in Long Beach, Torrance and elsewhere.

For Jews to oppose such displays “does not do justice to the Jewish cause,” declared Rabbi Eli Hecht of the Chabad of the South Bay. “Non-Jewish people are wondering why Jewish people are doing this. It’s amazing.”

The opposing groups, Hecht said, are “uncomfortable being Jewish. . . . The more secular you are, the more sensitive you are to religious publicity. They have subconscious guilt feelings.”

Responding to Hecht’s remarks, Shapiro pointed out that the coalition had sponsored a public menorah-lighting on private land at a Jewish community center.

“We have no objections to visible candle-lighting ceremonies in malls, shopping centers on street corners. We have no objection to menorah,” she said. “We do object it being displayed on public property.”

In Downey, meanwhile, the creche has prompted little debate this year.

Last year, complaints from the ACLU prompted the Nativity display to be moved from the City Hall lawn to another strip of city property nearby, which was soon thereafter designated as a park. The creche had been displayed on the City Hall lawn for more than 20 years.

The decision illustrated a key distinction made by the courts. Religious symbols are forbidden on city administrative property but allowed in parks, which are considered public forums. Similarly, the 1st Street steps of Los Angeles City Hall have been held by the courts to be a public forum, thus allowing the menorah display.

In Santa Monica, the issue was both a matter of what symbols were on display and where.

After the annual Christmas tree was put up in the City Hall lobby, city employees Marci Simmons and Annette Wozniak put up a menorah for Hanukkah.

But City Atty. Robert Myers ordered that it come down, saying that religious symbols are forbidden in administration buildings. In contrast to menorahs, the courts have held Christmas trees to be cultural symbols.

When Deputy City Atty. Jeffrey Holzman heard about the decision, he proposed a cultural counterpart to the Christmas tree: the dreidel, the spinning top that is a popular toy in Hebrew culture. Holzman, secretary Nicole Levine and the others fashioned a cardboard dreidel and put it on display.

The results have been positive, Simmons said.

“It made people curious. They get to find out about our holiday as well,” she said. “It made everybody a lot closer.”

In Los Angeles, any controversy over holiday displays inside City Hall ended Sept. 29 when, the City Council adopted a policy of allowing only city departments to mount displays in the rotunda.

Greg Wilkins, a city official who handled bookings for the rotunda, said the policy was adopted after controversy arose over previous displays.

He said that Councilman Ernani Bernardi asked for new rules in November, 1986, after a photographic display of warfare in Central America portrayed the strife as “Reagan’s war.”