In Shift, Pasadena Mall Allows Menorah

Facing a firestorm of controversy, a Pasadena shopping mall on Thursday reversed its decision to banish a Hanukkah menorah display while allowing a 30-foot Christmas tree to tower over the open-air promenade.

Now both symbols will help celebrate the holidays at Paseo Colorado, a 65-store upscale mall a block south of City Hall.

“A wrong has been righted,” said Rabbi Chaim Hanoka, leader of a congregation that for the last three years has erected a 13-foot menorah at the mall but was denied permission to do so this season. “From a business perspective, it was probably a wise decision on their part.”

A few weeks ago, the mall told Hanoka, who heads the 300-member congregation Chabad of Pasadena, that the menorah would not be permitted because it is a religious symbol. The decision caused talk of a boycott and drew rebukes from area Jewish and Christian leaders because the mall said the Christmas tree was not religious in nature.

Colleen Dunn, regional general manager of Developers Diversified Realty, which manages Paseo Colorado, said Thursday in a prepared statement that her company had changed its mind and would allow the menorah.

The mall is a cultural hub in the community, the statement said, “and we realize the importance of diversity on all fronts.”

The menorah is expected to be set up Monday. Because transferring it from storage is cumbersome, it probably can’t be done before then, Hanoka said. Hanukkah begins at sundown Sunday.

Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard, who tried to mediate the dispute, expressed relief over the mall’s decision. “I’m delighted,” he said. “They were holding to their guns a week ago. I think it’s important for Pasadena to demonstrate its diversity.”

Two people who monitor religious expression across the nation said before Thursday’s announcement that banishing the menorah was highly unusual.

“I have never heard of this. Normally at this time of year, malls are trying to be inclusive, not exclusive,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of the nonprofit Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C.-based group.

“I haven’t heard of a serious complaint like this,” said Florida attorney Mathew Staver, who has extensive experience in litigating religious-expression issues. “I would not doubt for a moment that consumers are more upset by [the mall’s ban] than they would be if they saw the menorah there.”

Staver said such a prohibition probably could not be challenged legally, however, because courts have determined that owners of private property such as malls “can do what they want” with holiday decorations.

Hanoka said he and other local religious leaders disagreed strongly with the mall’s argument that Christmas trees are nonreligious holiday accouterments. “It’s called a ‘Christmas’ tree,” he said. “How can you tell me it’s not religious?”

The Rev. Canon J. Edwin Bacon of All Saints Church in Pasadena said it makes little sense to display a Christian-oriented symbol in a public place while rejecting a non-Christian religion’s seasonal representation.

“This is a season of gift-giving,” the Episcopal rector said. “Why not give the gift of respect of another religion?”