Word: menorahs
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...Dean Lewis has chosen to offend the College community a third time with his very practical decision to ban Hanukkah menorahs from student dormitory rooms. Let's follow his logic. This past December, a first-year creates a Rube Goldberg menorah from a three-hole punch. The candles topple. The desk and computer catch fire. Dean thinks, "What if other desks and computers catch on fire when irresponsible students create defective holiday contraptions? We must prevent all Jewish students from lighting menorahs...
This reasoning is truly practical, but it ignores all competing claims to the legitimacy of menorah lighting other than that of fire prevention. The foremost objection to the ban is that it limits religious freedom. Candle lighting is essential to the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah because it reminds Jewish people of their Maccabean ancestors' struggles to reclaim the Temple. By placing menorahs in their windows, Jews remind others of their past struggles against oppression and their determination to ensure freedom...
...Lewis, along with many in the Jewish community, have said that the candle lighting can be performed in house common rooms--public spaces which can be safely monitored. There is nothing wrong with this suggestion. In fact, it is already practiced in every house. But the issue of banning menorah use in student rooms should not be contingent on this public display. Student religious freedom in private cannot be limited by any public substitution because the public event is not delimited by personal beliefs, but by communal ones...
...serious fire that was life-threatening. It was not [caused by] a menorah, but it was an open candle," Hanson said. "I am in favor of a policy of not allowing open fire in any of our rooms...
...other side is that I am very much in favor of having a provision made for common room space [for] religious festivals, including the candles of a menorah," he added...