Word: menorahs
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...other cases in which decisions are pending includes an important church-state dispute from Pittsburgh focusing on holiday displays of a Christmas Nativity scene and a Hanukkah menorah at government buildings...
...trees are up, the holiday lights are ablaze in towns across the country, and this week menorah candles will be burning in many a storefront and city square to celebrate Hanukkah. But at two public buildings in Pittsburgh there will be no creche and no holiday candelabrum this year. The religious symbols have been snuffed out as a result of a federal court decision, now on appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court, that has reignited the battle between forces % insisting on strict separation of church and state and those pressing for greater accommodation...
...Appeals halted a seven-year custom in downtown Pittsburgh. The seasonal Nativity scene, erected by the Holy Name Society of the Pittsburgh diocese, was barred from the Allegheny County courthouse, where it had adorned the grand staircase of the building's rotunda. Also banned was an 18-ft. menorah displayed a block away at the front of the City-County building and sponsored by Chabad, the national organization of Lubavitcher Hasidic Jews. "The city viewed the display as a nice gesture consistent with the holiday spirit," laments George Specter, one of Pittsburgh's attorneys. But last week the Supreme Court...
...within the right of any religion to express its beliefs publicly with the accommodation of the government," asserts Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky of Chabad. "Putting up menorahs is a sharing of values with others." Beyond Pittsburgh, his 100,000-member organization has been building menorahs from Washington's Ellipse to San Francisco's Union Square, almost anywhere a reindeer might be lurking. But most Jewish groups oppose the displays. Says Sam Rabinove, legal director of the American Jewish Committee: "We're all in favor of menorahs and creches, but not in public buildings." Mainstream Christian groups agree. "We consider the display...
Asked why he wanted to put a menorah in Harvard Square this year, Posner replied, "The question is, why not last year...