Public menorahs

Chabad-Lubavitch's campaign to place Chanukah menorahs in public places since 1974, and the legal and communal disputes it provoked

Public menorahs are large Chanukah menorahs that Chabad-Lubavitch puts up and lights in public squares and outside government buildings. The practice began in 1974 as part of the Rebbe's Chanukah campaign. In the United States it led to a series of First Amendment cases, including the Supreme Court decision County of Allegheny v. ACLU (1989), in which Chabad was a petitioner. It also caused a long dispute with other American Jewish organisations, which opposed religious symbols on government property.

Origins and growth (Chabad-side)

According to Chabad.org, in December 1973 the Rebbe said that "when a Jew kindles a menorah, literal light emanates from it and illuminates the street". It presents public menorahs as part of "the worldwide Chanukah awareness campaign spearheaded by the Rebbe". It says Chabad-Lubavitch lights "more than 15,000 menorahs in public squares around the world". Chabad.org's history of the campaign describes its early years:

• In 1974 Rabbi Abraham Shemtov lit a 4-foot wooden menorah in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
• In 1975 a 22-foot menorah, paid for by the promoter Bill Graham, went up in San Francisco's Union Square.
• In 1979 President Jimmy Carter lit the shamash of a menorah near the White House. Shemtov had arranged it with Stuart Eizenstat.

The Philadelphia Inquirer dated the Philadelphia lighting to 14 December 1974. It described it as "what is believed to be the first menorah, or Hanukkah candelabrum, ever illuminated on public property".

The Teaneck, New Jersey, Jewish Community Council objected to a proposed menorah in 1981. In reply the Rebbe wrote that the public menorah "has been an inspiration to many, many Jews". He said it was "fully in keeping with the American national slogan 'e pluribus unum'". On its legality he wrote: "That it was also constitutional, legal and proper goes without saying since the President of the U.S. personally participated in it."

Opposition from Jewish organisations

In the 1980s the main opponents of Chabad's public menorahs were other Jewish organisations. JTA wrote in 1988 that "Chabad's adversaries have been and continue to be Jewish groups and Jewish lawyers". Marc Stern of the American Jewish Congress (AJCongress) said that it had written to the Rebbe "offering help to place menorahs on private property, as did the Anti-Defamation League and Jewish federations". He added: "We never had the courtesy of a response." Steve Freeman of the ADL said that "the best way to preserve the rights of any religious minority is to ensure that no religious displays are located on government property". The Chabad spokesman Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky replied: "I don't think anyone has the right to tell anyone what to do."

In Los Angeles in 1985, the city attorney moved Rabbi Boruch Shlomo Cunin's lighting from the City Hall rotunda to the outside steps. The Los Angeles Times reported that the American Jewish Committee, the AJCongress and the ADL "remained unhappy" that the lighting would still take place on public property. Neil Sandberg of the American Jewish Committee said: "We admire Rabbi Cunin and we really wish he would do it on private property, so we could join him."

Chabad.org (Chabad-side) describes this as "significant resistance—particularly from certain sectors of the 'Jewish establishment' and from the ACLU".

Litigation

County of Allegheny v. ACLU (1989)

Status: US Supreme Court ruling; the menorah display was upheld. In Pittsburgh in 1986 an 18-foot menorah stood outside the City-County Building, beside the city's 45-foot Christmas tree and a sign headed "Salute to Liberty". The Court recorded that "The menorah is owned by Chabad, a Jewish group, but is stored, erected, and removed each year by the city". It noted that "Chabad was permitted to intervene to defend the display of its menorah". The Court described Chabad as "an organization of Hasidic Jews who follow the teachings of a particular Jewish leader, the Lubavitch Rebbe". Chabad's case was argued by Nathan Lewin.

On 3 July 1989 the Court ruled that the county's crèche inside the courthouse was unconstitutional. It reversed the Third Circuit on the menorah. Justice Blackmun concluded that "the menorah display does not have the prohibited effect of endorsing religion, given its 'particular physical setting'". In the same opinion he wrote that the mayor's sign confirmed "that the display of the menorah is not an endorsement of religious faith but simply a recognition of cultural diversity". Justice Kennedy, joined by three other justices, concurred in the result on the menorah but would also have upheld the crèche.

The American Jewish Committee and the AJCongress filed amicus briefs urging affirmance, that is, against the displays. JTA had reported before the hearing that the ADL would act "as co-counsel along with the ACLU".

Kaplan v. City of Burlington (2d Cir. 1989)

Status: appeal court ruling against the display. A Reform rabbi, a Unitarian minister and a local lawyer challenged the City of Burlington's permit allowing the Vermont Organization of Jewish Education–Lubavitch to display a menorah in City Hall Park. The Second Circuit described the issue as "the unattended, solitary display on public property of an obviously religious symbol". Applying Allegheny, it held that "the display of the menorah in this case is unconstitutional". It reversed the district court, which had allowed the display. One judge dissented.

Chabad-Lubavitch of Georgia v. Miller (11th Cir. 1993, en banc)

Status: appeal court ruling in Chabad's favour. In 1990 Georgia's Attorney General advised that Chabad's planned eight-day menorah display at the State Capitol would breach the Establishment Clause, and the State did not allow the eight-day display. Chabad then sued. The en banc Eleventh Circuit rejected the State's argument that it needed to refuse the display to avoid an Establishment Clause violation: "We conclude that no such interest is present in this case." The court described the appellant as "the local affiliate of Chabad-Lubavitch". Nathan Lewin was again counsel.

Later cases (Chabad-side account)

Chabad.org credits Lewin with "successfully litigat[ing] dozens of cases" and names three more:

• Flamer v. White Plains (1993), in which Judge Sonia Sotomayor ruled that "the City may not deny Rabbi Flamer a permit to erect a fixed free-standing menorah in a City park during the Chanukah holiday because of the menorah's religious message";
• the 2002 Cincinnati Fountain Square case, in which Justice John Paul Stevens, according to Chabad.org, allowed the menorah "given the square's historic character as a public forum";
• "significant victories" in Atlanta and Grand Rapids.

Editor's note: the Flamer and Cincinnati rulings are quoted here only as Chabad.org reports them. This page has not yet checked the judgments themselves (Flamer v. City of White Plains, S.D.N.Y. 1993; Chabad of Southern Ohio v. City of Cincinnati, 233 F. Supp. 2d 975 (S.D. Ohio 2002) and 537 U.S. 1501 (2002)). It also has not found JTA's or other press coverage of the Burlington case, or how the Burlington ruling stands after later Supreme Court decisions.

See also

• Kapparot
• Eruv
• Mitzvah campaigns
• Agudas Chasidei Chabad
• Chabad and Trump