According to a report in the Poughkeepsie Journal, a judge this afternoon ordered the city of Poughkeepsie to allow the 22-foot menorah, displayed for years at the corner of Main Street and Civic Center Plaza to be erected there on Tuesday – by city workers after all.
As Yeshivaworld had reported HERE, city officials had refused to allow employees to erect the Chabad menorah at its traditional spot, citing potential litigation on constitutional church-state separation grounds.
The city instead offered to erect the menorah in a nearby city-owned lot together with x-mas trees & other holiday displays.
But Rabbi Yackov Borenstein of Chabad Mid-Hudson Valley today filed an order to show cause in state Supreme Court, asking Judge James D. Pagones to order the city to erect the menorah at its usual spot.
Pagones this afternoon ruled in Borenstein’s favor and city workers are expected to set up the menorah at its traditional location Tuesday morning. A lighting ceremony is set for 3:15 p.m. Tuesday.
Although the judge ordered the city to erect the Menorah this year, both sides are expected back in court in January to determine if the city will continue to do so in future years.
(YW-12)
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27 Responses
3:15 PM wow “zrizim makdimin l’mitzvos” they’re lighting before Chanukah even starts.
This is merely breeding Antisemitism!
MaMSh Moiridig! We won! We can have the symbol commemerating the victory, but is this a Torah way-of humility etc. that we won, or a Greek type of…???
Mammash a CHUTZPAH! The inyan of Chanukkah is pirsumei nisa NOT chillul Hashem. Who cares if there is a giant menorah in the middle of town? “A lighting ceremony is set for 3:15 p.m. Tuesday.” I didn’t realize the mitzvah of ner Chanukkah was during the day. Way to go Chabad!
Plag HaMinchah — in Brooklyn — is, according to one shitah, at 3:30. This is the earliest time to light there, providing the lights last the entire z’man. Perhaps “plag” is earlier there.
I am no fan of Chabad’s methods of kiruv. However, if the greatest problem in this generation, as has been suggested by Gedolei HaDor, is appreciating “attah b’chartanu,” then perhaps this will have some small effect. If one will take pride in his chosen-ness, one small step has been taken to dispel some of the darkness of this very long galus.
SDR-you obviously are not interested in the “greater good” are yopu living in your own little bubble and not care about yidden who may not be connected to true yiddishkeit? many times kiruv organizations have to show traditional things at an earlier time to spread the message of that yom tov.
a menora on a busy street is VERY NESSISARY for reaching our lost brothers.
you have CHUTZPA to talk down about a heiliga mitzva chabad is doing to reach out !
what have you done????
It’s a shame the Rebbe is (pardon the expression) dead. He would have declared today a yom simcha, replete with dancing and vodka and would declare a new didan natzach day i.e. another reason to party and not learn in 770. Tachanun would obviously not be said, and no doubt another boich fabregan explaining al pi kabalah how poughkeepsie is really gematria lubavitch and the previous Rebbe nasi dorainu once got lost in poughkeepsie and found his way and now we understand that he was fixing the klipos so the menorah can be lit etc….and the churban continues….
Will it be made out of Coca Cola tins?
Chaval!!!
this is a gr8 pirsumei nisa.
GoGO chabad. this wasn’t a war it a legal debate. people sew for mondane schtusim so for this it bit more understanding. plus now they will respect us more.
Kol hakavod to CHABAD! , in life as on the highway, there are drivers…. and then there are passengers….
If this were a battle to defend the right to light a menorah ‘al pi halocho’in one’s home,then a court fight would be legitimate. but THIS? this causes sin’as Yisroel! Who needs a menorah decration displayed on public property. If only mitzvohs were done according to halocho,we’d be OK. But this is MESHUGAS!
Maybe we should build Succos in public parks and burn chometz in the street,on the sidewalk instead on our own properties; and back yards. Why must people instigate hatred by doing unnecessary things that are foolish?
Proud KAJ-WH TIDE Guy,youobviously have no feelings for your lost brothers and sisters of klall yisroel.you should be embarresed of yourself to call klal work a MESHUGAS.
Was it really worth the fight?
you all sound like ‘tzaddikim in peltz’
keeping all the good for yourselves.
Can’t another yid enjoy and be made aware of the ness of chanuka?
And for all of you who are worried about the time that the lighting ceremony is to begin: The event is called for 3:15, that does not mean that the actual candle lighting will take place at 3:15.
And stam a deya, your hate is evident in every word you write, what you say is not even rational. It seems like there is no filter between your thoughts and mouth.
President Bush sent out a Chanuka greeting, is that going to increase in antisemitism?
Although it is the derech of Chabad to be “moisif ohr” and not to get into pilpulim, I feel that I must respond to some of the comments made, some of which were made out of pure ignorance, or plain sinah:
1)an ikur inyan in ner Chanukah is the inyan of pirsumei nisah
2)the lighting doesn’t take place at 3:15-there is a ceremony with divrei Torah and hisorrirus, music, Chanukah foods before, so the lighting doesn’t take place till much later
3)If you would know how many yidden came closer to Yiddishkeit from these public Menorah lightings, many of whom are today completely shomrei Torah U’mitzvos, you would never make those comments.
4)The Lubavitcher Rebbe knew more than any of us what the Jew “in the street” needs to come closer to Yiddishkeit, and shluchim all over the world have seen the tremendous totzo’os from these public Menorah lightings
5) as far as the pure nasty comments, I won’t even respond to them as “a little bit of light (will eventually) dispel(s) a lot of darkness”–
and those comments are simply sinas chinam and pure latzonus.
A Happy Chanukah to all and may we all be zoche to see the kindling of the Menorah in the Bais Hamikdosh this Chanukah with the coming of Moshiach now.
Rabbi Yacov Borenstein
Chabad of Mid Hudson Valley
[email protected]
Mr. Proud KAJ-WH TIDE Guy. Perhaps you should do a little thinking before you post.If this were a battle to defend the right to light a menorah ‘al pi halocho’in one’s home,then a court fight would be legitimate?????? SINCE WHEN IS A COURT DA’AS TORAH? + All you people yelling sinas yisroel causing anti semitisim I have 2 questions for you 1. What have you done for kiruv LATELY??
2. It seems the only Sinas yisroel and anti semtisim is coming from other yidden.
Glad to see we can all get along.
I am not saying I agree with all Chabadnik’s or their policies and procedures regarding kiruv. HOWEVER THEY HAVE BEEN DOING A DARN GOOD JOB FOR YEARS!! If you don’t appreciate the way they go about it DO IT YOURSELF!!!
AND TO THOSE WHO ARE BASHING THE REBBE AND FABRENGENS WHERE YOU SLEEPING MOTZEI SHABBOS SATMAR HAD @ HUGE FABRY”S ONE IN A MASSIVE TENT ON PIER @ ANDONE IN WILLY I SUPPOSE THE ONE ON PIER @ IS ALSO A CHILLUL, BIZUI, Or any kind of distasteful comment you wish to call it.
BTW MANY LITVISH GEDOLIM WENT TO THE “REBBE” WHEN HE WAS ALIVE!!!!!
I AM NOT HERE TO START A BANTERING SESSION AND PROB. WILL NOT REPLY ALL I CAN SAY IS B-4 YOU GOU AROUND BASHING ANY CHASSIDUS DO RESARCH…TONS OF IT….
I AM SURE IF YOU LOOK AROUND BY THE LITVISHE YOU CAN FIND TONS OF STUFF TO POKE FUN OF! IT’S ALL HOW YOU LOOK @ THE SITUATION!! Anyway A “Lichtegen Chanukah” and we should see the coming of moshiach speedily in our days. (no I am not a Lubavitcher and certainly not a Meshichist)
To all who wonders about 3:15 time:
Plag at that place is 3:27
If I’m not mistaken MB says that one can light right after plag if one will not have time later.
By the time people will get together and the Shliach will finish explaining what Chanukah is, it most likely will be much later.
ok so if the menorah is lit early at 3:15, thus accepting Chanukah early, are those that are there and obligated to start eating the donuts and the latkes early, or do they still need to wait until after skiah? what about dreidel? 🙂
I AM SHOCKED TOP SEE YOU PUBLISHISED THIS VERY RUDE REMARKS stam a deya — December 3, 2007 @ 7:43 pm I AWAIT ITS REMOVAL OR YOU WILL SEE..
OIAB MEN SHPILT MIT VASSER…..
shmike, 1) you await it’s removal?!?!? so… go wait!
once again, a large majority of baali tshuva will tell you that chabad turned them on to explore and find out about their yiddishkeit.
“Different strokes for different strokes”….i like menorahs, donuts and livivos, the bigger, oilier and tastier the better.
I really can’t imagine how, in the balance of things, Chabad has not committed a Chilul Hashem here, especially when, from published reports, the town offered a location in the immediate vicinity, and they did so to protect themselves from legal trouble.
Especially in light of the above, it certainly seems to me like an incredible chutzpah to fight the town over such an issue. Even if you mistakenly think Lubavitch does great kiruv and no one else does (and if you do think so, you probably haven’t traveled much), it still does not give them the right to be mechalel shem shamayim and to annoy the goyim, in this Medina Shel Chessed, of all places, just so they can have it their way and not light their menorah elsewhere.
In short, a Mitzva HaBaa BaAveira is…not a mitzva, and the Aveira committed is an Aveira. Wonderful.
How would jews react if they put a Holiday Tree in Ben Yehuda, or kikar tziyon????
Wow, this is a topic id love to comment on in depth but these is just too much bantering to reply to.
If we all focused a little more on our avodas hashem instead of knocking someone else’s, we probably wouldve been taken out of this galus long ago.
i cant possibly express the yiyush i feel, when i read what some people in our community will write about their own brothers. How will we ever be deserving of moshiach with people like you among us????
I have no doubt that every last one of you negative posters that are only delaying moshiachs arrival and destroying the bitachon of myself and so many others, will all pay dearly for it.
May Hashem be merciful to you on that great day.
Hot Ticket for Hanukkah in DC
One of the duties of Jeremy Katz, an aide to Deputy Chief of Staff Joel Kaplan, is to serve as White House liaison to the Jewish community. This time of year, that means Katz has the responsibility, and the headache, of helping organize the White House Hanukkah party.
The event, although a fairly new phenomenon, has become something of a Washington institution among movers and shakers in the American Jewish community. Bush is the first president, according to Katz and others, to include a Hanukkah party among about two dozen holiday parties at the White House, as well as the first to light a menorah in the Executive Mansion.
About 600 people are expected to crowd into the White House next Monday night for an event that will include the lighting of a menorah, Jewish music and kosher food. The White House has kosherized its kitchen for the event, according to Katz and Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Washington director of American Friends of Lubavitch, who says he has hired rabbis to help make sure religious requirements are being satisfied.
“There are no compromises,” Shemtov said. “Everything is prepared and transported under the absolute highest standard of kashrut [kosher regulations]. That way, everybody can eat at this event.”
Shemtov and other Jews speak fondly of the party, which the rabbi calls “one of the hottest tickets” in town. In years past, prominent Jewish athletes such as baseball players Shawn Green of the New York Mets and Brad Ausmus of the Houston Astros, Supreme Court justices and even some figures of the opposite political persuasion from the president — Harvard’s Alan Dershowitz, to name one — have shown up. Some describe a desperate last-minute scramble for tickets.
“It is certainly a challenge” putting together the guest list, Katz said. “I have had to turn down relatives who have made creative pleas to get in.”
(Washington Post)