“The trees” are going back up at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Pat Davis, president of the Port of Seattle commission, which directs airport operations, said late Monday that maintenance staff would restore the 14 plastic holiday trees, that were removed over the weekend because of a rabbi’s complaint that holiday decor did not include a menorah.
Airport managers believed that if they allowed the addition of an 8- foot-tall menorah to the display, as Seattle Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky had requested, they would also have to display symbols of other religions and cultures, which was not something airport workers had time for during the busiest travel season of the year, Airport Director Mark Reis said earlier Monday.
Port officials received word Monday afternoon that Bogomilsky’s organization would not file a lawsuit at this time over the placement of a menorah, Davis said in a statement.
“Given that, the trees will be replaced as quickly as possible,” he said.
Davis added that the rabbi “never asked us to remove the trees; it was the port’s decision based on what we knew at the time.”
There were no immediate plans to display a menorah, airport spokesman Bob Parker said, saying restoration of the trees was expected to take place overnight Monday.
“A key element in moving forward will be to work with the rabbi and other members of the community to develop a plan for next year’s holiday decorations at the airport,” the port statement said.
The rabbi has also offered to give the port an electric menorah to display, said his lawyer, Harvey Grad.
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35 Responses
chillul hashem y do we need to display a menorah. let the goyim be happy with there tree.who cares?
After i watched it on the news i was sickened.Why does this so called ‘kiruv guy’ have to try to cause a bigger and stronger hatred towards the jews??Go build your own airport and put up whatever in the world you want.We have enough media attention…we don’t need to fuel more flames.
This so-called Rabbi made a HUGE Chillul Hashem.
It should be pointed out that mainstream Judaism doesn’t attempt to impose Menorah’s or other religious related displays in the face of our neighbors. These so called Rabbi’s are not from the mainstream. They are, in a sense, the Shaprtons (i.e. rabble-rousers) of our community.
this so called ‘kiruv goy’ ..oops… ‘kiruv guy’ probably has an abundance of free time on his hands.
But when it comes to ‘ah bisel seichal’ he is ‘nebech’ deficient.
Abiimeleibt said it right…doesn’t he see that his actions don’t do ANYTHING to make goiyem look at us in good llight.
It just fuels the flames of hatred toward us.
When the charedim open our own airline with our own airports we will have menorahs. Until then ” luzz up”!! And this is not even a majorly jewish area!!
Dear Rabbi spend your precious time going from house to house, giving out menorahs to the Jewish families and teach them the brochos, play some dreydel and fress on some greasly sufganiot…
STOP the hatred to your fellow jews!! who are actually trying to be mekarev yiden to yidishkeit.
Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky’s mistake was assuming that a plea for equal time would not stir up a hornets nest. He was clearly too trusting. I cannot fault him for trying to get a chanukia into the holiday decor.
But I do question the logic of a chanukia lighting in an airport – travelers are not required to light chanunka lights. And it is doubtful whether the miracle is publicised by placing the chanukia in the airport – most Gentiles would have little clue as to its meaning or significance.
i am sure that his initial intentions were good… but he went way too far by saying that he was going to sue…
His intentions may have been good, but what he has forgotten is that we are in Galus and should not be requesting equal time. I have no hatred of him, but he has made a terrible mistake.
more from Bogomilsky:
“For many people, the Christmas tree is an important symbol of the season. Our goal was to include a menorah in the airport as well so that we could bring extra light with Hannukah’s universal message of hope,” Bogomilsky wrote Monday on behalf of his organization, Chabad of Greater Seattle. “Our discussion of possible legal action was never about removing Christmas trees — it was about protecting the right to add menorahs.”
And thus the error of chabad worldwide. For to them, the ends justifying the means, even if it means destroying the true meaning of chanuka in order to be persumei nes.
Chabad has been succesful in having menorahs put along side trees all over the country. This does not elevate Chanuka. It equates it with xmas.
Abi meleibt, where do you WATCH the news?
It is sad to see the sinah oozing out of many of the previous posts. No wonder why we are still in golus after almost 2000 years. I will not address this issue because it’s a waste of time. Those that possess this sinah think they are doing a great mitzvah just like the loonies of niturei karta think that by displaying their sinah to tziyonim by embracing Ahmadinejad they are doing the greatest mitzvah.
What I will address id the am horatztis. There are lengthy teshuvos from Rav Ovadya Yosef shlita and Rav Binyomin Zilber Shlita and others, that the mitzvah of parsumei nisa includes every possible form of public lighting. According to many rishonim this is the bases of the mitzvah of lighting in a shul. In fact they both hold that you make a brocha if you light in any public area not only a shul. There is no question that many Yiddin will see a menorah placed in any international airport. Furthermore the achronim are mediyik from Rashi in shabbos that parsumei nisah of Chanukah is even for non Jews. In addition there is no doubt that many not yet frum Jews see a menorah they are reminded it is Chanukah and are inspired to light their own at home. Very few goyim really mind to see a menorah in a public area. The ones who mind are reform Jews and yeshivasha pea brains.
If anyone read any real accounts of this story he never asked that the Ashera should be removed. The airport ACTED ON THEIR OWN (with some help of his over zealous lawyer) and removed the trees.
I think that most of you have missed what an innocent yungerman was trying to do. Rabbi B. was in yeshiva with me many years before he became a rov in a very Jewish area of Seattle (just because its outside of B.P does not make it “not a Jewish area”). According to Federal US law, he has the right to put up a menorah wherever there is a tree (Supreme court ruled in 1981 in favor of Lubavitch). So, just as you have the right to drive a car, he has the same right to put up a menorah. Chabad has used this argument to get 3,000 menorahs up throughout the US with no problems at all.
These people decided that come what may they do not want any pirsumey nissa in their airport, so instead of saying yes to Rabbi B, they said the law only allows the menorah where there is a tree, well we will take down our trees… What they did next was tell the news that the Rabbi made them take down the trees (a lie..). It has since been fixed up, with the trees back up and most news media now reporting that their original stories were flawed.
Point is that this Rabbi did what has been done in thousands of cites and town across the US, there was no way of knowing that the airport would spin it this way
Lastly, the story is not over yet, he will still get the menorah up (an agreement was made for next year) and his menorah will help light up the world with the bright light of Chanukah.
Moshe
Mark Levin: By threatening to sue, he did more than just ask for their removal. He pretty much forced them to do it.
Moshe, the problem was that he threatened to sue if they did not put up a menorah. No one here has any problem with putting up a Menorah, however to go and threaten legal action makes him look like a fanatic who is out for a publicity stunt which is NOT a Kiddush Hashem. As far as major Jewish areas go, I am no homophobe however I am assuming that if you were to go to the airport on any given day the amount of jews there is not overwhelming. Besides if I were to travel through that airport I dont want to be identified as a member of “those Jews that think they own the place”!
Guys – I saw the report and the rabbi claimed that he never asked for the trees to be removed ; rather, he requested a menorah as well. He said that the removal of the trees happened over Shabbos during which time the media blew the story out of proportion.
True, our job is not to shove yiddishkeit and its symbols in the face of the public but at the same time I don’t belive he did anythign majorly wrong/
A Frelichen Chanukah to all!!
Where does it say that it is a mitzvah to put a menorah in a public place?
These “rabbis” are a chilul hashem! nu? so there’s no menorah display!! so what?? this fellow should spend his time(and he seems to have lots of it) sitting in a beis medrash and learning…or at least read some tanya…there’s no need to spotlight our fellow jews in the current matzav…
to yb
in the gemorah and in halacha
YB asks “Where does it say that it is a mitzvah to put a menorah in a public place?””
There is a long teshuva from Rav Ovadya Yosef Shlita and Rav Binyomin Zilber Shlita that based on the Rivosh who says that the reason for the takonah to light in shul is parsumei nisa (not to be motzi poor people without a home) the same would apply to all public areas. They rule that one can even make a bracha on a public menorah just as we make one in shul.
I am no fan of Chabad. But let me tell that before I was frum, it was the little things, such as seeing a Menorah in a public place that was otherwise inundated with x-mas displays that planted the seeds to bring me to becoming a Ba’al Teshuva.
Shulchan Aruch taf reish ayin beis, see kitzur, mishna brurah etc.
” . . . madlikim bahem . . . lharos ulegalos es haness.” (kitzur 139:1)
According to Shulchan Aruch, the reason why we light the Menorah is specifically for Pirsumei Nissa – Publicity.
That is why we light in a shul. That is why if you come home and the family is already sleeping you dont make a bracha because you arent fulfilling the mitzva of – Pirsumei Nissa.
That is why we light in the window – so everyone can publicly see!
Come on, this is the Yeshiva World – Where have you been?!
ps also a menorah cant be higher than 20 amos, because it cant be seen – and therefore, even though you lit the menorah – you will not be yoitze – because noone can see it, and there is no PUBLICITY
The issue is not if its a mitzvah to put the menorah there, but the proof of the totzaois is in the cake.
Hundreds if not thousands of Yidden who have come closer to Yiddihskayt, or even became frum due to the heightened level of Jewish pride by seeing our helige menorah in cities and towns across the US in places that most of us probably could not even pronounce. And yes, those yidden count too.
Moshe
Sroy:
As someone who has had involvement in similar legal action I can tell you the following.
We live in the US
Supreme court has the final word in the US
He is a US citizen who pays taxes to the US
As such he is entitled to every law in the US
US law says the menorah goes up, where there is a tree, if requested
All he did was ask for his right as a US citizen to follow the law
Reason it turned into this fiasco, is because he did not think (and neither did any of us) that the airport would go to such great lengths by taking down the trees to make sure no menorah goes up. Well, they did (1 case for every 3,000 Chabad puts up) and for now he looked bad. Most mainstream media are already turning the story around against the airport now, and sooner or later the rest will as well, as more details come out.
And here is the underlying issue, most goyim are furious that Yoshke is being taken out of the holiday season. Ever notice how when we were kids everyone would say merry yatzmach & now they all say happy holidays etc. Most goyim think that the Jews are behind this (since many fray yidden are afraid of xristianity and rightfully so, since their kids are intermarrying). Now, when this story broke, they all thought that this is the same Jewish group AJC, ADL, Federations etc who want to secularize the season and they were furious at the Jews. All the Rabbi had to do was get his point out, az ess geyt unz nisht un vegen dayn boim, all we want is a menorah up, as for your tree, leg ess un heng zach for all we care, and this is why the goyim have since calmed down.
PS as for the one who asked why we have a public menorah, ever here of persumey nissa?
isser- “Yeshivishe peabrains”? Lets not preach about sinah…
Reb Moshe, I agree that he had a legal right to do it, and you are probably right that the media blew it out of proportion. However 1) he did threaten to sue which is usually a strong-arm tactic 2)he ends up looking like the ACLU which always points to the law although a little common sense and sensitivity would go alot further. As far as Pirsumei Nissah, did Lubavitch in Russia have big menorahs all over the place? Are all other Gedolim and Jews big reshoim for not having menoras on their cars? Advertising has to be done right or it will backfire!
Reb moishe-there is more of a chillul hashem involved than persumei nissa.
I urge you all to follow this link and read this article which will give you some perspective and understanding of why chabad puts up menorahs and why they sometimes take the issue to court.
You can criticize and disagree with chabad but please read the article; at least you will see the other side of the debate.
http://www.chabad.org/magazine/article.asp?AID=455712
Abi Milebet:
I already answered that question. There have been hundreds of conested menorahs in the past & NONE of them turned into this.
By the way, the airport has apologised to the Jewish community already and all of the mainstream media is changing their stories, now blaming the airport.
Reb moishe-you got a point.But it would have been best to keep it to himself…be mekarev people in other ways-don’t try to change the mainstream…putting up a menorah-and a fuss-will not bring people closer to g-d…i have yet to meet someone who told me he became jewish because he saw a big menorah next to this big tree in the airport…
Why are jews so much quicker to jump on other jews than on the anti-semites??! The fact is, that rather than put up one little menorah -that the rabbi offered to sponsor- the airport took down all of their ‘holiday’ trees. They then made it seem like the rabbi had incited that -which he didn’t!! He had an absolute right to request for a symbol of judaism to be present in the airport!! AND he had a right to sue, if he so chose, because that was OBVIOUS discrimination, and what some don’t realize is that it’s so-called fanatics like him that balance out those who are so quick to hide their jewishness and allow the rest of us our religious freedoms.
After he realized what the airport had turned it into, he retracted his threat to sue and the airport put BACK the trees, still sanz the menorah.
If that isn’t blatant anti-semitism, then I don’t know what is.
We americans assocciate anti-semitism as physical crimes committed against jews, like the intifada or the holocaust. This particular airport is not allowing a display of a religious symbol, which, although not nearly as extreme, still brings to mind what the greeks had in mind for the jews way back when. No, they are not teling us what to do in our own homes, but they are disallowing a jewish display in a public place.Note, that although the law dictates that a menorah is allowed wherever there is a holiday tree, there is STILL no menorah over there.
Again, if you don’t think that that is blatant anti-semitism, then you are just naive. And by the way, the Rabbi did NOT incite anti-semitsm. The anti-semites did.
Sroy:
You really can’t compare Lubavitch in Russia to being in the US today. You just couldn’t get away with that there. Here, albeit there is the more subdued antisemitism, we do have the freedom to do these things.
I hope this ordeal made LOTS of Jews uncomfortable. It reminds them that they are Jews.
Anyway, to “Abi meleibt” I do know of stories of people who lit chanukah menorahs, lit shabbos candles, decided to go to shul on a father’s yartzeit, etc. etc. because of the public dispalys of yiddishkeit by Chabad shluchim. I suggest you pick up the book “Excuse Me, Are You Jewish?” which highlights just a tiny glimpse of the countless stories out there (and reverberations that are felt when a yiddishe heart and neshama, which naturally want to cleave to Hashem, is reminded of who they are).
In fact, I am one such story. In my college days, when I was a secular Jew (a proud zionist, but very secular in my thinking and day-to-day living and not at all interested in frumkeit), I was confronted by a beared rabbi, in public in front of non-Jews, on several occasions on campus. One such occasion had him running a kosher hot dog stand on the main thoroughfare where thousands of students walk each day. He set-up that hot dog stand for the purpose of finding Jews. He was yelling out to people walking by, “excuse me, are you Jewish?” and asking if they want a nice kosher hot dog and soda for lunch for $1 or $2. Being the proud Jew I was, and having met him a couple of times before briefly, I proudly bought a hot dog or two. He, in turn, invited me for Shabbos. I didn’t become a frum yid overnight and, in fact, mostly lived my mostly secular lifestyle until about a month after finishing school, when I decided to start keeping shabbos and kosher. But leading up to that, that rabbi and his colleagues gave me mitzvos to do (despite my resistance and staunch secularism), including partaking in many friday nights for kiddush, seudas mitzvos, bentching, megillah readings, etc. etc. I can only imagine where I would be today had I not met him.
That same rabbi also set-up a hot-dog stand on some motzei shabboses, late at night outside of clubs where young people would be entering and exiting for a night of the worst gashmiusdik partying (again a very public display). I know second hand a story of a young woman who met this rabbi, bought a hot dog, accepted an invitation for Shabbos, became close with the Chabad rebbetzin and is today the mother and wife of a beautfiul frum family in the midwest. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Z’Tz’L, whose teachings and leadership to this day directly and indirectly inspires thousands and thousands of yiddin to live Torah lives everyday, counseled that there is a fire going on in the house of yisroel. His hashkafa was that you have to send firefighters to rescue people from the fire. I believe the Rebbe thought that if you spend too much time worried about whether you are going to get burnt in your rescue mission, you’ve already delayed too long and, chas v’shalom, have lost another yid to secularism and assimilation.
As others have said on this board, the Rabbi in Seattle could not have ever predicted, based on past experience of thousands of public menorah lightings, that the airport would react in such an irrational way. G-d willing, he will be able to use this situation as a catalyst to communicate the meaning of Chanukah to the tens of thousands of yiddin in his part of the country who are mostly assimilated.
Jewish pride is the call of the day. The great gedolim of this generation say we are living in yamei hamoshiach. If Moshiach comes tomorrow, what will happen to the all of the non-frum yiddin? Doesn’t anyone care? We’re arguing that we should NOT remind yiddin that they are Jews with public displays of yiddishkeit because we are afraid of what the non-Jews will say or do . . . after chorbun europe we actually think there is a connection between being TOO Jewish in public and anti-Semitism?
I think if we also listened to the words of chazal and first ensured that how we approach our fellow yiddin STARTS with ahavas yisroel . . . and that all else flows from that . . . we could accomplish so much more.