I NEWS I .0 1/. se CaVirle gS `1,1olicla — YOUR OLDSMOBILE DEALER WRAPS UP 1989 WITH... U.S. Appeals Court Bans Solitary Menorah Display ALLISON KAPLAN Special to The Jewish News A federal appeals court's ruling Dec. 12 that it was un- constitutional to put up a menorah in a public park in Burlington, Vt., has pleased those Jewish organizations that oppose the display of any religious symbols on public property. But it came as a disap- pointment to the Chabad- Lubavitch movement, which put up the menorah and won an important case concern- ing a menorah in Pittsburgh earlier this year. The decision overturned a federal district court's ruling in Vermont, which per- mitted the City of Burl- ington to allow the 16- foot menorah to stand on public ground. The menorah, which held a sign reading "Happy The judges wrote that, like the creche, the menorah was "clearly a religious symbol." Chanukah," had been displayed in the park adjoin- ing the City Hall seasonally since 1986. The city had given Chabad permission each year since. The legal challenge against the menorah display came from Burlington's Reform Rabbi James Glazier, retired Unitarian Rev. Robert Senghas and at- torney Mark Kaplan. Jewish groups opposing religious displays on government property say the Vermont decision clarifies the U.S. Supreme Court's in- tention in July's Allegheny vs. ACLU ruling. In the Allegheny decision, the Supreme Court deter- mined that a nativity scene displayed by itself on public property in Pittsburgh violated the Constitution's prohibition against govern- ment endorsement of religion. At the same time, it ruled that a menorah standing next to a Christmas tree was constitutional because it was part of secular holiday dec- oration. "Some people have been interpreting that decision to mean that a menorah is a secular symbol," said Marc Stern, co- director of the American Jewish Congress Commission on Law and So- cial Action. However, in the Vermont ruling, the court said its decision was based on the part of the Allegheny ruling regarding the creche. The judges wrote that, like the creche, the menorah was "clearly a religious symbol." In keeping with the Supreme Court decision, it could not constitutionally be permitted to stand alone on public property. Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, spokesman for the Lubavit- ch movement, called the rul- ing "very clearly discrim- inatory" and said that Chabad will appeal the case to the Supreme Court. The Vermont case is only one of several disputes across the country that have pitted Chabad, whose aim is to display menorot in promi- nent locations, against civil libertarian groups and af- filiates of such Jewish organizations as AJCongress, the Anti- f Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, the Reform movement's Union of American Hebrew Con- gregations and various local Jewish community relations councils. Al Vorspan, senior vice president of the UAHC, hailed the ruling as "a major victory for religious freedom and the separation of church and state." "For some years now," Vorspan said in a statement "the Lubavitch movement, in its zeal to justify the public display of menorot during the Chanukah sea- son, has belittled their religious significance." Glazier, the Reform rabbi of South Burlington's Tem- ple Sinai, who had been fighting the menorah display in court for more than a year, said in a tele- phone interview that his only regret was that the court chose to rule on the case in December. "We were not interested in pursuing it in the holiday season," he said. "We wish [the decision] had occurred during a less emotional time of the year." ❑ 4 e The uP,250 01 IN FACTORY-TO-DEALER INCENTIVES A New G • 24 • 30 obile • se eneration of Owner Satisfaction. 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