Religious Symbols

Douglas Mirell’s Op-Ed piece “A Menorah Without Prayers? A Creche Without Christ?” (Dec. 28) is well-taken. Simply stated, there is neither need nor justification for the placement of religious symbols on government property.

Chabad’s lawyers’ contention that “the menorah is a symbol with relatively mild religious intensity” is disingenuous and hedges the issue. The lights of the Hanukkah Menorah are kindled with a blessing which addresses God directly: “Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe . . .” and proclaims that we become sanctified, holy, through the act of lighting these candles. If lighting the Hanukkah candles is a religious, sanctified act, how can it be that the menorah is not a religious symbol?

It hardly seems appropriate for Chabad to be encouraging the desanctification of one of our religious rituals for the sake of “me-too” ethnic/cultural recognition.

What we Jews, in fact all religious minorities, need is not the establishment of our own religious symbols on public property, but rather the careful maintenance of our nation’s historic tradition of the separation of the church and state.

Those of us who take religion seriously consider this annual exercise in the obfuscation of religious and constitutional principles to be an affront and an embarrassment.

RABBI LENNARD R. THAL, Director, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Pacific Southwest Council, Los Angeles