Holiday symbols should include menorahs

It seems that Christmas starts earlier every year. I was subjected to my first Christmas commercial this season only a day after Halloween. Decorations, lights and trees are springing up everywhere. Christmas is such a symbol in our society that it often pushes other holidays to the side, holidays that are being celebrated around the same time. I am talking, of course, about the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah.

This year Hanukkah begins at sundown on Dec. 22, only two days before Christmas Eve. So where are all the Hanukkah commercials and decorations? Why isn’t there a menorah next to the Christmas tree in Pioneer Square downtown? Some would argue it is because the menorah violates the rules of separation of church and state.

Every year the Capitol Building in Salem is decked out with trees, toys, lights and other Christmas-related decorations. All symbols of Christmas and the Christian religion at heart, these symbols are now merely called “holiday” decorations.

So if these symbols are acceptable, why is it that a Jewish menorah is over the line? Last year, Rabbi Avrohom Perlstein requested that a menorah be put opposite the traditional Christmas tree at the Capitol. For some reason I cannot fathom, his request was turned down. Now the Rabbi is back this year to try again.

The Rabbi mentions that, “A menorah is a symbol of the season and specifically a symbol of universal freedom.” So why is there such debate over this symbol of the season when a Christmas tree is just that? A menorah is hardly more a representation of religious views than a Christmas tree with a star or angel perched on top of it.

While the Jewish population in Oregon may be small, less than half of 1 percent, if someone asks for Jewish decorations, I see no reason why they should be turned down.

On the other hand, one Fran Martin has petitioned for a nativity scene to be placed at the Capitol. This would most certainly be over the line of church and state separation. A scene depicting the birth of Jesus Christ is not about the season, it’s about religious expression–Martin even admits as much. To make matters even more ridiculous, it turns out that the Capitol in Washington already has a nativity scene. They had to include the nativity scene after a Christian legal rights group sued them.

How can we allow such blatant religious representations while turning down something as simple as a menorah? Especially when the entire issue is based on whether the menorah crosses the line between church and state. If a nativity scene is allowed then there is no reason not to include a menorah, which would most likely still be dwarfed in size and grandeur by all the other holiday decorations.

There has to be an all-or-nothing solution. A scene depicting the birth of the son of a deity by a virgin mother is way over the line when you put it inside of a building that is a representation of government. A nativity scene should not be allowed, ever.

But if one allows “symbols of the season,” such as lighted holiday trees and other Christmas-related adornments, then one must allow symbols from all holidays.