CNN reported today that the Seattle Airport decided to remove some Christmas Trees in order to avoid a lawsuit. Apparently a Rabbi started a small fire, and has drawn national ire:

Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky, who made his request weeks ago, said he was appalled by the decision. He had hired a lawyer and threatened to sue if the Port of Seattle didn’t add the menorah next to the trees, which had been festooned with red ribbons and bows.

Yeah, well DUH. Slam a lawsuit on someone, and they’re going to act rather quickly. Seems the port authorities felt they couldn’t add the Menorah, because then they’d have to accommodate other religious groups and “play cultural anthropologists”.

“They’ve darkened the hall instead of turning the lights up,” said Bogomilsky’s lawyer, Harvey Grad. “There is a concern here that the Jewish community will be portrayed as the Grinch.”

Well I know one Rabbi who fits the description this year. Have a heart, man. Maybe there’s a better way to work this out other than by litigation… I wouldn’t want our Jewish brothers and sisters to get left out of the holiday festivities, but there’s a more sensitive way to approach the issue. I really hope the CNN story somehow left out the part where he works with the port authority for weeks on end, trying to find a better solution for Jewish representation.

It’s this sort of stuff that will reduce America to dull gray homogeneous mush.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, December 10th, 2006 at 9:15 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.