Leesburg, FL – The menorah inside the social hall of a Lake County retirement community costs more than a flat-screen TV and is taller than the average man.
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The 61/2-foot, $1,000 candelabra at Legacy of Leesburg resulted from a legal settlement after a rabbi who lives in the community complained to the homeowners association that the tiny menorah on a table in the hall was dwarfed by a much-larger Christmas tree.
“I felt that it was unfair,” said Rabbi Arthur Grae of Leesburg’s Congregation Or Chayim, who has lived at the development on U.S. Highway 27 since 2005.
The oversized menorah, which like all others has nine branches for lights or candles, was in place for the start of Hanukkah this week, though hard feelings linger about how it got there. The case threatened to turn the Festival of Lights — another name for the Jewish holiday — into the Festival of Fights.
In August, the homeowners association rejected a proposal from Grae and others to purchase a 61/2-foot aluminum menorah that lights up when plugged, tthey insisted that most of the decorations, such as the wreathes and reindeer, were generic seasonal items and not religious symbols. Instead, the association voted to buy a standard-sized menorah, usually a little more than a foot high, to replace the one already on display.
When Todd Koechlein, the homeowners-association president, learned that a lawsuit had been filed with the aim of making the homeowners association install the giant menorah outside, he was stunned.
The parties reached a settlement that gave Grae what he wanted: the large menorah, paid for by the plaintiffs and placed where the previous display had been: indoors.
Grae wasn’t welcome to attend the Hanukkah party at the social hall, where residents marked the beginning of the eight-day celebration with the menorah he helped bring about.
Stupid person. Nebech. All he feels on Chanukah is if goyim see a big menorah near the Xmas tree.
Every year we read about fights going on over placing menorahs in public areas. It’s time to stop this. This only invokes sinas yisroel and creates a chilul hashem.
I was under the impression that the mitzvah is one of pisumei nissa, not “let’s rub the holiday in the gentile’s nose”.
When did having huge, ugly electric menorahs in the front lawn, ugly menorahs tied to the roof of cars blasting channukah music, and instigating “religious equality” lawsuits become part of the mitzvah of channukah?
way to go guys
A problem when people don’t know simple halocha.
Rabbi Grae, I hope there is more to this story then the article writes.
I can understand when I see these huge displays for xmas and these tiny displays or a small token menora next to it. I find it insulting. Xmas is NOT a seasonal holiday. It is a religious holiday as is Chanuka. If you are going to have a grandiose display for one, be accommodating for both.
What a shame. As Rabbi E Wasserman, zt’l, said “a new creed will develop among the Jews: ‘Let us be like the Nations”.
Why can’t we just be happy that we can light candles in our windows and no one bothers us? Who asked the Rabbi to compete with Santa?
After hundreds of years of living in fear we finally have a country that ensures our right to celebrate our holidays the way we are taught.
What else does a yid need?
To #11 - It would be nice if your statement was true. Unfortunately, even when Yidden have lit the Chanukah Menorahs in there homes, and placed them in their windows, there have been ugly incidents of rocks being thrown through the windows. There was one particular incident in Billings, Montana about 20 years ago, whereby anti-semites smashed the windows of a Jewish home displaying a Chanukah menorah. Billings has a very small Jewish community. However, when the town found out about what occurred, hundreds of residents placed Menorahs in their windows as a sign of protest, against the hate mongers. The anti-semites couldn’t tell which homes belonged to Jews, and finally gave up! In addition to Billings, there were similar incidents in communities in the northeast, in recent years.
“Grae wasn’t welcome to attend the Hanukkah party at the social hall, where residents marked the beginning of the eight-day celebration with the menorah he helped bring about.”
If you ask me, this was the saddest part of the whole story! The man fought so hard to get a decent-sized menorah in his community center… and because he made a “stink” about it w\people, he gets uninvited to the Hannukah party?!?!
Shame on all of the people who went to the party without him!!!
I would have boycotted the party & compelled others to do the same as well! Why should he have to sit at home alone, when it was him who worked so hard to get a decent-sized, respectable Jewish holiday decoration in the 1st place!
In honor of his hard work & efforts… I would have stayed home!