Posted on 12/11/2006 10:13:29 PM PST by TheBigB
SEATAC, Wash. — The Christmas trees are going back up at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Port of Seattle officials had ordered the trees taken down over the weekend after a local rabbi threatened a lawsuit if a menorah wasn't also displayed at the airport.
Airport officials say they took that action out of concern that if they allowed the addition of a menorah, they would also have to display symbols of other religions and cultures, which was not something airport workers had time for during the busiest travel season of the year.
Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky says he never asked that the trees be taken down, and the threat of a lawsuit was withdrawn.
With the threat of the lawsuit gone, airport spokesman Bob Parker says all 14 trees will go back up -- hopefully by tomorrow morning.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
He was on O'Reilly last night saying he
1. didn't demand the trees be taken down.
2. His group offered to provided the Menorah for the airport
3. and the issue was overblown by the media
The Grinch is the airport authority that knee jerked to avoid controversy, thus causing controversy.
Any suit would have demanded installation of Jewish symbols, not the removal of trees.
I am appalled that the airport gets a free pass for their cowardice.
Well I have been following this flap and have been amused.
Jews have been treated better in the USA than anywhere else on this planet. This is mostly because Americans simply have no prejudice or preconceived notions about Jews save for yer oddball here and there.
We're not like Europe or God forbid the Mideast is what I'm saying here.
You can take this to the bank. Jews understand the value of PR and this little episode was bad PR from the start for American Jewry.
I don't know what the hell the guy was thinking who filed this suit but I do know that American Jews across the country fought to shut him the hell up.
Hey, they got us distrusting and disliking Muslims and most Americans support Israel. It'd be a darn shame if a stupid thing like this turned the tide against that good will and kinship.
The Jews already got the entire planet against them so why on earth disaffect the mightiest and greatest planet on the earth, darn near their ONLY friends?
Give them credit, American Jews fought back. As I understand it, a group of Jews even volunteered to put them all back up!
Muslims live, die and breathe by propaganda and lies. Jews understand this. Americans need to get a clue.
REIS, MARK
SEATTLE, WA 98117
PORT OF SEATTLE
MURRAY, PATTY
VIA PEOPLE FOR PATTY MURRAY U S SENATE CAMPAIGN
10/18/2004 250.00 24021130229
REIS, MARK M
SEATTLE, WA 98117
PORT OF SEATTLE/AIRPORT DIRECTOR
CANTWELL, MARIA
VIA CANTWELL 2012
03/24/2006 250.00 26020382874
DICKS, NORM D
VIA NORM DICKS FOR CONGRESS
10/06/2004 200.00 24962620919
Figgers.
It hasn't been that way for too long. You only need to go back a couple of generations to find great amounts of prejudice directed at Jews. Fortunately, things have changed, despite this orthodox rabbi's little campaign.
What's disgusting to me is that they're using plastic trees in a place that grows great real trees! It's just so---un-Washington!
are there just more stupid people up ther in seattle tacoma?
I could certainly be wrong...I just read the interview and thought "yeah...that could happen..."
But if others say he is being duplicitous, well I don't know enough about that to know. I read that account from a conservative columnist who I like (I think it was Townhall, but cannot find it again)
Well, dang. How 'bout that.
They go around putting up menorahs, they do not go around suing people. Sometimes they have been sued by the ACLU for putting up the menorah.
Please get your facts straight, I am a member of this organization and two of my sons are very active in the menorah campaign, in Moscow and San Francisco.
Rabbi Bogulmilsky has admitted his mistake and the trees are back in place at Sea-Tac.
I thought one of the main principles of the Christian faith was forgiveness, especially towards someone who is contrite. But maybe I am wrong.
FRmail me to be added or removed from this Judaic/pro-Israel/Russian Jewry ping list.
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
They're welcome to the 130 footer I have in my back yard... buy they gotta do the movin!
See my post at #39...I only really saw one source before I entered this thread. My first impressions were in line with a columnist who interviewed him...so my impressions could certainly be wrong. Many on here seem to know this guy and his past actions.
This rabbi is somewhat dishonest. He was on BOR last night and never mentioned anything about the lawsuit. Then again, BOR did not do his homework and made it sound as if the airport officials were all at fault. He never brought up the lawsuit either probably because he did not know about it. However, the rabbi made it sound as if he made a simple, polite request and the airport officials acted too hastily.
Would you rather have the airport embroiled in a juicy ugly lawsuit at its busiest time of the year? Sorry, but this guy was simply wrong. If he really felt the Christmas tree was a religious symbol (and it's actually not any longer, certainly not in the sense that a menorah is) or if he wanted a menorah in the airport, he could have approached them months in advance with the request. This was an attempt to pressure them with a sudden request and the threat of a lawsuit, and it simply didn't work out the way he expected.
The Lubavitchers have been successful here in Florida using just such techniques to pressure towns into putting up menorahs, even claiming that the town Santa Claus (which it is laughable to consider a "religious symbol," regardless of its origins) means that they get "equal time" for their menorah. I think the airport was acting reasonably. There have been judicial decisions that have permitted trees and other displays because they are cultural rather than religious, but who has time to get into that issue right now when the holiday season is in full swing?
In other news, there is a very large Muslim display right in the middle of the Kriskindlmarket (sp) in downtown Chicago.....complete with the crescent and calls to prayer 5x/day. Daley's event planning office needs to be FReeped.
I saw that, too. He spun O'Reilly around like a dreidel.
OK, FReepers, here's an IQ test.
If you get the right answer, your IQ is definitely over 70.
Q: What HOLIDAY, occurring in December every year, is traditionally celebrated by the placing and decoration of TREES?
Go to Turkey and complain that you are offended by the Muslim calls to prayer.
Go to India and complain that people presenting gifts to Ganesh offends you.
Go to Burma and complain that all those prayer wheels offend you.
Yule.
I give it two days before someone else threatens to sue and the trees are back down again.
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