Another plea over holiday city display

A faith-based coalition again is calling on Fort Collins to allow the menorah and other religious symbols in the city’s holiday displays.

The Inter Faith Dialogue Group will send a letter to City Council today asking members to reconsider its July decision to stick solely with the X-mas tree at city public displays. The group says the tree, clearly a Christian symbol, shows an “inappropriate” preference for one religion.

“As an interfaith group, we don’t feel like that’s an appropriate decision, at least not in our community,” said Phil Koster, a dialogue group member and chaplain at Poudre Valley Hospital.

The menorah, one of the oldest symbols of the Jewish faith, is lit by Jews during the eight days of Hanukkah.

Mayor Doug Hutchinson was the lone council member in July to support the menorah’s inclusion in the display. At the time, he called the council’s decision a “step backward.”

The menorah issue arose last year when the Downtown Development Authority, or DDA, denied the Chabad Center of Northern Colorado’s December request to place a menorah in Old Town Square for the eight days of Hanukkah.

The DDA is a quasi-governmental organization that owns and manages Old Town Square.

The city also wouldn’t let Chabad put the menorah on the Oak Street plaza with the city’s Christmas tree or anywhere else on city property, basing the decision on a 2001 appeals court decision that allowed it to make that call.

CooperSmith’s Pub and Brewing allowed the Jewish center to display the menorah on its property and has agreed to do the same this year after a Dec. 21 lighting in Old Town, said Chabad Rabbi Yerachmiel Gorelik.

Gorelik will meet Wednesday with the DDA regarding the display. “I’m not holding my breath, but I’ll see what they have to say,” Gorelik said.

Hutchinson said Monday he hadn’t seen the letter and wasn’t sure if the council would take up the issue this year.

“It’s up to the council,” Hutchinson said, adding that when they discussed it in July, “it turned out I was the only council member interested in pursuing it.

“I was strongly for making the holiday display more inclusive, which we can do,” he said.

Council members said in July that if the city stuck to the tree and lights — as allowed by previous court rulings — it wouldn’t have to deal with choosing what other symbols to allow. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that both the Christmas tree and the menorah can be interpreted as secular, not necessarily religious, symbols.

In its letter, the Inter Faith Dialogue Group suggests the city adopt a permit process that would allow it to decide who can display and who can’t.

“If the City Council does not feel disposed to take such an approach, it is our view that no religious symbols should be permitted to be displayed on public property during the holiday season or at anytime during the year,” wrote retired Rev. Hugh Sanborn of the dialogue group.