For a time, it appeared a public Chanukah menorah lighting ceremony in downtown Santa Cruz might be snuffed out, but the annual “Festival of Lights” will go on after all.
The controversy arose Dec. 3 when city officials informed Rabbi Yochanan Friedman of Santa Cruz–based Chabad by the Sea that a stricter permit would be needed to erect the 15-foot, gold-colored menorah on Pacific Avenue. The new permit would require round-the-clock private security, spiking costs to $5,000, higher than Chabad could have afforded, Friedman said.
Since then, the parties have worked things out. Chabad will arrange for insurance and daytime monitoring of the menorah, which will be lit every night of Chanukah starting Friday, Dec. 11.
“The city has said we can go forward and have the menorah for the eight days and nights,” said Keith Sugar, an attorney who worked with Chabad pro bono to resolve the issue.
Friedman said that he plans to provide security even beyond the city’s requirements because “we don’t need some ‘genius’ doing damage to the menorah just to prove the city was right.”
Chabad has sponsored a menorah lighting on Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz since 2006. Up until this year, the city’s downtown association had routinely issued a permit to Chabad, but according to City Attorney John Barisone, it had been the wrong one.
The prior permits “only authorizes public assemblies on public property, and not the placement of structures that are left unattended,” Barisone said, “not for a menorah or any other structure.”
Complicating the dispute, right after Chanukah last year an ad hoc group of local atheists began complaining about the menorah being on city property, stating it violated church-state separation.
Those complaints grew louder as this year’s holiday approached. When it was also revealed that a “community tree” would be lit on Pacific Avenue without it requiring similar insurance or security, the story made the local news.
Friedman says the experience ended up a net positive for both Chabad and the community at large.
“We’ve gotten so many calls and e-mails from people from so many walks of life,” Friedman said. “One company called and offered to donate hours of security. So the good in the story has completely eclipsed the negativity. In the end it’s a wonderful story.”