Like the ancient light at the heart of the Hanukka story, the discord over the public display of menoras in the region burns on and on.

Throughout the state, representatives of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement have been erecting the Hanukka menoras in public spaces, part of the hasidic outreach movement’s plans to light more than 11,000 large public candelabrum in places ranging from Bangkok to Miami Beach.

But while the courts have made it easier to erect the menora and other religious holiday symbols on public property, Chabad still faces opposition from many, including area rabbis who say the displays violate the Constitution and tarnish the religious significance of the menora.

Chabad of the Windsors, which won permission in early December to erect a nine-foot electric menora on the grounds of the Ron Rogers Arboretum in West Windsor Township, was back in the thick of battle by midmonth — fighting and, for the moment, losing a campaign to display another menora on the grounds of the adjacent West Windsor Branch of the Mercer County Library.

Meanwhile, Chabad of Lawrenceville won permission to display a public menora on the grounds of the Lawrenceville Township municipal complex on Route 206. Rabbi Yehuda Goldenberg, religious leader of Chabad of Lawrenceville and Young Israel of Lawrenceville, installed a six-foot electric menora there on the afternoon of Friday, Dec. 23. Both Chabad of the Windsors and Chabad of Lawrenceville are constituents of Chabad Lubavitch of Greater Mercer County.

But Chabad hit a wall with its request regarding the West Windsor library branch. On Dec. 16, Mercer County Counsel Arthur Sypek Jr. wrote a letter to Rabbi Sholom Leverton, religious leader of Chabad of the Windsors, denying his request to erect a menora on county property.

Stressing that his office had pursued a thorough factual and legal investigation into the matter, Sypek wrote to Leverton: “Although a religious display has been held to be permissible on certain public property, we do not believe that the law mandates that Mercer County permit the display of a Menorah at the West Windsor Library. Furthermore, there is a large Jewish population who oppose such a display, finding same to be offensive to the deeply religious symbol it represents.”

The counsel acknowledged to Leverton that the majority of cases addressing this issue have held that, in appropriate situations, the display of a nativity scene or a menora on public property does not violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. However, Sypek wrote, “As you know, the County has not permitted any religious displays at County facilities. We would like to maintain this policy. The County Library is not a traditional public forum and no other organizations have been granted the right to put up any religious displays. Accordingly, your request to erect a Menorah at the West Windsor Library is denied.”

In reaction, Chabad Lubavitch of Greater Mercer County shot back with a salvo from Washington attorney Nathan Lewin. Lewin successfully represented the Chabad movement in County of Allegheny v. American Civil Liberties Union in the Supreme Court in 1989 and in several other appeals on the issue.

In a letter to Sypek, Lewin wrote that the county’s reasons for denying permission “are unconstitutional and constitute grounds for initiating a legal action…against the County for denial of the right of free expression guaranteed to Chabad of the Windsors and Rabbi Leverton by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.”

“The free speech provision of the First Amendment prohibits the County from implementing a ‘policy’ that treats religious speech differently from secular speech,” Lewin wrote.

Leverton declined to comment directly about the matter, telling NJ Jewish News in an e-mail that it is “a legal issue that the attorneys are dealing with.”

Rabbi Dovid Dubov, director of Chabad Lubavitch of Greater Mercer County, spoke about the general position of Chabad. “As you know, Chabad tries to reach the unaffiliated,” Dubov said. “This is an unbelievable vehicle to reach out to many unaffiliated Jews. This is a way of building up Jewish identity.”

‘Deeply religious’

But Rabbi Jay Kornsgold of Beth El Synagogue in East Windsor is one of a handful of Jewish leaders standing strongly opposed to the display. Kornsgold, a Conservative rabbi, is one of four signatories to a Dec. 1 letter to West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh expressing “dismay” over the presence of Chabad’s menora at the Ron Rogers Arboretum, a public park. Also signing onto the letter, which went out on the stationery of Congregation Beth Chaim in Princeton Junction, were Rabbis Eric Wisnia of Beth Chaim, which is Reform; Daniel Grossman of Adath Israel Congregation in Lawrenceville, which is Conservative; and Adam Feldman of The Jewish Center in Princeton, which is also Conservative.

Speaking from his shul office, Kornsgold said he also shared the letter with Silvio Marcacci, deputy communications director for the Mercer County executive, who had consulted him concerning Leverton’s request to place a menora on county property.

The letter states, in part: “As religious leaders, we have never asked for a Chanukah Menorah to be placed on public property for display because we believe that the Menorah is a deeply religious symbol, belonging in synagogues, Jewish homes, and Jewish communal institutions. It is not appropriate to place Jewish religious symbols for display on public property.”

Kornsgold also told Marcacci that the Board of Rabbis of Princeton Mercer Bucks has historically affirmed the principle of the separation of church and state. “I feel that religious symbols have no place on government property,” Kornsgold told NJJN. “I guess, for many of us, we’re not exactly clear, frankly, on why it is so necessary to have a menora up and to make Hanukka into a holiday it isn’t. Why are we making such a big hype about Hanukka? If Hanukka didn’t happen in December, you and I would not be having this discussion.”

Wisnia also weighed in on the issue. “I don’t know why we need a public menora lighting,” the rabbi told NJJN. He noted that the Jewish community comes together to celebrate Hanukka each year on Jewish property at the Jewish Community Center of the Delaware Valley in Ewing. “That’s the appropriate kind of thing for Jewish communities,” he said. “I don’t know why we need [menoras] in public spaces. We feel that menoras are religious objects and need to be treated with dignity by Jews.”

The Board of Rabbis of Princeton Mercer Bucks has not addressed the specific question of Leverton’s request to erect a menora at the library, according to its president, Rabbi Batsheva Appel of Beth Chaim. “I can’t speak as president of the Board of Rabbis,” Appel said. “But I can speak as a rabbi. I consider the menora a very religious symbol, and I don’t think religious symbols have a place in the public square.”

The rabbis’ Dec. 1 letter and Kornsgold’s explanation of the historic position of the Board of Rabbis carried weight in the county’s decision, according to Marcacci. “Based on our counsel’s finding and the fact that the largest representative body of the Jewish community of Mercer County does not support this, we decided not to allow the display,” he said. “My understanding is the decision is final.

“I want to underscore the fact that the decision was not made rashly,” Marcacci added, “and [it was made] in consultation with rabbis and really trying to abide by their wishes.”

But Mort Cohen of Lawrenceville, president of Chabad Lubavitch of Greater Mercer County, disagrees with the positions of the rabbis Marcacci consulted. Cohen, who also serves as a vice president of the United Jewish Federation of Princeton Mercer Bucks and as a board member of the Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Greater Mercer County, was instrumental in the successful application of Chabad of Lawrenceville to display a menora in front of the Lawrenceville Township Municipal Building. The menora there carries a sign clearly stating that Chabad of Lawrenceville is the sponsor, not the township or any township official.

“My own personal position is that the menora is a universal sign of the triumph of good over bad, of the underdog winning battles, and of liberty in general,” Cohen said. “Although the Jewish people regard it as a religious symbol, it has come to mean a lot more than that.

“I think when people see the menora, they are given pleasure about living in the United States, where there’s a right of freedom of expression,” he said. “I think they’re proud they’re Jewish and proud that, even as a minority, their voices and opinions can be heard.”

As of press time on Dec. 27, Sypek, the Mercer County Counsel, continued to stand fast in his decision to bar Chabad of the Windsors’ menora from the grounds of the county library.

Speaking on behalf of Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes, Sypek said, “We’re standing by our letter. We reviewed Mr. Lewin’s letter and we feel that there is ample legal basis for the county executive’s position.”