Two Chicago rabbis took totally opposite positions today on the propriety of the annual nativity display in Chicago City Hall.
Rabbi Herman E. Schaalman of Temple Emanual criticized Mayor Richard Daley who had rejected protests from a number of Jewish and Christian groups. The Mayor contended that the United States was “a Christian country.” He subsequently invited the display of “the symbols of other religious holidays,” an apparent reference to Chanukah. Rabbi Schaalman denounced the Mayor’s stand as a violation of “the spirit and letter of the constitution.”
Rabbi Harold L Stern of Skokie, a Chicago suburb, urged Chicago Jewry not only to accept the creche but also to put up a Chanukah display next to it. Elmer Gartz, president of the Chicago Council of the American Jewish Congress, received the invitation from the Mayor to put up a Chanukah display after his organization and others met with the Mayor in a bid last July to have the Nativity Scene cancelled. Mr. Gertz, in rejecting the invitation, said Mayor Daley “still does not understand the principle of separation of church and state.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
