Rabbi's Request Prompts Airport To Remove Christmas Display

A Seattle rabbi says he's being unfairly painted as the grinch who stole Christmas from the city's international airport, after officials rejected his request to erect a menorah and instead decided to remove the Christmas trees that have greeted holiday travelers for more than two decades.

"I'm brutally shocked and appalled by this decision," Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky said in an interview yesterday. "We were not interested in ruining people's holidays. … If I could have my wish today, I'd have them put everything back up."

In the wee hours of Saturday morning, airport workers removed decorated trees above each of the airport's entrances as well as the 18-foot fake fir that stood in the main arrivals hall. Airport officials said they acted because Rabbi Bogomilsky threatened to sue if his organization, Chabad Lubavitch, was not permitted to put up an electric menorah near the large tree.

"He wanted to do his own display, and the airport felt like that could be problematic," a spokeswoman for the port of Seattle, Deanna Zachrisson, said. "It seemed like a simple request, but it's establishing a precedent that — you don't know where it's going to go."

The abrupt removal of the trees angered some airport workers. "The operations staff at the airport have been inundated with complaints from the airline tenants," Ms. Zachrisson said.

The flap has all the signs of snowballing into another high-profile example of what conservative talk-show hosts have dubbed the "War on Christmas." "I'm hoping we can nip it in the bud," Rabbi Bogomilsky said. "I hope it's not."

The rabbi said yesterday that he was incensed about local press reports that he was offended by the airport's Christmas displays and lodged a complaint about them. "That's not just a lie, it's totally wrong," he said. "It's ludicrous."

Rabbi Bogomilsky said he sent word to the airport in October that he was interested in putting up a menorah. Chabad arranges similar installations each year on the White House lawn and at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, he said.

The rabbi said airport officials went back and forth on his proposal. After failing to get a clear answer, the Jewish leader consulted a local attorney, Harvey Grad. He pointed to a 1989 Supreme Court case that said it would be illegal discrimination for the government to deny permission to put a menorah alongside a Christmas tree.

Mr. Grad said the court found that both symbols have developed secular significance. The lawyer called the menorah the rabbi wanted to erect "representational and iconic."

The 8-foot candelabra can't be used in a religious ritual, Rabbi Bogomilsky said, because it lacks oil and relies instead on electric light bulbs. "It's UL-listed," he said.

Ms. Zachrisson said the decision to remove the trees was driven not by an aversion to Christmas but to paying steep legal fees. "It really boils down to we didn't want to get sued," she said.

Mr. Grad said the airport already incurred unnecessary legal expenses by hiring two outside law firms to consider the rabbi's request, rather than just giving him permission to put up the menorah.

"This is a mistake that's going to wind up being an issue of national scrutiny," Mr. Grad said. "It's like saying if we have to have a minority kid on the team, we're going to turn the lights off and padlock the soccer field."

A former director of the Washington chapter of American Atheists, David Anderson, called the airport's move an "overreaction." Asked in an interview if he took offense at the Christmas trees, he said, "Actually, I don't. I think of that more as Christmas mythology, like Santa and his elves."

While the trees are gone, travelers headed for Seattle need not worry that the airport will be devoid of all holiday cheer. Airlines still have their own decorations in ticket-counter and gate areas. The airport has also left in place lights and simulated snowflakes, which don't seem to provoke the same consternation as Christmas trees.