Hundreds celebrate Hanukkah on Fountain Square
THE ENQUIRER
For years, a Jewish group has been lighting a huge menorah in Fountain Square to celebrate Hanukkah. And this year has been no exception.
What's different this year, however, is that the group Chabad did not file a lawsuit against the city of Cincinnati to get approval to light its menorah. The agency that now runs Fountain Square, the Cincinnati Center City Development Corp., granted permission without putting up a fight.
"It really felt good," said Rabbi Sholom Kalmanson, leader of Chabad of Southern Ohio, a Jewish outreach movement.
Kalmanson said that, in prior years, he'd grown accustomed to sitting in court during the weeks leading up to Hanukkah, battling for the right to light a menorah on the publicly owned land.
"It almost became part of life, so to speak," said Kalmanson, referring to the time spent in court.
To celebrate how easy it was to get approval this year, Chabad organized a parade of 35 cars Wednesday night, with menorahs attached to the top of them, to the lighting ceremony.
Then, Chabad lit an 18-foot menorah and a 5-foot menorah. Hundreds of people filled the square to celebrate the sixth night of Hanukkah.
After the ceremony, they ate potato pancakes and jelly doughnuts, which are symbolic Hanukkah foods.
In April 2004, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals declared that a city law banning all private displays on the square was unconstitutional, ruling in favor of Chabad, which argued that the constitutional right to free speech entitles it to hold the lighting ceremony.
The ruling was a defeat for city officials, who had hoped a new law would eliminate disputes over the placement of menorahs and crosses on the square by private groups, including the Ku Klux Klan.
The debate over the square had raged for a decade, ever since the KKK won permission to erect a cross.
THE ENQUIRER
For years, a Jewish group has been lighting a huge menorah in Fountain Square to celebrate Hanukkah. And this year has been no exception.
What's different this year, however, is that the group Chabad did not file a lawsuit against the city of Cincinnati to get approval to light its menorah. The agency that now runs Fountain Square, the Cincinnati Center City Development Corp., granted permission without putting up a fight.
"It really felt good," said Rabbi Sholom Kalmanson, leader of Chabad of Southern Ohio, a Jewish outreach movement.
Kalmanson said that, in prior years, he'd grown accustomed to sitting in court during the weeks leading up to Hanukkah, battling for the right to light a menorah on the publicly owned land.
"It almost became part of life, so to speak," said Kalmanson, referring to the time spent in court.
To celebrate how easy it was to get approval this year, Chabad organized a parade of 35 cars Wednesday night, with menorahs attached to the top of them, to the lighting ceremony.
Then, Chabad lit an 18-foot menorah and a 5-foot menorah. Hundreds of people filled the square to celebrate the sixth night of Hanukkah.
After the ceremony, they ate potato pancakes and jelly doughnuts, which are symbolic Hanukkah foods.
In April 2004, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals declared that a city law banning all private displays on the square was unconstitutional, ruling in favor of Chabad, which argued that the constitutional right to free speech entitles it to hold the lighting ceremony.
The ruling was a defeat for city officials, who had hoped a new law would eliminate disputes over the placement of menorahs and crosses on the square by private groups, including the Ku Klux Klan.
The debate over the square had raged for a decade, ever since the KKK won permission to erect a cross.
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