Naperville will add menorah to its Santa display

The Naperville Park District will add a menorah to its holiday display that currently features Santa Claus.

Commissioners, feeling they could face a lawsuit, took up the matter behind closed doors Thursday.

The park district had rejected an earlier request by the Chabad Jewish Center of Naperville to display the candelabrum. However, the majority of the board on Thursday agreed to accept the menorah donation and make it part of the display at the Riverwalk.

Rabbi Mendy Goldstein, director of the Chabad Jewish Center of Naperville, thanked the park district and said it "means a lot to the Jewish community."

"This is a message for each and every one of us to constantly add light to our own personal life and I'm glad and happy that Naperville will be joining the hundreds of thousands of communities around the world that have a public menorah," Goldstein said.

Goldstein had sent a letter to the park district last month asking for permission to add the menorah to the park district's Santa House display along the Riverwalk. The park district turned him down, saying its ordinances prohibit any private entity or person from erecting any kind of symbol or message at the Riverwalk.

The only place on the Riverwalk such displays are allowed is at the Free Speech Pavilion when it is not being used by another group. However, the park district is currently using the pavilion for the Santa House.

In an interview with the Daily Herald Wednesday, Chabad attorney David Fish said it would be illegal discrimination to display Christian symbols but reject the Jewish ones.

Park district attorney Derke Price disagreed, saying that only applies when a government entity is letting private groups display their symbols. In this case, the display is being created by a public body - the park district.

Park district commissioners discussed the issue in closed session Thursday calling it a matter of "imminent litigation."

"His (Fish's) conversations with me were of a nature I was told by him that I needed to express to my client the risk and exposure they had under the Supreme Court cases," Price said after the meeting. "That's sufficient to go to imminent litigation."

The majority of the board agreed to accept the menorah and make it part of the holiday display.

"Rabbi Goldstein of Chabad offered to make a gift to the park district. We accepted it in the holiday spirit and we wish everyone happy holidays," board President Mike Reilly said after the meeting.

The menorah could be installed as early as today near the Dandelion Fountain.

Menorah: Jewish community is thankful