Though the night is cold and dark.
In our soul, there lies a spark.
Each of us, is one small light.
All together, we shine bright.
(Classical Hanukkah song)
Monuments are better neighbours than people - this idea can
easily come to mind when observing how the number of 'functioning'
lights multiplies in the chanukiah (special set of nine candles) placed
in the Vincas Kudirka square near the Government building. The place,
previously known as the Municipality square, has been restructured and a
rather
controversial
monument to the famous patriotic writer, the author of the
Lithuanian anthem, was built. These days forgotten debates about his
place in Lithuanian history have been reignited, on no other occasion
than to remind the population of his 'folkish' anti-semitism (see
commentaries by
Donskis,
Vasiliauskaitė;
defense of Kudirka by
Zaborskaitė).
Kudirka is known for publishing, in the early stage of his career,
collections of classical anti-semitic beliefs. Now his monument, which
reminds some critics of young Lenin, is a silent, non-pretentious
neighbour to the only public menorah in central Vilnius. Seems like a
no-drama situation, even though I was paranoid enough to wonder whether
the menorah will face a snowball attack from local basketball fans after
Tel Aviv Maccabi won against Kaunas Žalgiris in the Euroleague (one of
the main basketball championships in the region) on the second day of
Hanukkah (I also wonder how many times the Tel Aviv team toasted to the
Maccabees that night). But even if the locals had seen a connection, it
is Kaunas' team, not Vilnius, that lost.
Unfortunately, bad news
arrived from the place I lived in just so recently (and what the
connection with Hanukkah is, I will explain below). On Tuesday 'dozens'
of municipal rabbis in Israel, paid from taxpayers' money,
signed
a ruling forbidding the renting of apartments to Gentiles
(non-Jews) and particularly Arabs (from as much as I know the context,
the ruling is something like a
fatwa
by Ayatollah Khomeini against Salman Rushdie - people will follow
if they highly respect this authority, but there is no universal
religious validity). Although the ruling was condemned by many human
rights groups and a couple of members of the Knesset, and even the Prime
Minister, I haven't heard that any of these rabbis would be fired. Here
is a translation of
an
editorial from Yediot Achronot - there's not much to add. It's just
that I can't help but react sensitively to such processes happening
unhindered in a place I left so recently. I remember my former landlord,
partly observant, who was worried about the multiple pressures
resulting from renting apartments for guest-workers (there are plenty,
and they already find it hard to find an affordable place). Obviously, I
don't doubt his or most of other landlords' sanity. But the ruling will
legitimise the racism of those landlords who do want to discriminate (I
hope that the civil government will take action to punish them
disregarding the local-level religious ruling).