Holiday decorations of all sorts — even Cupid, leprechauns and turkeys — would be banned from village-owned spaces under a policy to be considered by the Shorewood Village Board in October.

The draft policy would not allow any individual or group to display any religious or secular holiday-themed decorations in any public buildings or places. Seasonal decorations, like the snowflakes the village hangs from streetlights in the winter months, would not be affected by the policy.

The policy, which was drafted by the human relations commission established last year, was introduced to the village board Sept. 3.

While the snowflake lights hung from street lamps were considered "seasonal" by some village trustees, other symbols, like Frosty the Snowman, were less clear.

"If people are unsure, then it's probably an option that would not be acceptable under the policy we put forth," said commissioner McKenzie Edmonds.

Village President Allison Rozek told other trustees she was not comfortable with restricting secular holiday decorations. The "secular" language was included because Christmas trees have been deemed a secular symbol in the courts, according to Village Attorney Nathan Bayer.

Assistant Village Manager Tyler Burkart said he and Bayer are reworking the policy to make an exemption for temporary holiday decorations during special events, such as the one-day Shorewood Shenanigans event around St. Patrick’s Day.

The commission is expected to discuss the issue again on Oct. 10. The group is expected to bring a final recommendation to the Shorewood Village Board on Oct. 22.

Menorah sparks conversation

The discussion was precipitated by a request to display a menorah in Atwater Park. The request was made in 2017 by Chabad-Lubavitch of Wisconsin, a Hasidic Jewish group.

Because the village did not have a policy about holiday decorations, village officials asked Chabad to wait for its new human relations commission to adopt a policy. The commission started discussing the issue in November 2018, but it was not able to reach a decision in time for Hanukkah that year.

The human relations commission's discussion was also informed by some questions about the use of a menorah in the Shorewood Business Improvement District's Winterfest celebration.

The BID had hosted Christmas tree-lighting ceremonies for five years. The menorah was added in 2017, when the event was rebranded as Winterfest. The celebration takes place in an area between Mod Pizza and a four-story parking garage next to Metro Market.

As preparations were being made for Winterfest 2018, Shorewood Trustee Davida Amenta said she felt like the menorah lighting was included as an afterthought. The event was originally scheduled to take place the night before Hanukkah started, which she disagreed with.

"Hanukkah is not Jewish Christmas. It's a Jewish holiday," she said. "I thought we should bring it up in a way where we are valuing something specific about the holiday."

Amenta said she was feeling "hyper-conscious" about her Jewish faith in the wake of the shooting at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue in October 2018, which was just five blocks from where she grew up.

When Amenta expressed her concerns to the BID, the BID considered removing the menorah from the Winterfest program. The removal of the menorah generated controversy in the Shorewood community.

"If I had to do it over again, I wouldn't have (raised the concern)," Amenta said.

At a human relations committee meeting at the time, Shorewood resident Alyson Lippman suggested Winterfest include a booth with more Hanukkah-specific items. Amenta and Lippman both staffed the Hanukkah table at Winterfest, which was later rescheduled to occur on the last night of Hanukkah.

"It ended up being more inclusive," Amenta said. "We got to a good place."

Potential impact

The discussion about religious symbols caused a new wrinkle in the human relations commission's debate about holiday decorations.

The commission was given three options: to allow no decorations, to only allow secular decorations or to allow all decorations. The commission found that allowing only secular decorations would be complicated because Christmas trees are considered secular by court precedent, according to Bayer.

After months of balancing the freedom of religious expression with the separation of church and state, the commission decided the tough-but-necessary choice was to ban all holiday decorations on public property.

The decorations that village employees hang in their personal work space would not be affected by this policy, Bayer said.

The tree-lighting and menorah-lighting ceremonies at Winterfest will not be affected by the policy, Bayer said, because the event is held on private property.

Technically, the village has a 26-foot-wide public easement to allow pedestrian traffic between the parking garage and neighboring businesses, but Bayer said the property owner has a right to use the property as he chooses, as long as it does not interfere with the purpose of the public easement

Shorewood resident Richard Reinbold said he thought the committee had made "a mountain out of minutia."

He recalled a time when Shorewood High School had a nativity scene and a "Merry Christmas" greeting on the front lawn. He said he would accept a menorah or any other religious symbol to be displayed in public places.

"It seems today that we are worried about possibly offending somebody," he said. "Haven't we heard of tolerance? Acceptance of different people and beliefs?"

Rabbi Yisroel Lein, from the East Side Chabad house, was the applicant who requested the menorah at Atwater Park.

Lein said he was concerned that the new policy would complicate his request to erect an eruv wire, which Orthodox Jewish communities use to create geographic enclosures called eruvs.

In cases where no natural boundaries exist, orthodox Jewish communities pay utility companies to erect extra utility poles and utility wires to create eruvs, which allow them to bypass the restriction against transporting objects outside of the home on Shabbat.

Lein said eruvs exist in Bayside, Glendale and Mequon, but Shabbat-observant Jews on the East Side and Shorewood do not have eruv enclosures yet.

"It just makes things easier for us in a way that has no bearing on anybody whatsoever," he said.

Bayer said the village granted permission to a group to erect eruv wire in 2001, and he does not believe the eruv wire would be considered a holiday decoration under the proposed ordinance.

Contact Jeff Rumage at (262) 446-6616 or jeff.rumage@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JeffRumage or Facebook at www.facebook.com/northshorenow.