Jewish 1L Asked To Add Menorah To Holiday Display. Law School Instead Removed Christmas Tree.

National Post, Student Request to Display Menorah Prompts University of Alberta to Remove Christmas Trees Instead:

A University of Alberta law student says she’s frustrated after her request to display a menorah in a study space led the faculty to instead remove Christmas trees.

Rachel Cook said she approached staff at law student services Tuesday after noticing Christmas trees, garlands and other seasonal decorations around a campus lounge. She offered to provide an electric menorah to mark Hanukkah and supplement another menorah lit on campus Thursday.

While the response was initially positive, Cook, who is Jewish, later received an email from a vice dean regarding her “concerns” about the existing decorations. He offered a bookable room for a lighting ceremony or to display a menorah, but said decorations in public spaces were meant to be “non-denominational.” The Christmas trees have since been removed, though a variety of garlands, decorative polar bears and lights remain.

Cook said she never took issue with the Christmas trees and even accepted a candy cane from the vice dean when he dressed as Santa earlier this season. The decision to remove the trees and confine any potentially non-secular displays to an out-of-the-way room has left her baffled.

“I got an email from the vice dean (telling me) ‘No trees either, we’re going to take all those down because of your concerns,’ ” she said. “That’s when I responded, ‘But I don’t have concerns, I actually find them quite pretty. I just wanted to display a menorah.’ ”

Toronto Sun Editorial, Stop Undermining Season of Goodwill:

Before some university administrators and politicians destroy any modicum of goodwill among Canadians during the holiday season, we want to wish all of our readers a Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas.

This in light of a growing number of fiascoes such as the University of Alberta’s response to a request by a Jewish law student to add an electric menorah to a holiday display in a student lounge, alongside the Christmas trees already there.

Instead, the university turned down her request and removed the Christmas trees.

Daily Mail, Law Student Slams Woke Canadian University That Refused Her Request to Display a Menorah in Study Space - Then Removed All its Christmas Trees as Well

Jewish Law Student, Who Asked University of Alberta to Ensure Her Safety, in Limbo at Final Exam Time:

Rachel Cook, a first-year law student at the University of Alberta, asked the school in Edmonton on Nov. 29 about accommodations for Jewish students, such as she, who missed classes on antisemitic “days of rage” on campus during when she didn’t feel safe.

“I did not want those absences to count against my grades,” Cook told JNS. She also asked the university about supporting Jewish students and safety on campus.

“They agreed to get back to me on Dec. 1 and did not do so, leaving me a few hours before a final wondering if it was safe to go to campus,” she told JNS on Monday, three hours before her final was scheduled.

Half an hour before the start of the exam in a French class, Cook still had not heard back from the university. “If I don’t hear back, I will take the final and hope future employers recognize why my grades this term were affected,” she told JNS. “That being said, if there is any relevant threat to my safety, I will have to stay home.”

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