A Losing Battle?

Burbank is a unique place, a small Midwestern town accidentally transplanted next to Hollywood. While most outsiders equate Burbank with NBC studios, Carson and Leno, townsfolk see it as a small haven amidst the chaos of Los Angeles. It has its own city hall, police, firefighters and school district, and all are determined to maintain that hallowed but oft-forgotten value: civic pride.

One of the ways it maintains this pride is with a strong sense of tradition, including the invocation before Burbank City Council meetings. The invocation has been under the auspices of the local ministerial association for more than 50 years. Because for much of that time the city was primarily white and primarily Christian, the prayers have tended to follow suit, often ending in “in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ” or similar conclusions. Unlike other parts of the San Fernando Valley, the assumption of most longtime Burbankians is that you are Christian unless proven otherwise.

As a reporter for the local paper in Burbank during the early 1990s, I was quite familiar with this attitude, even writing about it in two columns (from which I received some interesting hate mail, the mildest telling me to “go back to Israel where you belong”). This was a city where if you were Jewish you weren’t so much discriminated against as ignored. No menorah or Stars of David among the City Hall decorations in December or at the local mall, no Passover goodies beyond a box of matzah at the smaller markets, and forget about finding a decent pastrami on rye, much less a kosher bakery. Other non-Christian cultures fared about the same.

So it came as a shock to the Burbank City Council when, about a year ago, Jewish Defense League (JDL) chairman Irv Rubin filed a lawsuit seeking to prohibit the city from using prayers invoking the name of Jesus Christ. Rubin had attended a council meeting in November 1999 on an unrelated matter involving the expansion of the Burbank Airport. The meeting began with a sectarian prayer given by a Mormon minister and was followed by the John Burroughs High School choir performing “Silent Night.” Rubin was already involved in a lawsuit in Rosemead brought by a Catholic man, Alejandro Gandara, against that city’s government for allowing sectarian prayers (including Buddhist chanting) before their meetings. When the JDL’s outspoken leader was finally allowed to address the Burbank City Council about the airport, he took the opportunity to blast city officials for both the invocation and the performance by the choir.

“I told them they were breaking the law and violating the First Amendment, but they did not take me very seriously,” Rubin said. “I talked about how for many years, in the name of Jesus Christ horrible acts of cruelty and barbarity have befallen the Jewish people and what it feels like as a Jew to have to say a prayer like that. I told them we are supposed to be an inclusive society and their policy is really exclusionary, but they did not care.”

Rubin filed suit shortly thereafter, and on Nov. 16 of this year, a Superior Court judge found in his favor. The ruling by Judge Alexander H. Williams III stated that “the prayer in this case violated the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution” which is found in the First Amendment and prohibits the government from taking any steps to effect the establishment of religion. The court then issued an injunction prohibiting the inclusion of sectarian prayers at the City Council’s meetings.

“The Court fully understands the reluctance of the City Council and the Burbank Ministerial Association to dictate the content of prayer,” read Williams’ ruling. “All that is required is an advisement that sectarian prayer … is not permitted under our Constitution.”

Burbank city officials find this ruling unacceptable and intend to appeal.

“The issue was whether the government should tell people how to pray and we don’t think that’s the government’s role,” said City Attorney Dennis A. Barlow.

“What [the judge] told us is that we have to tell people, ‘This is what you can and cannot say,’ and that doesn’t seem right. Also, he didn’t tell us what happens to the city if following this ruling someone gives a sectarian prayer. We often have Rabbi Paula Reimers [of Temple Emanu El] come, and she speaks in Hebrew; is that sectarian? I spoke with the ministerial association, and they are very concerned; they asked if they should bring a toothbrush with them in case they get arrested. It puts the council in a very difficult position.”

Barlow said he had never heard of any prior complaints before Rubin’s. Aaron Levinson, director of the Valley office of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), said he, too, had never received any formal complaints in his four years as director but after hearing about the case did offer in a letter to City Manager Robert “Bud” Ovrom and the City Council to send the ADL’s suggested guidelines for prayers at city council meetings. Barlow responded to the letter on behalf of the council but made no reference to Levinson’s offer.

“We’ve written to different cities, including Burbank, saying this had been brought to our attention and offering to provide written guidelines,” Levinson said. “Some responded and some did not. [Barlow] wrote back and pointed out that they have a rotating cadre of religious leaders giving the invocation that reflects the religious diversity of the community. However, in the ADL’s opinion, to invoke the name of Jesus in a City Council meeting just as one might do with another religion’s deity is to violate the separation of church and state.”

In terms of the ongoing case, ADL officials have chosen not to join Rubin in the lawsuit, believing there are better ways to resolve the issue. For his part, Rubin said he has been disappointed in the lack of support from the Jewish community, in particular local clergy in Burbank. The city boasts a Reform synagogue, Temple Beth Emet, a Conservative synagogue, Temple Emanu El, and a new Chabad congregation. Temple Beth Emet’s rabbi, Mark Sobel, said he could see both sides of the issue but agreed with the spirit behind the lawsuit, if not Rubin’s methodology.

“I see Irv’s point. I understand the prayer was not inclusive and that prayer before government bodies should be as inclusive as possible,” Sobel said. “However, I also agree with the ADL [spokesperson] who would have tried to get the matter settled quietly, meeting with people privately to discuss possible solutions and coming to a consensus.”

Sobel, who is a member of the Burbank Ministerial Association, said he believes that fellow clergy intended no harm by their prayers.

“I understand as a member of the clergy how easy it is after many years to fall into a habit of giving the prayer that you are used to,” Sobel said. “On the other hand, when I have spoken to the City Council and used Hebrew, I always translated so people did not feel disenfranchised. The mysteries of faith don’t need to be alienating.”

Sobel said he is concerned that the city’s appeal of the lawsuit may lead to problems for local Jews.
“I think the city of Burbank fighting the lawsuit is going to elicit responses from elements who will take this as a signal for anti-Semitism,” he said. “I hope not, but it could, and then we will deal with them with our allies who are true Christians.”