At first blush it seemed an odd thing for an observant Jew to do: Slogging my way through morning rush-hour traffic to get downtown to demonstrate against the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors\’ decision to remove a small cross from the county seal.

And yet, I felt compelled to be there. The supervisors had already capitulated, in a 3-2 vote, to a threat by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to sue the county over the cross. Surprised by the public outcry, the supervisors called for another vote to consider a so-called \”compromise\” with the ACLU in which the cross on the seal — just one of a dozen various symbols of the region\’s history — would be replaced by a mission. But as one clever observer noted, a mission without a cross just looks like a Taco Bell.