Anyway, to “Abi meleibt” I do know of stories of people who lit chanukah menorahs, lit shabbos candles, decided to go to shul on a father’s yartzeit, etc. etc. because of the public dispalys of yiddishkeit by Chabad shluchim. I suggest you pick up the book “Excuse Me, Are You Jewish?” which highlights just a tiny glimpse of the countless stories out there (and reverberations that are felt when a yiddishe heart and neshama, which naturally want to cleave to Hashem, is reminded of who they are).

In fact, I am one such story. In my college days, when I was a secular Jew (a proud zionist, but very secular in my thinking and day-to-day living and not at all interested in frumkeit), I was confronted by a beared rabbi, in public in front of non-Jews, on several occasions on campus. One such occasion had him running a kosher hot dog stand on the main thoroughfare where thousands of students walk each day. He set-up that hot dog stand for the purpose of finding Jews. He was yelling out to people walking by, “excuse me, are you Jewish?” and asking if they want a nice kosher hot dog and soda for lunch for $1 or $2. Being the proud Jew I was, and having met him a couple of times before briefly, I proudly bought a hot dog or two. He, in turn, invited me for Shabbos. I didn’t become a frum yid overnight and, in fact, mostly lived my mostly secular lifestyle until about a month after finishing school, when I decided to start keeping shabbos and kosher. But leading up to that, that rabbi and his colleagues gave me mitzvos to do (despite my resistance and staunch secularism), including partaking in many friday nights for kiddush, seudas mitzvos, bentching, megillah readings, etc. etc. I can only imagine where I would be today had I not met him.

That same rabbi also set-up a hot-dog stand on some motzei shabboses, late at night outside of clubs where young people would be entering and exiting for a night of the worst gashmiusdik partying (again a very public display). I know second hand a story of a young woman who met this rabbi, bought a hot dog, accepted an invitation for Shabbos, became close with the Chabad rebbetzin and is today the mother and wife of a beautfiul frum family in the midwest. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Z’Tz’L, whose teachings and leadership to this day directly and indirectly inspires thousands and thousands of yiddin to live Torah lives everyday, counseled that there is a fire going on in the house of yisroel. His hashkafa was that you have to send firefighters to rescue people from the fire. I believe the Rebbe thought that if you spend too much time worried about whether you are going to get burnt in your rescue mission, you’ve already delayed too long and, chas v’shalom, have lost another yid to secularism and assimilation.

As others have said on this board, the Rabbi in Seattle could not have ever predicted, based on past experience of thousands of public menorah lightings, that the airport would react in such an irrational way. G-d willing, he will be able to use this situation as a catalyst to communicate the meaning of Chanukah to the tens of thousands of yiddin in his part of the country who are mostly assimilated.

Jewish pride is the call of the day. The great gedolim of this generation say we are living in yamei hamoshiach. If Moshiach comes tomorrow, what will happen to the all of the non-frum yiddin? Doesn’t anyone care? We’re arguing that we should NOT remind yiddin that they are Jews with public displays of yiddishkeit because we are afraid of what the non-Jews will say or do . . . after chorbun europe we actually think there is a connection between being TOO Jewish in public and anti-Semitism?

I think if we also listened to the words of chazal and first ensured that how we approach our fellow yiddin STARTS with ahavas yisroel . . . and that all else flows from that . . . we could accomplish so much more.

You really can’t compare Lubavitch in Russia to being in the US today. You just couldn’t get away with that there. Here, albeit there is the more subdued antisemitism, we do have the freedom to do these things.

By the way, the airport has apologised to the Jewish community already and all of the mainstream media is changing their stories, now blaming the airport.

http://www.chabad.org/magazine/article.asp?AID=455712

And here is the underlying issue, most goyim are furious that Yoshke is being taken out of the holiday season. Ever notice how when we were kids everyone would say merry yatzmach & now they all say happy holidays etc. Most goyim think that the Jews are behind this (since many fray yidden are afraid of xristianity and rightfully so, since their kids are intermarrying). Now, when this story broke, they all thought that this is the same Jewish group AJC, ADL, Federations etc who want to secularize the season and they were furious at the Jews. All the Rabbi had to do was get his point out, az ess geyt unz nisht un vegen dayn boim, all we want is a menorah up, as for your tree, leg ess un heng zach for all we care, and this is why the goyim have since calmed down.

PS as for the one who asked why we have a public menorah, ever here of persumey nissa?