A spokeswoman for the bureau said the bureau was proud of its traditional interfaith party, which aimed to bring the various religions closer together and increase tolerance.
It may be the season to be jolly, but an interfaith party planned for the children of Haifa's Jewish, Christian and Muslim lawyers has failed to capture the holiday spirit, reports Yediot Haifa. The Jewish lawyers have objected to the idea of their children sitting on Santa's knees, saying the fat man's shadow hangs over the murders of hundreds of thousands of Jews. According to the report, the Haifa district lawyers' bureau recently decided to hold an inter-faith party in honor of Hanukka, Christmas and Ramadan. But some Jewish lawyers were less than enchanted with the idea of Santa Claus and a fir tree appearing at the party. One Jewish lawyer wrote to the bureau, complaining that "in his shadow hundreds of thousands of Jews were murdered in the course of history." The lawyer added that parents and grandparents of the children at the party had fought wars or been killed in concentration camps because they did not worship Christian symbols. A spokeswoman for the bureau said the bureau was proud of its traditional interfaith party, which aimed to bring the various religions closer together and increase tolerance. She said it was "a shame" that some people were trying to plant discord instead of working toward harmony.