Rights Group Challenges Cambridge Creche

Although city officials have received no complaints about the nativity scene recently placed on the Cambridge Common, the local branch of a Jewish advocacy group said yesterday it would challenge the manner in which the creche is displayed on public property.

A spokesman for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of B'Nai Brith said the group will petition the city manager next week to add a disclaimer to the religious model which will clearly identify its sponsor as a private organization.

"It's not clear that what Cambridge is doing is legal," said Sally Greenberg, East Coast civil rights director for the ADL. The nativity scene on the Common "has the imprimatur of public sponsorship by appearing in a public park and that perception is a problem for us," she said.

"If it's in a public park, most people assume that it's put up by the city," Greenberg said.

Local officials said yesterday that the city does not own the scene any longer. In 1982, Cambridge sold the creche to the local Knights of Columbus after a city dispute about the constitutionality of owning and, displaying a religious symbol, City Solicitor Russell B. Higley said yesterday.

The Knights, a nationwide Roman Catholic organization, bought the nearly seven foot tall nativity scene from the city for one dollar, said Cambridge City Councilor Walter J. Sullivan, a member of the Knights.

The creche, located at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Garden St., features almost a dozen figurines depicting the story of Jesus's birth in a Bethlehem manger 2000 years ago.

Higley, the city's top lawyer, said that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a similar 1984 case that privately-owned creches can be displayed legitimately in public places.

But Greenberg said that the Court's decision did not clearly apply to the Cambridge situation because the creche in the Pawtucket, Rhode Island case was located in a privately-owned mall.

"We don't intend to sit back without complaining that this is a violation of church and state," she said. "At the very minimum we believe there should be a disclaimer."

Greenberg said that a similar case in Concord, N.H., was resolved Thursday afternoon when the city manager there announced that the town would place a sign next to a Knights of Columbus creche on city land in front of the state house. The sign said that Concord did not endorse any demonstration of religion.

Such a sign in Cambridge would be unnecessary and inappropriate, said Walter Sullivan, because "the whole city knows" about the controversy three years ago and subsequent sale.

City Councilor David E. Sullivan, however, said he objects to the notion of a creche on the Cambridge Common. "I do think it's inappropriate for the city to be sponsoring religious displays, which is essentially what's going on here."