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Is Christmas Good For the Jews?
Virtual Jerusalem ^ | 15/25/2012 | Rabbi Benjamin Blech

Posted on 12/26/2012 8:11:23 AM PST by Former Fetus

My parents told me many times how much they dreaded the Christmas season.

Living in a little shtetl in Poland, they knew what to expect. The local parish priest would deliver his sermon filled with invectives against the Jews who were pronounced guilty of the crime of decide, responsible for the brutal crucifixion of their god and therefore richly deserving whatever punishment might be meted out against them.

No surprise then that the Christian time of joy meant just the opposite to the neighboring Jews. The days supposedly meant to be dedicated to "goodwill to all" were far too often filled with pogroms, beatings, and violent anti-Semitic demonstrations.

Thankfully, those days are long gone. America is a land that preaches religious tolerance both by law and by culture. Christians and Jews are respectful of each other's religions, and while every so often an isolated incident may mar friendly relations between these faiths, we have in the main learned how to get along in a pluralistic society.

Due to the vagaries of the Hebrew calendar, Christmas and Chanukah may coincide or appear in a variety of different permutations, but almost always they find Christians and Jews both celebrating their respective traditions in December.

And that "calendar conflict" seems to bother some Jews. Of course our problem with Christmas is nothing like the one that afflicted my parents in Poland. The only way we are assaulted today is by way of our eardrums, forced to endure the seemingly endless carols and Christmas songs that have become standard fare for this season. There are no attempts at forced conversions. No one makes us put up a miniature replica of the Rockefeller Center tree in our living rooms. No one beats us up because we choose not to greet others with a cheerful "Merry Christmas." But still...

I hear it all the time. Jews verbalizing their displeasure with public displays of Christian observance. Jews worried that somehow a department store Santa Claus will defile their own children. Jews in the forefront of those protesting any and every expression of religiosity coming from those with a different belief system than ours. Christmas, they claim, is by definition a threat to Judaism and to the Jewish people.

And I believe they are mistaken.

Yes, America was wise enough to posit the separation between church and state. We know the danger of governments favoring one religion over another. But the intent of the Founding Fathers was never to negate the importance of any religion. The United States identifies itself as "one nation under God." Belief in a higher power has been the source of our divine blessing. And as Jews I think we ought to recognize that today the greatest challenge to our faith is not another faith, but faithlessness. Our greatest fear should not be those who worship in a different way but those who mockingly reject the very idea of worship to a higher power.

Our children today are threatened by the spirit of secularism more than by songs dedicated to proclaiming a holy night. We live in an age in which Christopher Hitchens can find millions of dedicated readers devouring his best-selling works, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, as well as The Portable Atheist: Essential Reading for the Nonbeliever.

Living among Christians who demonstrate commitment to their religious beliefs to my mind is a far better example to my coreligionists than a secular lifestyle determined solely by hedonistic choices.

Surrounded by Christmas celebrations, I have never had difficulty explaining to my children and my students that although we share with Christians a belief in God we go our separate ways in observance. They are a religion of creed and we are a religion of deed. They believe God became man. We believe man must strive to become more and more like God.

We differ in countless ways. Yet Christmas allows us to remember that we are not alone in our recognition of the Creator of the universe. We have faith in a higher power.

To be perfectly honest, Christmas season in America has been responsible for some very positive Jewish results. This is the time when many Jews, by dint of their neighbors' concern with their religion, are motivated to ask themselves what they know of their own. To begin to wonder why we don't celebrate Christmas is to take the first step on the road to Jewish self-awareness.

My parents were "reminded" of being Jewish through the force of violence. Our reminders are much more subtle, yet present nonetheless. And when Jews take the trouble to look for the Jewish alternative to Christmas and perhaps for the first time discover the beautiful messages of Chanukah and of Judaism, their forced encounter with the holiday of another faith may end up granting them the holiness of a Jewish holiday of their own.

So this Christmas, pick up a good Jewish book or attend a Jewish seminar. Or check out my online course, Deed and Creed at JewishPathways.com, which explores the key philosophical differences between Judaism and Christianity.

Call me naïve, but nowadays I really love this season. Because together all people of goodwill are joined in the task to place the sacred above the profane.


TOPICS: Evangelical Christian; General Discusssion; Judaism
KEYWORDS: christianity; christmas; hannukah; jewsandchristmas; jewsandjesus; judaism
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To: wideawake

The pogroms did happen, they were brutal and frequent. And, yes, they did get more intense at Christmas and Easter.


21 posted on 12/26/2012 10:41:03 AM PST by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
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To: left that other site

I put Chanukah Gelt in the family Christmas stockings. There is a fairly large Jewish community where I live, the Hallmark stores cater to them, they carry Chanukah Gelt and it’s usually on sale by the time I’m looking for stocking stuffers. They’re sort of cool looking, the right size and it’s good chocolate.


22 posted on 12/26/2012 10:49:47 AM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: kabumpo
That is great.

Even more so when you consider My Catholic Mother is British and my Father is a German Jew.

Its Amazing they get along at all!

If you don't mind me prying who is who in your family?

elohim yevarekh otakh(a)

23 posted on 12/26/2012 11:01:40 AM PST by KC_Lion (Build the America you want to live in at your address, and keep looking up.-Sarah Palin)
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To: wideawake

Are you a progrom denier?


24 posted on 12/26/2012 11:02:05 AM PST by Daveinyork (."Trusting government with power and money is like trusting teenaged boys with whiskey and car keys,)
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To: kabumpo
The pogroms did happen,

Correct.

they were brutal

By definition.

and frequent.

They came in fits and starts - there would be a long string of incidents, there would be a lull, and then another long string of incidents.

And, yes, they did get more intense at Christmas and Easter.

That's the first thing you've said in this post that is inaccurate.

In point of fact, the waves of pogroms in partitioned Poland/Lithuania/Ukraine/Belarus that characterized the 1880s and the early 1900s were occasioned by political events in which Jews were targeted as scapegoats by various political factions.

There are plenty of Jewish and non-Jewish accounts of the Warsaw and Bialystok pogroms - none of the contemporary accounts blame Christmas sermons for the impetus.

The Catholic Church, in particular, had very strong incentives to oppose pogroms in partitioned Poland - purely out of self-interest.

The bulk of the pogroms of that era (the era when Rabbi Blech's parents would have been children) took place in Orthodox-majority areas - but I do not believe the Orthodox clergy were the impetus there, either - it was again a matter of politics to which religion was secondary.

25 posted on 12/26/2012 11:09:28 AM PST by wideawake
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To: wideawake

“Victim” aggressive racists make most crap up about their enemies out of their sick imaginations. This anti-Christian b.s. is still running strong in Leftist Jewish Americans. Uppity Jesus is still a VERY big deal to the brain dead leftists.

We saw it on display from the Palm Beach Dem leader at the convention. Hate is not pretty and it is ravishingly dishonest. It’s alive and well in liberalism. Isreal and here.


26 posted on 12/26/2012 11:11:03 AM PST by SaraJohnson
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To: RegulatorCountry

See, Our Families were “Multi-Cultural”, but they came by it naturally, because America was the “Melting Pot”. Nowadays it is artificial, forced, and not at all pleasant, unlike OUR Memories!
Merry Christmas!


27 posted on 12/26/2012 11:14:40 AM PST by left that other site (Worry is the Darkroom that Develops Negatives.)
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To: mnehring
They put up a Nativity but all the characters have a skeptical look.

That sounds like a line from Jackie Mason.

≤}B^)

28 posted on 12/26/2012 11:18:22 AM PST by Erasmus (Zwischen des Teufels und des tiefen, blauen Meers)
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To: Former Fetus

Personally, I find his tone offensive - snidely portraying Christmas as a loud vulgarity. Also, how old is he? As of WW II there were no more shtelels, because there were no more Polish Jews, so this account about his parents seems to be more likely to be about his grandparents.


29 posted on 12/26/2012 11:20:39 AM PST by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
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To: left that other site

It is a Jewish feast that we Christians might have taken up as part of Advent, because Judas Maccabeus was a kind of precursor to Jesus Christ and his rededication of the Temple something that Our Lord Himself must have celebrated.


30 posted on 12/26/2012 11:29:13 AM PST by RobbyS (Christus rex.)
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To: kabumpo
He is 80. His parents may have been raised in shtetl communities. He himself was born in Zurich and raised in Zurich and New York - cities which were, at the time, overwhelmingly Christian and were also environments in which his family thrived and prospered in peace.

His attitude is condescending and unhelpful.

31 posted on 12/26/2012 11:30:27 AM PST by wideawake
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To: RobbyS

Actually, it IS in the Gospel of John, that Jesus went “Up To Jerusalem to Celebrate the Feast of the Dedication”. Most folks don’t realize that this is Chanukah.

I don’t think they had draydles back then though! LOL

Merry Christmas to You!


32 posted on 12/26/2012 11:34:48 AM PST by left that other site (Worry is the Darkroom that Develops Negatives.)
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To: KC_Lion

Well, you got what I call the lucky combination - a caring, responsible father and a mother who was probably sane. I got an “every man for himself” Irish Catholic father and an out of a Woody Allen movie Jewish mother. Not a happy family. But I did get a rigorous religious education. I still can’t believe it when I meet Ivy League grads who don’t know basic stories from the bible.


33 posted on 12/26/2012 11:40:27 AM PST by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
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To: kabumpo
Thank You for your kind words.

Yes, I do consider my Parents to be the best ever.

They gave up alot to make a good life for my younger Sister and I.

I still never the less pray your parents are still all right.

My Mother always pushed to make sure we would have Both sides Religious Education, so you are correct with being more informed on where things came from.

Those Ivy Leaguers home's probably never evened mention the Religious Significance of Christmas. Let alone ready from the Bible when Religious Holiday's rolled around.

Maybe that is why there are so many Atheists up those Ivory Towers.

34 posted on 12/26/2012 1:33:34 PM PST by KC_Lion (Build the America you want to live in at your address, and keep looking up.-Sarah Palin)
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To: Former Fetus
Jesus made it clear, if the so-called Jews believed Moses, then they would believe him.
For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if he believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? (John 5:46,47)

Jesus is God. But the so-called Jews say they worship God, but reject Jesus. What does the Bible say?

Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son the same hath not the Father: but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. (1 John 2:22,23)

They worship something called "God", but it is not God. It is a false god, one of their own making. Since they don't have the Son, they don't have the Father. Christians who think so-called Jews worship their God, don't know the scriptures.

Christmas is good, if the gospel message is preached. It must be preached to all, including so-called Jews.

35 posted on 12/26/2012 1:56:22 PM PST by nonsporting
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To: Former Fetus

“They are a religion of creed and we are a religion of deed. They believe God became man. We believe man must strive to become more and more like God.”

It is statements like these that make it difficult for Christians and Jews to get along.

Do you really believe that Christians don’t strive to become more like God? Do you really believe that the Christian faith is not one of action as well as creed?

Then explain the thousands of missionaries across the world that do millions of good deeds to help their fellow men in the name of Christ. Christians around the world are building schools, digging wells, manning hospitals, and doing what they can to protect innocents in war zones.

Christianity is more than just a religion of creed. It is a religion of deed. Besides, how is the whole “striving to be more like God” thing working out?

God Himself, speaking through a psalmist, said “there is none righteous”. If no man can measure up to God’s standard (perfection)the only way to have relationship with God is through a perfect Sacrifice.

That is the thing that Judaism misses: Jews are still looking for One to come and bring peace to the world> Christians understand that God sent His Son to bring peace in the human Heart and relationship between God and man.


36 posted on 12/26/2012 5:18:19 PM PST by truthczar2000 (All English translations are just that.)
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To: Former Fetus

>> “I have used my studies on the Hebrew Holy Days to learn more about Christianity!” <<

.
Good, because YHVH’s appointed feasts are just as important to Christians as to Jews. They are the heart of Biblical Christian worship that have been denied for over 1600 years, but are now being reestablished to their rightful place by Yeshua’s remnant.

Christians can now worship in the same manner that Yeshua’s disciples did.


37 posted on 12/26/2012 5:42:49 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: KC_Lion

Both my parents are deceased. They got divorced when I was very young. It was difficult being from a mixed marriage. One group was consistently unpleasant to me.


38 posted on 12/26/2012 6:46:36 PM PST by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
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To: KC_Lion

Both my parents are deceased. They got divorced when I was very young. It was difficult being from a mixed marriage. One group was consistently unpleasant to me.


39 posted on 12/26/2012 6:47:38 PM PST by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
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To: kabumpo
I am sorry to hear that.

When I was young my Parents managed to shield my sister and I from any unpleasantries from either side of the family.

But once we got older however, that was a different story.

40 posted on 12/27/2012 7:41:39 PM PST by KC_Lion (Build the America you want to live in at your address, and keep looking up.-Sarah Palin)
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