13 Responses to “Merry Christmas: for Jews”

1. Bugs Says:
   December 21st, 2007 at 1:54 pm

   My only Jewish acquaintance takes the season in stride. He says that in the home he celebrates one holiday, outside the home he celebrates as many as he can. At the very least, he’s pretty sure hating Christmas won’t make it go away.

   In short, he’s an observant but very tolerant Jew. Some people could learn a lot from him.

2. sharon Graham Says:
   December 21st, 2007 at 2:52 pm

   Very beautiful and I thank you for linking to it.

3. Michael J. Totten Says:
   December 21st, 2007 at 4:39 pm

   Being offended by Christmas in America is like being offended by Yom Kippur in Israel or Ramadan in Jordan. No one in the Middle East assumes I am Muslim, but when I go to Israel lots of people assume I am Jewish and speak to me accordingly. I can’t imagine being upset with those people for doing it. Where’s the offense?

   I am not religious, though I suppose I am culturally and generically “Christian” as I was baptized Catholic and went to a Protestant church when I was kid. It just does not occur to me to be annoyed at “Merry Christmas.” It is a secular as well as a religious holiday.

   I say “Merry Christmas” to other people, as do plenty of my neighbors in my thoroughly secular leftist neighborhood in the Pacific Northwest.

4. Mitsu Says:
   December 21st, 2007 at 5:01 pm

   I’ve never been remotely offended by “Merry Christmas” even though my family is not Christian — we are Japanese-American. Christmas, to me, is a cute American holiday with nice trees and gifts and all that. I sang Christmas carols with gusto when I was a kid and it still gives me happy memories when I hear them sung now. We celebrated Christmas, tree and presents and all, when I was a kid and even today. The big holiday for Japanese is New Year’s Day, but we do Christmas as well, just because that’s what people do in this country (and even in Japan Christmas is a pretty big deal though very few Japanese, percentage-wise, are actually Christian).

   Of course, many people forget that most of the symbols of Christmas were from pagan holidays that preceded it — the tree, and even Santa Claus were likely taken from other, non-Christian, myths and holidays. So, really, Christmas as we celebrate it in the US is not even all that exclusively Christian, at least in terms of the overall symbolism. I suppose that’s one reason it’s become a fairly popular holiday around the world, even in non-Christian countries like Japan.

   However, I have to say I find the whole anti-”Happy Holidays” thing pretty silly, as well. People have been saying “Happy Holidays” for a very long time, and it’s never struck me as in the least offensive, either. What’s the big deal? Is it really so offensive to Christians for a store to have a big “Happy Holidays” sign as opposed to “Merry Christmas”? Sure, being offended by “Merry Christmas” seems a bit overmuch, but to me the current paranoia over “Happy Holidays” is just laughable. It seems to me people should just relax.

   Did the Founding Fathers want freedom for religion or freedom from religion? What they wanted was, specifically, that the state not become involved in the establishment of religion. That really does include not having the state specifically sanction one religion. Were they “deeply religious”? The fact is many of them were Deists, which basically means they thought God was no longer involved in running the world. That’s not really a “deeply religious” point of view at least by the standards of modern-day fundamentalists.

   Merry Christmas — sure! But Happy Holidays, too.

5. Synova Says:
   December 22nd, 2007 at 1:48 am

   One place that I worked the supervisor warned us all not to say Merry Christmas to one lady because she was a Jew and she hated it. We complied, of course, as best we could, but I didn’t see how it helped to make her feel better to say a happy Merry Christmas to everyone else and clam up when we walked by her desk.

   Really.

   It would have been so much better if a “Merry Christmas” was simply returned with a smiling “Happy Hanuka” or even something like “I don’t celebrate it, but I hope you have a wonderful Christmas.”

   Though the only thing wrong with “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings” is being compelled to use them.

   Surprisingly, Mitsu, I think that Santa Claus likely has a Christian origin that has sort of gotten weirder over time with the toys and elves and stuff. The tree and holly and whatnot seems to have pagan origins, though realistically, if you’re going to have a party mid-winter evergreens and red berries are the available decorative elements in ages without brightly colored plastic. And lights. Midwinter is dark. Any party in mid-winter is going to involve lights.

   And, when it comes right down to it, people need a party mid-winter and asking pagans who converted to give up their party was sort of doomed to failure so why not take a (then very) minor holy-day and move it to midwinter? (I know Christians who de-emphasize Christmas… and apparently the Pilgrims didn’t celebrate it at all because it was associated with drunken parties… and greatly emphasize Easter, minus the Bunny and Eggs.)

6. Truth Says:
   December 22nd, 2007 at 8:38 am

   Nice posts by Yaacov Ben Moshe, but there are few points should not be left that Yaacov Ben Moshe rose in his post.

   First as the new world created give hope to the people who look for better and brighter future most of them had one goal to reach the new world land and start new life, thus the long journey filled with dreams make those who reach that land forgot or can say put their faith on hold for awhile and the speedy new life took all their motivation and time make other things marginalized include the religion side.

   Secondly Yaacov Ben Moshe brings his family suffering mixed with other things then roll over US doing in Iraq and to Iraqis, I don’t know what’s Yaacov Ben Moshe knows about Iraq and Iraqis a part from the point he mentioned in his post but let face the reality here, we got almost 8millions Iraqis refuges either abroad or inside Iraq, the recent UN agency reported there are 5millions Iraqi kids lost their dads and Mums!! So on and so forth let’s not forgot that there were 0.5 millions Iraqi babies lost during inhuman sanctions for 13yeras, wonder what the Iraqi things with the Crismiss then comparing Yaacov Ben Moshe family suffering 50 years ago?

   Thirdly Yaacov Ben Moshe as he is a Jew he may support Israel as the only a democratic in ME but he kept tied lips what those Palestinians suffering from the continuing occupation of their land by Israelis.

   May be useful to bring some the suffering that causing by Israelis who supported by US which Yaacov Ben Moshe feeling prod of his country and the value of old US leaders set for US but what we see those value forgotten in our time or at least when it’s come to ME.

   On Nov. 18, in the beautifully appointed ballroom of Manhattan’s posh Grand Hyatt Hotel at Grand Central Station, the Hebron Fund held its annual fund-raising gala. According to organizers, guests paid upward of $300 a head, with anything above the cost of the dinner considered tax-deductible. The evening began with a reception in an anteroom featuring a buffet of gourmet foods. A chef in a tall hat worked a stir-fry station; another expertly sliced sashimi and rolled sushi. A dessert table overflowed with cakes and chocolate mousse. A flute and piano duo played easy-listening versions of vaguely recognizable classics.

   
   

   Today there are between 500 and 600 settlers living in the center of the city, guarded by 4,000 Israeli troops. They live among nearly 200,000 Palestinians.

   The opulence of the recent Grand Hyatt event in New York stands in stark contrast to the brutal reality of life for the Palestinians who must live amid the settlements supported by the Hebron Fund’s charity. Like most of the West Bank and the entirety of Gaza, the Israeli occupation has transformed Palestinian Hebron into an open-air prison in which any sort of normal life is impossible. Hebron’s Palestinian citizens regularly endure round-the-clock curfews. They are effectively under house arrest, sometimes for weeks at a time. Violence at the hands of settlers is also a fact of Palestinian life in Hebron. The Israeli human-rights organization B’Tselem states that attacks by settlers “include beatings, blocking of passage, destruction of property, throwing of stones and eggs, hurling of refuse … urinating from the settlement structure onto the street,” and that “the soldiers and police who witness attacks fail to take sufficient action to stop the attacks and enforce the law. At times they do nothing.”

   Underwriting the Conflict in Hebron
   By Matthew Duss
   And more:

   “The truth is that nearly every Palestinian has many reasons to be fed up with life to the point of suicide and thoughts of revenge, and those thoughts are not linked only to military attacks. Even without killing, the Israeli occupation regime kills — hope, plans, relationships, ways of life. Living among Palestinians brings daily examples of the thousands of shades that despair has, just as the regime of occupation and colonization brings with it thousands of variants of material and mental abuse. Every moment, people mourn for the lives they could have had and which they are not experiencing. How explosive is the daily insult which people experience, under a foreign rule that decides who will live in their own houses and who will not, who will have access to their lands and who will not, when the bulldozer will tear up your grandparents’ land in order to attach it to a highway and a green settlement, who will waste several hours every day at a checkpoint, who will send their children to university and who will send them to beg, who will lose their source of livelihood, who will see their family and when, and who will not. Massive is the insult felt by the many who depend on charity. Added to all this, of course, is the constant opprobrium of a disappointing and failed Palestinian leadership and the absence of hope in its ability to effect change.”>

   “Where are the suicide bombers?”
   By Amira Hass

   And finally the Christmas looks far from real historical event and massage its drifted more as business / Shopping and a holiday its far from real historical event and meaningful.

7. Vince P Says:
   December 22nd, 2007 at 8:57 am

   Thirdly Yaacov Ben Moshe as he is a Jew he may support Israel as the only a democratic in ME but he kept tied lips what those Palestinians suffering from the continuing occupation of their land by Israelis.

   The Palestinians have brought all their misery onto themselves. All of it.

   Plus Israel is not occupying Gaza.

8. Truth Says:
   December 22nd, 2007 at 1:46 pm

   Ordinary Palestinians continue to bear the brunt of the ongoing crisis. In addition to continuing fatalities from direct Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 2007 saw a dramatic increase in deaths and injuries due to internal Palestinian violence. The poverty rate stands at 57%[1] and food insecurity affects 34%[2] of the population. The impact has been particularly severe in Gaza which has been effectively sealed off from the rest of the world since mid-June. Few residents can now exit Gaza, even in the case of medical emergency, and only limited commercial and humanitarian supplies can enter Gaza. A complete halt to the import of raw materials and exports to Israel and the wider world resulted in 75,000 Gazan employees laid off by mid-September. Dependency on agencies such as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and WFP now stands at 80% in Gaza, which will further increase due to the continuing closure of Gaza’s external borders.

   http://ochaonline.un.org/cap2005/webpage.asp?Page=1629

9. Mitsu Says:
   December 22nd, 2007 at 1:59 pm

   Somehow, I find the idea of talking about Santa Claus more amusing than the subject of the last two posts.

   I’ve read several accounts of the origin on Santa Claus — from articles online, he seems to be a strange combination of a variety of traditions, ranging from the possibly mythical St. Nicholas to features from various pagan legends, etc. Some believe St. Nicholas may never have even existed as an actual person.

   Here are a couple amusing pages about Santa Claus:

   http://www.religioustolerance.org/santa1.htm
   http://www.lone-star.net/mall/main-areas/xmas-santa-origin2.htm

10. Katrina Says:
    December 24th, 2007 at 5:42 pm

    Mitsu:

    The Happy Holidays issue only became an issue for Christians in the last while. There is nothing offensive about the phrase in itself, the problem lies in the pressure to remove the religious from the holiday.

    For example, my kids have been told that they can’t say Merry Christmas at school, they must use Happy Holidays or Seasons Greetings instead to keep from offending someone.

    It’s this PC nonsense where other cultures are encouraged to keep even the less civilized aspects of their own practices, but people with a caucasian/European background are not allowed to say something as harmless as Merry Christmas. They no longer have a Halloween party, they have a Rocktober Fest, Easter Break is now Spring break etc.

    I fully recognize that Christmas is in fact a pagan holiday pulling double duty as a birthday party for Jesus. If I remember my history correctly, the Catholic Church melded pagan celebrations with Christian traditions wherever possible, including Easter, etc.

    As the actual date of his birth is open to debate, I see no harm in Christians enjoying the pretty decorations as long as they keep in mind that we are really here to remember what his love means to us. People too easily get caught up in what they buy for one another and how much they spent, that it can be quite destructive. I remember seeing a study showing that credit card debt accumulated during the Christmas season contributed to a higher than normal suicide rate in January and February!

    Anyway,

    Merry Christmas, Happy Channukah to everyone.

11. Assistant Village Idiot Says:
    December 25th, 2007 at 12:28 am

    Truth, your death and refugee numbers are simply bizarre. If there were only 10 million people of parenting age in 1990, and there are 10 million now, how could 5 million children have lost their Dads and Mums? Take a moment to think, not just repeat propaganda.

    Back on topic. My wife is annoyed at “Happy Holidays” but I can’t see the point. Katrina is likely close to the mark when she notes that it is the enforced nature of the generic phrase that rankles. I accepted long ago that this is a post-Christian nation, and adjusted my expectations accordingly. As a practicing Christian, I expected worse.

12. Perfected democrat Says:
    December 26th, 2007 at 1:34 am

    Vince P Says:
    December 22nd, 2007 at 8:57 am
    “The Palestinians have brought all their misery onto themselves. All of it.”

    ….and they’re especially lucky they’re fighting the Jews and not people more like themselves…..

    Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Holidays!

13. Ymarsakar Says:
    December 26th, 2007 at 8:38 am

    ….and they’re especially lucky they’re fighting the Jews and not people more like themselves…..

    Europeans, from Hitler to their divine monarchic rulers, had an easy time with messing around with the Jews. Then they fought Americans and crumpled every which way.

    Big difference in difficulty scale.

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