Jews for Christmas!

Unusual question: Which innocent victims of hostile attack were the most surprised to be greeted with hostility of any kind?

Obviously, we can’t nominate policemen in a high-crime neighborhood or soldiers on a battlefield. How about the victims of 9/11? That’s about as close as you can get. I can think of only one other incident whose victims might edge 9/11’s victims out, because the 9/11 victims were all random innocents. The ones I’m about to suggest were led to believe they were the absolute safest people in the entire land.

In Cairo my Egyptian guide took me to the shrine of Ali Pasha (Mohammad Ali), who came to Egypt from Albania in the early 19th century when Egypt was under the Ottoman Empire, and he told me this grotesque story. Ali was a humble tobacco salesman who somehow won the favor of the upper Ottomans and was given Egypt as his province to run.

In looking for a way to bypass all other authorities and go into business for himself, Ali invited every other person of influence in the realm to a gigantic party at his place. All the sisters were fair and all the brothers were valiant. Once they were assembled in luxurious festivity, his troops quickly and efficiently massacred all of those honored guests, except one man who, Hollywood-style, was able to jump from a balcony directly onto his horse’s back and make his getaway.

This may seem an odd way to get into the matter of the murder of Christmas, but to me it has that same quality of utter ambush out of nowhere. The attack on Christmas is nothing like the campaign for a woman’s right to “choose,” the embrace of racial quotas in college entrance, or the right of law-abiding citizens to bear arms. Those efforts go ploddingly along forever.

This is more like The Night of the Long Knives, or a 9/11 against Christmas, or a Pearl Harbor against Christianity itself.

In 1968 the New York Times published an op-ed piece I wrote recalling the feelings of a Jewish boy in North Carolina loving absolutely everything about the full-dress, throttle-out celebration of – not “holidays,” not the “winter festival,” not any “season” that called for “greetings,” but Christmas. Do you hear me? CHRISTMAS! And I mean Christmas in the public schools.

The point of the piece was how much I loved the music and the trees and the ornaments and the shepherds and the wise men and the candy canes and how that annual long-awaited Yule immersion neither “humiliated” me nor “isolated” me nor deflected me one spiritual inch from my own beautiful Jewish religion.

When an American chief of state is invited to another country on the other side of the world and treated to a native folk dance he genuinely enjoys, that doesn’t necessarily make him less a fan of his own American culture. Likewise, a no-mistletoe-barred Christmas celebration in the public school delighted me tremendously and converted me not at all.

The headlines tell us now of a current counter-rampage in favor of celebrating Christmas without shame, without apology, and without proceeding as gingerly as a nudist crossing a barbed-wire fence. This new pro-Christmas outburst is said to be triggered by the emergence of so many religious faithfuls in the last election who hadn’t really been heard from before.

Welcome back, all you Christmas lovers of all religions! I was on that front line 40 years ago begging organizations and individuals who were trying to stifle Christmas in the public schools to cut it out! “Who are they hurting?” I’d shout. “There are a lot of Christians around. They like to celebrate Christmas. They’re not forcing US to take part! Lay off! Leave them be! What’s the big deal?”

The assault on Christmas did not start with shock-and-awe. It began with a kind of quiet courtesy. Christians themselves began to consider the sensitivities of non-Christian children. (Where was I when those “sensitivities” were handed out?) “Happy Holidays” and the like became a way for Christians to say, “We don’t wish to impose our Christmas upon others.”

Like much that starts out politely, it turned into a society-splitting brawl. Protests against a nativity scene on the lawn of City Hall morphed into the obliteration of the Christmas Pageant at the public school, which led to the tilting askew of any two sticks or bars that might otherwise be viewed as a cross, the outlawing of the colors red and green together, and finally – even as the “F” word gained warmer and warmer welcome in our media – the designation of “Merry Christmas” as the new profanity.

(When communism took over Yugoslavia in 1945, it gave wry satisfaction to those anti-communists who saw the dilemma of communist political correctness. As an officially atheistic state, no mention of God was to be uttered. Yet the most common Serbo-Croatian word for “Goodbye” was “Zbogom” – literally, “With God.” It took the communists years to popularize the alternative “Do Vidjenia” – “See you later” – to replace the forbidden mention of the Deity!)

So, as Christmas was undergoing its “Kristallnacht” even before the current intensified pogrom of no carols, no gifts, no Salvation Army bell ringers at Target stores, and not even the utterance of the name of this toweringly vital Christian holiday, there I was – lonely if not all alone – wishing they had contests to see which Jew knew the most verses of the most Christmas carols.

I have a dream – “Jews For Christmas,” a vigorous movement of American Jews rising up to make sure nobody pushes around those Christians whose ancestors decided, for the first time in history, to make a unique wonderland like America, where nobody gets pushed around because of his God-loving ways. Before you other Jews rush to join me, let me warn you: This movement will be EXTREMIST.

Why do I so insist? No longer as a small child enthralled with all the joy, beauty and fragrance of Christmas as I knew it. This time as a grownup driven by history.

Never in history, not until America, did a people overwhelmingly of one religion ever conquer a continent and then turn around and invite the world to “Come on over and help us make this place great!” And while they were at it, they made sure every newcomer was free to worship God in his chosen way.

If the emcee at a brotherhood banquet said that and then said, “Let’s hear it for those Christians who started this particular America!” would you fail to applaud?

I feel like a draft-dodger merely voting for those who’d like to see the restoration of the American Christmas and then merely hoping they prevail. I want to say to the American Christians:

“Hey, fellows. You all relax. We non-Christians owe you one. From the birth of this American republic you’ve made sure WE have every right to religious freedom. You Christians deserve to sit this one out. WE who have been the beneficiaries of your enlightened governance now want to go out and fight and win this one for you.”

There’s a good tactical reason for those of every religion other than Christianity to get behind the Christians. The target of the assailants isn’t just Christmas. Study their intensity. Study their persistence. They’re, in too many cases, downright anti-Christian and anti-faith itself.

The “Church-State” mantra is merely their non-holy smokescreen and anti-Christmas carol. If we let them succeed in humbling the dominant religion in America, how much longer do you think the rest of us will be able to be ourselves out loud?

Large numbers of my fellow Jews recoil from my Jewish bow toward the Christians. “OK,” goes the refrain, “they got here before we did and they outnumber us. So what. It’s OUR country, too.”

I say to them: “Damn right, it’s our country, too. But American Christians don’t need you to tell them that. The reason it’s our country, too, is because their Christian forefathers demanded that it be so. They were telling YOU it’s your country, too, while your great-grandfather was hiding your grandmother in the hayloft while her sisters were being raped by drunken Cossacks in Minsk.”

Look around at the America the Christians gave us. And look around at the America we’re giving them. The Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson’s newsletter offers a one-liner that clears out clogged passages in the brain: “It is a country in which plastic likenesses of Jesus are banned, but pedophile public school teachers are not.”

The absolute best friend the Jew has had anywhere on earth is the American Christian. If it weren’t for the American Christian, there’d be no state of Israel and no Jew left alive except for those able to fake another religious identity.

Does that remark puzzle you? You’ve heard of World War II. (Once at a Hollywood party a starlet heard somebody mention World War II and piped up quizzically, “World War TWO?” There was an embarrassed hush, broken by comic Henny Youngman, who said: “Yes, dear. You remember World War II. It was in all the papers!”)

During World War II, young Americans not themselves directly threatened went off uncomplainingly to give the British and the Russians much-needed help to destroy Nazi Germany. The American Army at that time was 97 percent non-Jewish because the American population was 97 percent non-Jewish. No poet, no philosopher and certainly no historian can name a better friend of the Jewish people than the American Christian.

The long overdue pro-Christmas backlash is now loose in the land. Bans on “Silent Night” are suddenly lifted. School Christmas pageants are suddenly re-permitted. Children in public schools are suddenly able to give each other gifts even if they’re wrapped in red and green. Let’s hope The Christmas Revolution is too out-of-control to stop.

Except to say to our Christian founders, protectors, rescuers, neighbors and brothers: “MAZEL TOV!”

I am a lapsed Jew, and definitely NOT a Christian, but I am completely offended by the war against Christmas, and have made it a point to wish everybody I see an unapologetic "Merry Christmas" this year.

After all, December 25 is Christmas day whether one celebrates it or not. So if I can't wish a non-Christian "Merry Christmas" -- shall I hope they have a rotten Christmas day instead?

Anyone who is offended by Christmas needs deep and long therapy.

Great article. I just wish the author's Jewish compatriots would listen.

The vast majority of American Jews are still so shackled to the liberal plantation that they cannot see the truth.

A wonderful article which hits the nail square on. The fight that is going on today is a miniature civil war between secularists and traditionalists no matter what their religious leanings. The secularists, in the disguise of the ACLU, are determined to take away our liberties and our unique American culture. They must be stopped forthwith.

It's the birth of a Jew we celebrate, so, why not? :)

Our entire religion came from the Jews, our prophesy's came from the Jews, and Jesus was born the KING OF THE JEWS, so, Why Not?

I have absolutely no problem telling my Jewish Friends Happy Hannukah...sometimes I just forget!

...and have made it a point to wish everybody I see an unapologetic "Merry Christmas" this year.
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I have done the same thing, and even though I shouldn't be, I was surprised at the fact that everyone either ignored me, mumbled something under their breath, or gave me the evil eye. Literally no one has said "Merry Christmas" in return. How depressing.

I too am a Jew for Christmas, and when people wish me a Merry Christmas, I wish them one right back. I enjoy the Christmas holiday spirit, movies, songs, and actually am proud of the Christians who are trying to put a little more of their religion into their holiday!

I don't celebrate it myself but it is enjoyable to see others do so. Lots of the kids at my son's multi-ethnic school had never known how Chanukah was celebrated, and when my son and I gave a little talk complete with goodies, they all had a good time. No one is converted or offended.

I think true tolerance means being curious, understanding, and pleased at the freedom the OTHER religions have to celebrate their way. Tolerance does NOT include getting offended or hostile.

I was surprised at the fact that everyone either ignored me, mumbled something under their breath, or gave me the evil eye. Literally no one has said "Merry Christmas" in return. How depressing.

I am trapped here in blue state (Massachusetts) Hell, but I have had a different experience. I have found several people (store clerks, and even a clerk at the Registry of Motor Vehicles) who wished me the obligatory and flat "happy holiday."

When I responded with a warm "Merry Christmas," they lit up and said "Merry Christmas" back.

Okay, somebody needs to post that poem "When they came for the Jews, I said nothing, for I'm not a Jew. When they came for the Christians there was no one left to speak up for me." Anybody have that?

I think true tolerance means being curious, understanding, and pleased at the freedom the OTHER religions have to celebrate their way. Tolerance does NOT include getting offended or hostile.
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I couldn't have put it better myself. And, since I believe the two coincide this year...Happy Chanukah!

This is how I recall Jwewish kids dealing with Christmas public schools as well, from the Christian side of it.

Thanks very much. Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah to you too.

Quite content, thank you. That was lovely.

I don't know html either. I use the codes on this page. http://mywebpage.netscape.com/Wootsey/freepertips.htm . I've been using computers since before they had hard drives, and could never figure out html. This site is fool-proof.

Cool. Thanks for the link. I learned how to do meta-data in my old job, but I have fallen out of practice, and it never seems to work for me. Plus, I'm keeping an eye on my little ones at the same time, so that's probably a good part of my problem, too. LOL

"First, they [Nazis] came for the Jews. I was silent. I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists. I was silent. I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists. I was silent. I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me. There was no one left to speak for me." (Martin Niemoller, given credit for a quotation in The Harper Religious and Inspirational Quotation Companion, ed. Margaret Pepper (New York: Harper &Row, 1989), 429 -as cited on page 44, note 17, of Religious Cleansing in the American Republic, by Keith A. Fornier, Copyright 1993, by Liberty, Life, and Family Publications.

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