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Defying 'Silent Night' in Pennsylvania [Angry Liberal Christmas-Hater]
Jerusalem Post ^ | Dec. 25, 2005 | Judy Maltz

Posted on 12/25/2005 10:37:22 AM PST by Alouette

I must admit that I never knew the lyrics to "Silent Night," that most famous of Christmas songs, until I was well into the prime of my life.

There was no reason I should have, though. Growing up in a tightly knit Orthodox community in New Jersey, I attended Jewish day schools and Jewish camps and was active in Jewish youth movements, as insulated from the Gentile world as anyone could possibly be.

My first real contact with non-Jews came during my college years in New York, but even then, most of my closest friends were Jewish, and my Christmas experiences, if you could call them that, were limited to an occasional sip of eggnog at a dormitory party.

Most of my adult years were spent in Israel, also among Jews, though not necessarily Orthodox ones.

Then, a few years ago, my husband, Amit, was offered a faculty position at Penn State University, with an adjunct position for me thrown in as part of the deal. It sounded like the perfect antidote to our crazy lives in Israel: a quiet college town surrounded by mountains and streams, endless kilometers of bike paths, a three-minute commute to work, great public schools with an average of 18 to 20 children per classroom. Without deliberating much, we packed up our possessions and four kids and headed out to rural America for our little adventure.

The truth is that after living so many years in Israel, we didn't give much thought to what Jewish life would be like out there in central Pennsylvania. We knew there was a small Jewish community centered around the university, one small synagogue with several hundred members, yet no full-time Jewish schools. But that was fine for us. After living so many years in Israel, we thought it would be a good idea for our children to experience something they could never experience in the Jewish state: feeling what it was like to be part of a minority.

James Carville, the political consultant and former Clinton aide, once said that Pennsylvania is Philadelphia on one side, Pittsburgh on the other, and Alabama in between. This Alabama is precisely where we landed in the summer of 2004 with four Hebrew-speaking children who had never seen snow, sung Jingle Bells or heard Silent Night.

But not for long.

Right after Thanksgiving, when the neighbors began decorating their homes with Christmas lights and trees, we were able to confirm what we had suspected from the start: that we were the only Jewish family on the block. Next to all the brightly lit and ornamented homes, many of them featuring Nativity scenes on their front yards and giant Santas on their roofs, our own unlit undecorated house stuck out like a sore thumb.

Our third child, Iddo, then five years old, pleaded with us to dress up our house like all the others. Those lights are for Christmas, we tried to explain to him, and Jewish people don't celebrate Christmas. "Not even one teeny, tiny light?" he begged.

If that's when we learned we were outsiders in the neighborhood, our children had already discovered that they were not like everyone else in their respective schools. Matan, then in fifth grade, and Tamar, in third, turned out to be the only Jewish children in their public school. Iddo had one other Jewish child in his.

It was at about this time last year, when our children had their first exposure to Christmas, that we received an invitation to an evening event at their school called the "Holiday Sing." All we were told was that the children would be performing songs for their parents that they had learned in their music classes.

How could we have known what we were in for? It all started rather innocently with the children singing what we have since learned are called "secular Christmas songs" - an oxymoron if there ever was one. Granted, the name of Christ was not mentioned in these songs, but watching my little Jewish children up there on the stage with their classmates singing Christmas classics like Jingle Bells and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer did make me cringe.

And that wasn't the worst of it.

After the children had finished performing, a group of parents handed out sheets with the lyrics to all the songs that would be sung in the next part of the event, the group sing-along. That's where I was introduced for the first time to the lyrics of Silent Night. To say that I was stunned to find myself in an American public school surrounded by parents and children singing out verses like "Christ, the Savior is born," "Son of God, love's pure light," and "Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth" would be an understatement.

The auditorium was so crowded that Amit and I were forced to sit at opposite ends. Somehow, though, we managed to exchange horrified glances across the room. Silent Night was followed by several other religious Christian songs, and then, as if to add insult to injury, Dreidel, Dreidel, I Made it Out of Clay - a silly Hanukka song popularized in America.

After we came home and put the children to sleep, Amit and I stayed up late talking about what we should do, feeling rather sickened by the entire experience, but thankful, at least, that our children were still not fluent enough in English to understand what had been taking place around them.

What was clear to us was that singing songs glorifying "Christ, the Savior" in our children's school was a no-no. But as the new Jews on the block, we asked ourselves, should we share our concerns, risk ruining everyone else's Christmas party and having ourselves ostracized in the community, or should we simply just not attend the following year?

The decision was made for us when Tamar, now in fourth grade, joined the school choir earlier this year and informed us with great excitement that the members had begun practicing for the upcoming "Holiday Sing." The thought of our darling Tamar standing up on the stage singing Silent Night and other Christmas carols is what prompted us to action. What we didn't realize was that by taking a stand on what has become a highly sensitive issue in America today - the right of the Christian majority to celebrate Christmas wherever it wishes - we had taken sides, the wrong side it emerged, in the so-called "war against Christmas."

We asked to meet with the school principal. We were na ve enough to believe the matter could be resolved in a short, friendly chat. We'd tell her that it was very uncomfortable for us, as Jews, to take part in a school event in which religious Christian songs were being sung, and she'd say that she was terribly sorry, that she had no idea this was offensive to non-Christians, that she had no idea that Dreidel, Dreidel was not the religious equivalent of Silent Night, and the Christmas carols would be removed from the program.

But the conversation proceeded along rather different lines. When we questioned the appropriateness of having Jewish children sing songs that refer to Jesus Christ as "the Lord," the principal became defensive, arguing that there was nothing unconstitutional about singing religious songs in a public school, as long as it wasn't during school hours.

What's more, she explained to us - introducing us then to a term she would use more than once when trying to justify religious activities in her school - banning Christmas songs from the school would be "robbing the babies." She also warned us that we might want to think twice about pursuing the matter, because forcing our views onto other parents in the school might have the effect of "having fingers being pointed at your children."

Having made her own position crystal clear, the principal then absolved herself of any responsibility, pointing out that the "Holiday Sing" was not a school event, but rather a PTO event (a distinction we have yet to comprehend), and therefore it was best that we address our grievances to the PTO.

We did that several weeks later, and the PTO not only "got it" but voted unanimously to take all religious Christian songs out of the program. Unprompted by us, the PTO also decided to rename the event "Winterfest" rather than "Holiday Sing." The only person attending the meeting who expressed reservations about the decision was the principal, who suggested we all think carefully about the ramifications of "robbing the babies" of their Christian songs.

We assumed the entire issue was behind us, until we received the invitation to the upcoming "Holiday Sing" - not "Winterfest" as had been decided - and realized that something was amiss. A few phone calls later, we understood that the principal had bowed to pressure from several dissenting parents and had unilaterally overruled the PTO decision to ban religious Christian songs from the school event. All this, without bothering to inform those of us who would obviously be offended by their inclusion.

The next day we called the superintendent of the school district and asked to have our children transferred to another school in the district right after Christmas break, a school I knew had other Jewish children and a much more ethnically diverse population.

With the encouragement and support of the local Jewish community, we also requested a meeting with the superintendent to present our grievances, not threatening legal action, but then again not ruling it out entirely.

At the same time, a far bigger drama involving the issue of separation of church and state was being played out in another Pennsylvania school district not far away from us, in this case over the constitutionality of teaching "intelligent design" in public school biology classes. The ensuing court battle, which made international headlines, ended last week when a federal judge ruled that teaching intelligent design - which holds that the universe is so complex that it had to have been created by a higher power - is the equivalent of promoting religion in school and, therefore, unconstitutional.

We were somewhat amused by the reaction of one of the school board members who had been behind the attempt to change the biology curriculum out there in Dover County, Pennsylvania. "We didn't lose; we were robbed," he said. Once again, that reference to robbery.

The day Tamar told her classmates she was leaving the school, I encountered the father of a classmate of hers, a reverend of a local Lutheran congregation. "Why not?" he asked, when I said we did not feel religious songs should be sung in American public schools, in response to his queries about our decision to pull Tamar out. "I think it's intolerant to demand that Christians not be able to sing their songs."

And by the way, he said, he was happy that his daughter had had the opportunity to meet a Jewish child and learn "lots of things" about the Jewish religion. "Tamar taught my daughter that 'shalom' means hi, bye and peace," he said.

Sad, but true. Just a-year-and-a-half in America, and my children now feel more Jewish than they ever did in Israel. Tamar understands exactly why we've pulled her out of school. Iddo, who has a general idea, has found his own way to assert his beliefs. After complaining for several days that a child in his class had "bragged" to him that Christmas was a better holiday than Hanukka, he decided to take revenge. "I told all the kids in my class at lunch that Santa was dead," he informed me the other day.

I'm not so sure that Iddo is convinced, though, because the next day he asked me if he could send a hate letter to Santa. "Why would you want to do that?" I asked. "Because he's a big fat jerk," he replied.

We did not attend the "Holiday Sing" this year. But I know that our presence was felt. Otherwise, how to explain why the principal, as reported to me by others who attended the event, greeted the audience with the following words: "I know I'm taking a risk by saying this, but Merry Christmas everyone."

Thanks to this attitude, I find myself today painfully familiar with the lyrics to Silent Night. In fact, waging my own private Christmas war has forced me to learn them by heart.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Extended News; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Philosophy; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: antichrist; christmasmusic; condescendingliberal; culturewars; diversity; fingjewbastard; hanukkah; hypersensitivity; sendthemtoisrael; waronchristmas
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To: Chickensoup
Go to the Jeruselm post and read the postings.

I see the JPost "talkback" has been FREEPED :)

Judy is getting seriously bashed in the forum over there, out of 200 posts I think fewer than 10 were in her support.

201 posted on 12/25/2005 8:41:38 PM PST by Alouette (This tagline has been banned or suspended.)
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To: Alouette

Wow! This sick scumbag, Judy Maltz, should pack her crap and go back to Israel.
People who support the "tyranny of the minority" and who think nothing of wiping out Christmas for 99 kids just so that one kid's mother is not "offended" should be set on fire.


202 posted on 12/25/2005 8:46:58 PM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: Lancey Howard
who think nothing of wiping out Christmas for 99 kids just so that one kid's mother is not "offended" should be set on fire.

that's a bit extreme. But I wouldn't mind seeing her placed in a pillory on the town square.

203 posted on 12/25/2005 8:50:53 PM PST by Alouette (This tagline has been banned or suspended.)
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To: Clemenza
Besides, you can always send your kids to a Yeshiva

Actually, I don't think she can, unless she's willing to send them to someplace at least 3 hours away. Local School Districts here in central PA have been very successful at keeping competition out. There are very few private schools - the catholic school just started going past 6th grade a couple years ago, and I heard the Christian school closed. No other private schools past 6th grade, because PA law makes it very onerous to have middle or high school as a private school. I've often suspected that the local school district is quick to report the few private schools we go have, for infractions of rules that the public schools don't have to follow...

204 posted on 12/25/2005 8:56:02 PM PST by Kay Ludlow (Free market, but cautious about what I support with my dollars)
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To: packrat35
There is nothing you could say about this story that would be anti-semetic. This woman is a crybaby gloryhound who seems to have nothing better to do than screw up her own kids and hamstring the Christian members of her community.

She and her family are a minority in a situation that they freely chose. MINORITY. Used to be that the MAJORITY rules, but not so anymore because of people like this dreadful woman.

Don't like Christmas pageants because they are about the birth of Jesus Christ? Stay home. Doh.
205 posted on 12/25/2005 8:58:31 PM PST by ishabibble (UNITED WE STAND DIVIDED WE FALL)
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To: Alouette
Right after Thanksgiving, when the neighbors began decorating their homes with Christmas lights and trees, we were able to confirm what we had suspected from the start: that we were the only Jewish family on the block. Next to all the brightly lit and ornamented homes, many of them featuring Nativity scenes on their front yards and giant Santas on their roofs, our own unlit undecorated house stuck out like a sore thumb.

I would like to gently remind Judy that in her corner of the world, you know you're the only Jew on the block when the neighborhood is brightly lit by incoming mortar rounds and RPGs.....

206 posted on 12/25/2005 8:59:24 PM PST by He Rides A White Horse (unite)
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To: Alouette
Oh, by the way, feel free to hang a brightly lit Star of David on your door and join the festivities. We aren't offended by such things in America. At least most of us.

Promise.

207 posted on 12/25/2005 9:05:39 PM PST by He Rides A White Horse (unite)
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To: montag813
Why not just tell them that "Dreidel" is pap,and suggest more religious Jewish songs?

As someone who attended the school district she's talking about in the 1960's-70's, I have to say we didn't learn Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel. We learned Hava Nageela, and did the Hanukkah celebrations in elementary school to learn more about our Jewish classmates. I find it hard to believe the the schools have become LESS diverse since then rather than more. I know my children, in school there, had a primarily secular experience, leving me to teach them my religion outside of school.

208 posted on 12/25/2005 9:10:25 PM PST by Kay Ludlow (Free market, but cautious about what I support with my dollars)
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To: Alouette
I've known people like Judy Maltz.

They're the ones you invite over to dinner, grill some steaks, pop the cork on a bottle of wine...and they bitch about the vintage being the "wrong year".

209 posted on 12/25/2005 9:20:25 PM PST by okie01 (The Mainstream Media: IGNORANCE ON PARADE)
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To: Alouette
why isn't there more anti-Amishism?

Actually, there is a fair amount of anti-Amishism. The are often described in unflattering terms by SOME of those who live near them. Local governments are betraying their own anti-Amish sentiments by passing and enforcing regulations that really only apply to the Amish (no horses in R1 zoning, Walker Twp Centre Country PA, when the Amish were the only ones with horses). Never heard of any Amish bombing anyone over it though...

210 posted on 12/25/2005 9:21:01 PM PST by Kay Ludlow (Free market, but cautious about what I support with my dollars)
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To: okie01

"...I've known people like Judy Maltz...."

Dittos

And we she leaves a room everyone says, 'how does her husband put up with her?'


211 posted on 12/25/2005 10:00:03 PM PST by investigateworld (Abortion stops a beating heart)
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To: Alouette

In my grade school - 40 years ago - we sang christmas and hannuka songs, and "let there be peace on earth" - with a Jewish kid as soloist. If anybody had a problem with singing songs from another religious tradition, I never heard about it. I don't know what's happened in the intervening years.


212 posted on 12/25/2005 11:24:54 PM PST by churchillbuff
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To: churchillbuff
If anybody had a problem with singing songs from another religious tradition, I never heard about it.

It's called "respect". Most Christians (not all, but most) respect other religious traditions.

Indeed, the same could be said of courteous people adhering to any religious tradition. But, evidently, not Judy Maltz...

If this woman were a Christian, she'd be bitching about the Jews...

213 posted on 12/25/2005 11:54:25 PM PST by okie01 (The Mainstream Media: IGNORANCE ON PARADE)
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To: Alouette
I think post #34 sums it up best. Might I add however....

Dear Judas...er, Judy:
The Moon is a satellite of the Earth. It revolves around the Earth.
The Earth, along with the other planets and their respective orbiting moons, revolve around the Sun.
The Sun, along with the planets and their moons, form a Solar System that orbits the center of a galaxy known as the Milky Way.
The Milky Way is part of a larger system of galaxies known as the Local Group which, along with other groups of galaxies, orbits the center of the Universe.
That central point in the Universe, Judy...is NOT YOU!

Let me add one final comment to Judy: When you have achieved the staus that Jesus holds in our society, then you can tell us how we must worship. Deal?
My guess is that wouldn't even spit in our general direction, let alone die on a cross for our sins.

214 posted on 12/26/2005 12:47:52 AM PST by Ignatz (cyborg: "The lay teachers could not make hands of some girls.")
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To: okie01
If this woman were a Christian, she'd be bitching about the Jews...

If she were a Muslim, she'd be hacking the heads off of anyone who wasn't.

215 posted on 12/26/2005 12:49:20 AM PST by Ignatz (cyborg: "The lay teachers could not make hands of some girls.")
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To: Kay Ludlow
Actually, I don't think she can, unless she's willing to send them to someplace at least 3 hours away.

Then may I gently suggest that, if insulating her children from all things Christian is her goal, she move three hours away?

216 posted on 12/26/2005 12:56:34 AM PST by Ignatz (cyborg: "The lay teachers could not make hands of some girls.")
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To: EDINVA

If I went to live in Israel and discovered that they sang Jewish songs, I wouldn't at all be surprised.

I don't think any adult would be surprised. It would be a time for me and mine to learn a little about a new culture.

I wonder why the Founding Fathers thought it best for us all to simply be adult about these things and get along with our differences, rather than try to force us into some bland homogenaeity that doesn't actually exist in the real world?


217 posted on 12/26/2005 2:08:32 AM PST by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It!)
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To: Alouette

"The truth is that after living so many years in Israel, we didn't give much thought to what Jewish life would be like out there in central Pennsylvania."

She should have thought about what "life" would be like.

Good place to quit reading.

Silly Wabbit!

"Victims" are us.


218 posted on 12/26/2005 3:09:29 AM PST by porkchops 4 mahound ("Si vis pacem, para bellum", If you wish peace, prepare for war.)
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To: Alouette

One can freep that listing.


219 posted on 12/26/2005 5:07:18 AM PST by Chickensoup (Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! Merry Chri)
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To: Ignatz

I'll second that!


220 posted on 12/26/2005 5:16:34 AM PST by Kay Ludlow (Free market, but cautious about what I support with my dollars)
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