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Why I Love Christmas: A Jewish Perspective
Jack Engelhard
Up and down the street where I live, half the homes are lit up with Christmas trees, the other half with menorahs. The days are good and the nights are silent. Most of the time we can’t tell the difference between Christians and Jews. We’re too busy being just plain old Americans.
You have Christmas. We have Chanukah. You have Easter. We have Passover. Does this separate us? No, this unites us, for together, this land is our land.
If this sounds corny, well it is.
However, I am offended. Across this nation, in cities, towns, villages and school districts, Christians are being told that they cannot celebrate Christmas openly. Here, there and everywhere, Christians are being sent into hiding if they want to sing carols, display nativity scenes, herald the Ten Commandments, or praise Jesus. Even Santa is not kosher.
I am Jewish, and Jesus is not my God…so why am I so offended at what I take to be an agenda of persecution against Christians?
This is not a scholarly approach, so let me simply say that American Christianity is a marvel, a near miracle of tolerance and, better yet, loving-kindness. American Christians do love their neighbors as themselves. I know this from the pavements I walk, the streets I drive, the sandlots where I root for the home team. I am free to visit your church, and you would be most welcome in my synagogue.
How this happened is a mystery. But the difference between European Christianity and American Christianity is as vast as an ocean.
Let others provide the history and the details. For me it is enough to remember that Europe plunged its Christianity into the Nuremberg Laws and a Holocaust that has existed in one form or another for some two thousand years, and continues to this day. Europe finally produced Hitler.
AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY produced Jefferson, Lincoln, and a document that opens with these words: “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility… and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do order and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Sound familiar? It should if you know the Hebrew Bible, as this from Leviticus: “Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”
Here, in this land, more often than not, those words have been turned into deeds.
Yes, we are a Judeo/Christian nation, and if it gets any better than that, I don’t know where.
Only Israel itself compares, the Israel of before, and the Israel of today. Israel is where our American heritage begins.
As Jews, we do not pray to Jesus, but we stand in admiration that true Christians adhere to His message of love, taken from our Scriptures. We respect your devotion as you respect ours. We honor your faith as you honor ours, even as we pray separately but live equally, in friendship.
From “The Hebrew Impact on Western Civilization,” we get this: “How closely the Puritans identified themselves with the Israelites is hard to over-emphasize…They actually thought of themselves as a new Israel…If Israel had its Pharaoh, so did the Puritans in King James 1. The Atlantic Ocean was to them the Red Sea. America was the new Canaan…The first book printed in America was the Bay Psalm Book.”
Of course we have our self-haters, bigots and anti-Semites. Openly or in secret, they pray in favor of America’s enemies and promote any cause that would harm or even destroy Israel. But they do not define this country. Let their curses turn into blessings.
Give me, instead, those Christian Evangelicals, all 70 million of them, or those 60 million Gentiles who turn Christian but once a week or twice and year.
Away with the restrictions and laws that deny Christians their Christianity.
Let me watch them praise their Lord with Christmas trees and jingle bells, for these are a reminder to me, a Jew, that I live in this land, this land of mostly Christians that have kept the promise of my ancestor, the prophet Micah, that this house be blessed by the shade of that vine and fig tree, and none shall make us afraid.
Author’s Note: This was published several years ago, but I thought it might be worthwhile to bring it up again.
Source: Jack Engelhard. Why I Love Christmas: A Jewish Perspective. FamilySecurityMatters.org (24 December 2007) [FullText]
Up and down the street where I live, half the homes are lit up with Christmas trees, the other half with menorahs. The days are good and the nights are silent. Most of the time we can’t tell the difference between Christians and Jews. We’re too busy being just plain old Americans.
You have Christmas. We have Chanukah. You have Easter. We have Passover. Does this separate us? No, this unites us, for together, this land is our land.
If this sounds corny, well it is.
However, I am offended. Across this nation, in cities, towns, villages and school districts, Christians are being told that they cannot celebrate Christmas openly. Here, there and everywhere, Christians are being sent into hiding if they want to sing carols, display nativity scenes, herald the Ten Commandments, or praise Jesus. Even Santa is not kosher.
I am Jewish, and Jesus is not my God…so why am I so offended at what I take to be an agenda of persecution against Christians?
This is not a scholarly approach, so let me simply say that American Christianity is a marvel, a near miracle of tolerance and, better yet, loving-kindness. American Christians do love their neighbors as themselves. I know this from the pavements I walk, the streets I drive, the sandlots where I root for the home team. I am free to visit your church, and you would be most welcome in my synagogue.
How this happened is a mystery. But the difference between European Christianity and American Christianity is as vast as an ocean.
Let others provide the history and the details. For me it is enough to remember that Europe plunged its Christianity into the Nuremberg Laws and a Holocaust that has existed in one form or another for some two thousand years, and continues to this day. Europe finally produced Hitler.
AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY produced Jefferson, Lincoln, and a document that opens with these words: “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility… and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do order and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Sound familiar? It should if you know the Hebrew Bible, as this from Leviticus: “Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”
Here, in this land, more often than not, those words have been turned into deeds.
Yes, we are a Judeo/Christian nation, and if it gets any better than that, I don’t know where.
Only Israel itself compares, the Israel of before, and the Israel of today. Israel is where our American heritage begins.
As Jews, we do not pray to Jesus, but we stand in admiration that true Christians adhere to His message of love, taken from our Scriptures. We respect your devotion as you respect ours. We honor your faith as you honor ours, even as we pray separately but live equally, in friendship.
From “The Hebrew Impact on Western Civilization,” we get this: “How closely the Puritans identified themselves with the Israelites is hard to over-emphasize…They actually thought of themselves as a new Israel…If Israel had its Pharaoh, so did the Puritans in King James 1. The Atlantic Ocean was to them the Red Sea. America was the new Canaan…The first book printed in America was the Bay Psalm Book.”
Of course we have our self-haters, bigots and anti-Semites. Openly or in secret, they pray in favor of America’s enemies and promote any cause that would harm or even destroy Israel. But they do not define this country. Let their curses turn into blessings.
Give me, instead, those Christian Evangelicals, all 70 million of them, or those 60 million Gentiles who turn Christian but once a week or twice and year.
Away with the restrictions and laws that deny Christians their Christianity.
Let me watch them praise their Lord with Christmas trees and jingle bells, for these are a reminder to me, a Jew, that I live in this land, this land of mostly Christians that have kept the promise of my ancestor, the prophet Micah, that this house be blessed by the shade of that vine and fig tree, and none shall make us afraid.
Author’s Note: This was published several years ago, but I thought it might be worthwhile to bring it up again.
Source: Jack Engelhard. Why I Love Christmas: A Jewish Perspective. FamilySecurityMatters.org (24 December 2007) [FullText]
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