Am I the only one who’s thinking about Harrison Bergeron right now?
What about that Battle of Jericho, the one that Joshua fit?
That was God, not us.
If that were the way Chanukah were celebrated in the US, that would be OK; but it isn’t. It’s really pushed by retailers, who know nothing about it, as “Jewish Christmas.” It’s a cynical attempt by retailers to get Jewish dollars in their pockets by making Jewish families feel that they are doing their children a disservice if they do not shower them with gifts at the same time that gentile children are getting them-- and there is a lot of guilt tied in with “keeping up with the goyim” around here, especially in treatment of children, that Israelis can’t understand.
It’s the reason that so many families don’t “impose” kashrut on children. I had one father order a slice of pepperoni pizza for his kid, and when I involuntarily gave him a surprised look, he said “I don’t want him to hate Judaism.”
It’s funny, I grew up in a household that was quite unreligious, in that my mother was an atheist, and my father was lukewarm on synagogue attendance, but we were more observant than a lot of people who would claim to “believe in G-d,” in the name of family harmony. And just other reasons in general. Chanukah was not a big holiday for us-- we got gelt, not gifts, and we had to put half in the bank, because “Chanukah isn’t Christmas.”
My home was kosher, even if my parents ate freely at non-kosher restaurants, and we mostly kept Shabbes, to the point that my brother and I both know how to do so. Any time there was some “reason” not to, like we were on vacation for the weekend, and my parents did want to “waste” a day, we didn’t keep it, but if we were visiting Shabbes-observant family, we knew exactly what to do.
I did not end up hating Judaism. I’m actually fairly observant, with the exception of using the computer of Shabbes. It’s funny, I will get online on Shabbes, but I don’t turn on the TV or radio, and I think it’s because I didn’t grow up with computers.
That really got off-track.
My point is just this: we have Jewish kids here who get all flush with the idea of “Presents, presents, presents,” who don’t even identify strongly enough as Jews to appreciate the idea that we are celebrating a Jewish martial victory. They have no idea what we are celebrating, other than some vague idea of the miracle of the oil, which they are shocked to find out isn’t in the Torah. They don’t know why the light was out, nor why it needs to be relighted. They may not even know what the Temple is when I get them-- I’m teaching 4th grade this year, which is 9 & 10 year olds. They can’t name a modern Jewish hero.
I had third graders last year, and I started teaching Chanukah three weeks ahead of the end of school, first with the origins of the story-- I taught different forms of holy books earlier, so they knew what Talmud, Torah, Mishneh, pirkei avot, the Book of the Maccabees, siddur, machzor, etc., all were. I taught changes to celebration through history; I taught current Israeli martial history and heroes. I had all sorts of games to make it interesting for kids, and to get away from standing in front of them, lecturing them: we had scavenger hunts, quiz bowls, art projects, built a menorah featuring 19th, 20th & 21st century Jewish heroes.
What we didn’t do, like some of the other classes, was devote as entire class time to having a party. Our party was just 15 minutes at the end of the last class, as opposed to our Purim party. We spent an entire class on the Purim party-- albeit, with educational games and activities, but they had free choice of activity, and free access to hamantashen.
Whew. That was way longer than I intended. I need to get to baking, because I promised to send cookies and pastries to my brother and stepfather as soon as the mail was free of all the Christmas clogging, and the weekend had passed. I want to get stuff ready before noon. Made all the dough last night, but still have to bake.
Historically though the big deal of Chanukah in Israel came after its being made a big thing in the U.S. Sure though it is story of military victory against the odds that resonates as theme for the creation of Israel, with the story modern Israelis would like to see as who they are. And one that secular and religious Jews can both have fun with precisely because it has so little religious meaning. Do Israelis at all look at what was done after victory as a cautionary tale at all? Or like American Jews stop the telling at the myth of the oil and the lights?
Well, we do have this…
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=110378
SHTICKS AND STONES MEDLEY
As recorded by Allan Sherman on “My Son, the Folk Singer” (1962)
[Tune: “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho”]
Jascha got a bottle of Geritol, Geritol, Geritol.
Jascha got a bottle of Geritol
And he knocked a hole in the wall.
That’s all.
No wall.
Nah - as far as Israelis are concerned, we fought a war of independence, and won. What happened after that isn’t that interesting (we may have screwed things up, but at least it was us screwing things up for ourselves, and not some foreigners doing it to us). But then, Israelis also celebrate the Bar Kochva Revolt on Lag Baomer.. It may have been one of the greatest catastrophes the Jews ever suffered, but at least they put up a hell of a fight!
I wish I could just upvote that.
♫ So drink your gin & tonica … ♫
>sigh<
Indeed this is true.
This year’s Christmas Story From Retail Hell is the co-worker who complained that I didn’t wish her Merry Christmas. I asked “Did you wish me Happy Hannukah?” She looks blank and says “why would I do that? What does that have to do with you saying Merry Christmas?” I pointed out that I might be quicker to acknowledge her holidays if she’d acknowledge mine. The response? Oh, that’s different, I’m talking about a real holiday. Well, honey, you didn’t wish me a happy new year 5781 back in September, either, and for Jews that’s much more important than Hannukah. Oh, but Jesus is the reason for the season! What, we didn’t have winter before Jesus?
I don’t argue like that with customers, but I have to live with this bigot year round and there’s a limit to how much I’m going to accommodate that stupidity.
Then there was the customer who yelled at me for not wishing the prior customer in line a Merry Christmas. Um… dude, she’s wearing a hijab, I’m pretty sure she doesn’t do Christmas. That’s from a few years ago but it still sticks in my mind.
^ Nicely put.
Then why don’t we just abolish those stupid pageants since no one seems to want them?
So when are you going to start including all the OTHER faiths and traditions - where are the Pagan songs/rituals? Some token inclusion of Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Baha’i, Voudoun, Santeria, and so forth?
Atheists shouldn’t be required to sing the ritual songs of any faith except as part of music history - or because they as individuals happen to like the music.
And you’re missing the point in the OP that the songs being included often are NOT actually “Jewish songs”
There’s also a lot of push to make Hanukkah into “Jewish Christmas” which it most certainly is not, and a total ignoring of Judaism’s actual High Holidays.
The token Jewish song in an otherwise Christian Pageant is to assuage guilt in the organizing goyim and/or cultural appropriation.
Why is anything religious in a public school anyway?
If Purim fell anywhere near Halloween it would be dragged into that one, too, as “Jewish Halloween” and a strong push to eliminate the Bible reading with noisemakers as “too religious” and cut down on the alcohol.
Don’t get me wrong - I have no problem with Christians wishing me a Merry Christmas in a nice way, I view it as them wishing me to have a good day on that day. What I have a problem with are people trying to impose their beliefs on me.
Needless to say, I don’t mention my Pagan leanings at work at all. Or at the Jewish Federation, either.
Yup.
.
I assume its because teachers are lazy and don’t want to teach right before the end of semester break and the music teacher wants to show that she really does deserve a paycheck. I’ll certainly be happier if I never have to go to one of these.
I did include other faiths I included atheists and muslims or did you just miss that. I was going to keep going but Buddhists are less than 1% of the US as are the sikhs. Hindus are about 0.2% of the population so they would get 11 seconds of the production so I figured that using a cut off of groups that would get at least 2 minutes of airtime seemed reasonable.
Atheists should be required to learn about the cultures that surround them. When you are a little kid that means learning the songs of that culture. In the US our dominant culture is christian so the majority of time should be spent learning about their culture but we have other too and the dominant culture (and all of the non dominant cultures too) should be expected to learn about them as well.
The OPs complaint was she could sit in the library and do fun things. I don’t really care if Dreidel is a Hanukkah song or not sure pick another one for the kids to learn but the Jewish kid still has to be part of the class and learn the other songs too. If the OPs complaint was that the dreidel song sucks I would have nodded and moved on but the primary complaint as I read it was that they had to participate with the rest of the class.
Sure, I know that hanukkah isn’t jewish christmas and over all isn’t very important in the jewish religious calendar of course for that matter neither is christmas for christians. I don’t see how teaching that its not jewish christmas is a bad thing. Most of the Jews I know have christmas trees up any how and prefer to do christmas for cultural non religious reasons.
I agree that there is some amount of guilt that the dominant cultures feel about ignoring everyone else cultural traditions. That’s a good thing for the most part otherwise the jewish kid would get to be a part of the christmas pageant and only sing christmas song. Pretending that other cultures don’t exist and don’t have a voice is bad but making all of the kids learn about all of the other cultures around them every day is a good thing.
I generally agree about no religious songs at public school and would certianly be uncomfortable with “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” in a school performance but if we eliminate purely religious celebrations we’re back to 100% Christmas (and the dreidel song) and that seems like a bad thing too. So instead we allow a big of christian religion and a bit of jewish religion and a bit of muslim religion (unfortunately no season celebration there) and that seems like a decent middle ground.
There’s the issue of attesting to the tenets of a faith that is not one’s own or is antithetical to or violent toward one’s own. Even in song.
I didn’t miss it but it gets back to “Othering”. Someone else is deciding what part of a different culture to include, not the members of that culture.
That is… appalling to me. Just simply appalling, the notion that the consideration a culture gets comes down to a few minutes or fractions of a minute based on population. That’s got tyranny of the majority all over it. That’s essentially saying they have no place in the public square, that they are too small to be important, or even mentioned.
Ah, ethnocentrism is alive and well! You are basically saying everyone has to pretend to be a Christian and pay lip service to it, but their own cultures, beliefs, and practices aren’t given time and space in the public arena. How alienating. How clearly saying no one matters but the Christians. How absolutely terrible if you’re not a Christian.
In other words - we’ll give the Jewish kids some sort of token nod for two minutes then force them to be indoctrinated for the rest of the hour. That’s oppression in my view.
My primary complaint is forcing children of one religion to participate in the rituals of a religion that is not theirs.
The Jews you know are not spokespeople nor necessarily representative of the majority of Jews. Most of the Jews I know don’t put up trees or “do Christmas”, so what does either anecdote prove? Nothing.
“Hanukkah bushes” are seen as offensive by many, an intrusion of another religion and culture into Judaism. In fact, the emphasis on Hanukkah in the US is far, far greater than in other parts of the world and is an effect of just how much Christianity has penetrated and altered Judaic practices. That’s not entirely a bad thing - Jewish culture has been affected and even enriched by the cultures the diaspora has lived among - but the assuaging of Christian guilt over not being inclusive, or the Christian insistence of conformity and using public school activities to indoctrinate non-Christians in their religion is very much NOT a good thing in my view.
If Jewish parents sent their kids to a Catholic-run school (which some do, for a variety of reasons) then yes, of course the Jewish kids are going to be obligated to be part of the Christmas thing because that’s part of being in a Catholic school. But coercion to be part of the religious rituals of a religion you’re not should never be part of a public education in this country.
Granting a culture two minutes in a hour pageant is NOT teaching anyone anything, other than how to ignore people who aren’t like them with minimal guilt. It’s saying “yeah, they exist, but they aren’t important enough to spend time on”.
You make no sense - Christmas is absolutely a Christian religious event. If you “eliminate purely religious celebrations” then you are also eliminating Christmas. If you include Christmas then you’re doing something religious. CHRISTMAS IS NOT SECULAR. It is inherently religious. In that respect, the people going about saying “Jesus is the reason for the season” have it right - Christmas is a Christian thing. Pretending it’s secular is delusional.
I completely and totally disagree. You are wrong. Your “middle ground” is indoctrination and marginalization to the point of non-existence of everyone else.
As a secular Jew who married a lapsed Catholic, both of us being atheists - I’m all for the secularization of Christmas. For more and more people, Christmas in the US is a celebration of Capitalism, not Jesus. And I’m happy to do my part to continue the process.
This could be someone’s personal idiosyncracy or I just misunderstood exactly what she meant, but a Russian Orthodox friend said she was appalled that in the U.S. people at church would want to socialize and stuff— she goes to church to pray to god. (Especially on Christmas; there is an all-night vigil if I am not mistaken)
If that’s true, then your experience of Judaism is so skewed, that I now feel free to ignore what you have to say. If it’s not true, then your ignorance is so powerful, again, I feel free to ignore what you have to say.