Joshua Eli Plaut, A KOSHER CHRISTMAS: ’Tis the Season to Be Jewish” ISBN 08135-53806; Publisher: Rutgers University Press, 2012. 207 pages. Rating: ****
By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel
CHULA VISTA, California — Many Jews I know have a profound feeling of ambivalence when it comes to the Christmas season each year. There is a hidden anxiety that Jews across all denominational lines experience—especially families. Nothing seems to reinforce the notion of the Jew as the “Other” like Christmas. Katie Goodman’s sardonic song, “I’ll be Jewish for Christmas captures the angst many Jews feel this time of the year.
When I originally received the review copy of Joshua Eli Plaut’s A KOSHER CHRISTMAS: ’Tis the Season to Be Jewish, the cover surprised me. The cover depicts Santa Claus and a Hassidic Jew who looks exactly like Santa Claus minus the regalia, walking by each other as each one notices the Other.
The respected American Jewish historian Jonathan D. Sarna wrote the foreword to the book and I must admit that Sarna’s comments gave me some peace of mind. I really did not know quite what to expect. The book chronicles the history of Jews and the Christmas phenomena over a span of about 300 years. Plaut presents some fascinating historical anecdotes of how our grandparents and great-grandparents behaved at this awkward time of the year when everywhere you go—you see Christmas!
The holiday music and decorations begin immediately after Thanksgiving, but Christmas is our only national religious holiday in the year. Christmas is in the music, the art; it’s constantly on television. Movies like the Polar Express, Miracle on 34th St, the Christmas plays and carols are a routine part of every school celebration. Christmas is ubiquitous.
Many Jewish fathers and mothers take their children to sit on Santa Claus’s lap—just like the author Rabbi Joshua Eli Plaut did, when he was only seven years old. I laughed at the picture because I remember my father, Leo Israel Samuel—a Holocaust survivor from Auschwitz—did the same for me when I was about the same age. When I asked my father, “What shall I say to Santa if he asks me, ‘What do you want for Christmas?’” My father said in his gentle manner, “Say that you are Jewish and that you observe Hanukkah instead!”
As a young child, I always resented having to sing Christmas Carols as part of my 1st grade music class— I used to sing off-key to songs like, “Joy to the World,” and “Silent Night.” Yes, for many of us who have grown up in small towns, this ought to be a familiar experience. The Kosher Christmas ought to appeal to a wide spectrum of readers.
Christmas can be an awkward time of the year, but it doesn’t have to be. With the growing number of blended Jewish families, it is not surprising to see many modern Jews have Christmas trees in their homes. Historically, Plaut points out, they are not alone.
Toward the end of the 19th century affluent German Jews began bringing in the Christmas tree into their homes. The Synod of Reform Jewish Rabbis were horrified and suggested that their people ought to make an effort to celebrate Hanukkah, which evidently was ignored by many German Reform Jews.
While many German Reform Jews celebrated a secular form of Christmas, Jews descended from Eastern European countries had a very different point of view. For immigrants and their children, Christmas was a grim reminder of the world they had fled from. In Russia and the Ukraine, Jews didn’t stick around on Christmas Eve but instead stayed at home from the mobs of people looking for Jews to attack since they killed their Savior (31-32). Yes, as Katie Goodman says in her song, “It’s complicated.”
One of the nicest sections of his book is a chapter about the “Christmas Mitzvah,” where Jews across the country volunteer and distribute food, clothing, and gifts. This has been Jewish custom for well over 150 years.
The celebration of Christmas for some Jews took on a moral value that was consistent with Jewish ethics. In one citation, Plaut mentions the 1885 periodical, The American Israelite, which said, “It is the custom here, as in other cities, to provide a hearty meal for all the poor children of the vicinity during the Christmas holiday. . . . Many of our Hebrew families, recognizing that the movement was to make children happy, set aside all question of faith and doctrine and contributed very liberally in money and material” (pg. 119).
Plaut correctly traces the imperative to be charitable toward the non-Jewish poor in his Halachic codes. Jews would often work during the Christmas holiday so that families would be able to celebrate the holiday together. This is indeed is a very old Jewish American custom that is over 200 years old. Some Jews (and rabbis I personally know) dress up as Santa Claus and distribute gifts to the poor children on Christmas. In one comical anecdote, Plaut mentions how an old Ukrainian Jewish immigrant dressed up as Santa Claus and spoke Yiddish. When speaking to Alan King, he quipped, “Men Mahk a leben,” which means “A man has to make a living” (p. 135).
Chabad and other Hassidic groups make it a point to play chess on Christmas Eve. When I was a student of the Lubavitch Seminary in Israel, we had several chess players who could play at Master strength. The atmosphere at the Hassidic gatherings at Christmas is strangely—festive! Many Orthodox Jews I know make it a point to throw an elaborate Christmas party for their non-Jewish staff. Plaut may be right—everyone wants to get into the Christmas spirit this time of the year. It is funny to see how the 19th century used to observe Christmas with a special social ball on Christmas Eve that was an extravagant affair. Of local interest, the San Diego Board of Rabbis and their spouses plan to have a get-together on Christmas.
One of the most interesting chapters is Plaut’s conclusion entitled, “Menorahs Next to Madonnas.” The title is funnier than the author might have realized because one of the oldest references to Hannukah is actually in the New Testament, “And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the Temple in Solomon’s porch” (John 10:22-23). So, in all probability—Jesus and his mother probably observed Hanukkah together! DID YOU KNOW . . . ?
Plaut’s Kosher Christmas has of lot of interesting facts most people don’t know. · Jews often flock to Chinese restaurants on Christmas—and Plaut points out how this custom has created San Francisco’s Kung Pao Kosher Comedy Club, a highly popular evening of Jewish standup comedy at a Chinese restaurant.
Equally surprising is the fact that many Jewish composers satirized and secularized the Christmas season with songs like, “White Christmas” (Irving Berlin), “Frosty the Snowman” (Walter Rollins and Steve Fletcher), “Getting Ready for Christmas Day,” (Paul Simon). · Many of the most famous Jewish comics like Jerry Lewis, Danny Kaye, Sid Caesar, Red Buttons all began their careers in the Catskills during the Christmas season (p. 39).
In a strange way, the observance of Hanukkah—a relatively minor holiday—has received a tremendous boost as a result of the Christmas holiday season—and in some ways, has become a major rival. One well-known acapella made “Candlelight” a YouTube hit that has been viewed over three million times! Woodie Guthrie’s Hanukkah Songs have made the holiday more enjoyable. And let’s not forget Katie Goodman’s “I’ll be Jewish for Christmas.”
Hanukkah has been celebrated by every American Presidents in the White House since the time of Ronald Reagan. Plaut illustrates how Chabad helped President Carter light the menorah—especially since a non-Jew is not obligated to observe the holiday! My Reform colleague and friend, Rabbi Henry Karp of Davenport, Iowa, always took offense of Chabad doing this since the mitzvah is incumbent only upon Jews—in his opinion. It is strange to see a Reform Rabbi act more halachically stringent in this case than a Chabad rabbi.
In his last chapter of the book, Plaut takes on the complicated issues regarding the separation between Church and State in our country. The propriety of menorahs on public grounds became a cause célèbre which eventually made it to the Supreme Court in the 1989 case of Allegheny County v. ACLU. Although the crèche next to the government building was considered to be a violation of the separation of Church and State, the menorah was not because “the menorah was considered be a part of a secular winter holiday celebration.” How ironic—especially since the Chabad promoted the menorah precisely because of its religious symbolism.
I have only one minor criticism to Plaut’s excellent book with respect to the English writer, Charles Dickens’ book, A Christmas Carol, which tacitly portrays a negative image of the Jews in the guise of Ebenezer Scrooge. Dickens wrote his anti-Semitic book, Oliver Twist in 1838 and his infamous character—the reprobate Fagin. Jews complained about Dickens’ choice of villain, which he never tired of saying “the Jew” 257 times in his book when mentioning him. Eventually, he tried to placate the Jewish community by not referring to Fagin as “the Jew” in the next 179 references to him.
Clearly Dickens probably was embarrassed at the criticism he received, but he was determined to exact his revenge in a way that nobody would be able to point the finger of blame at him for expressing his disgust toward the Jews. For Dickens, every Jew is a Fagin. In 1843, Dickens came out with his beloved novel, A Christmas Carol and he portrays a man named Ebenezer Scrooge as the miser of his story. Had Dickens never written Oliver Twist, I would not necessarily have associated Scrooge as a Jewish character—a point that Dickens never makes in his story.
This theory is obviously speculative.
Yet, the stingy Ebenezer Scrooge psychologically reinforces many of the old anti-Semitic caricatures that the Jew was a stingy miser who loved money more than anything:
“Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind-stone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas.”
In Dickens’ twisted mind, he felt he had the last laugh at a people he so deeply despised. I think that Jewish families should be sensitive to this problem and discourage their children from watching Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Scrooge’s ultimate conversion in the end of his book may have reflected Dickens’ deep desire that the Jews embrace Christianity and disappear altogether from history.
In summary, I must say, reading Joshua Eli Plaut’s “A KOSHER CHRISTMAS: ’Tis the Season to Be Jewish” was pleasure. You may not like the name of the book or its cover, but Plaut’s history of the Jewish experience of Christmas is a compelling read.
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Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel is an author and spiritual leader of Temple Beth Shalom in Chula Vista, California.
A clarification is necessary here, since I am mentioned in this article. I want to make this abundantly clear. My objection to the lighting & display of the Hanukkah Menorah on public property, whether it be in a public park, a city hall, or the White House, was NOT based on halachic considerations but rather based on a serious commitment to the American principle of Separation of Church & State. The opponent of that principle declare that it is not in the Constitution, but rather voiced by Thomas Jefferson in a later writing, However, while that exact wording is not found in the Constitution, Jefferson’s framing of the principle is firmly based on the text of the First Amendment – “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” It is called “The Establishment Clause,” and it clear purpose is to prevent the government from establishing a state religion, thereby protecting the freedom of religion for ALL faiths. It is more than coincidence that the framers of the Constitution not only included this statement, but they felt it important enough to include it in the very First Amendment to the Constitution, indeed as the opening words of that amendment. Why? Because the early European settlers of what would become the United States of America came to our land, fleeing from religious persecution in Europe, from nations that had state-sponsored religions. The pain of religious persecution was still very much an open wound for them, and they wanted our nation no to mirror the nations those settlers fed from. None other than President George Washington affirmed that commitment when, in a letter he wrote to the Hebrew Congregation in Providence Rhode Island, in 1790, he famously said that our government “gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” While today, with the majority of our nation considering themselves to be Christians or Christian-light, there are among them Christian Nationalists. Whether or not the actually identify with that ideology, they believe that America is a “Christian Nation,” that the non-Christian population must accede to that premise, and that the principle of Separation of Church & State is an infringement on their Christian rights. More than ever, the the Constitutionally-guaranteed right of the members of non-Christian faiths to their own “free exercise therof” is being threatened. For those faiths, the principle of Separation of Church & State is nothing short of a lifeline that needs to be vigorously defended. We need to do that by keeping that “Wall of Separation” as high as possible. In our doing so, we are in no way attacking the right of our Christian neighbors from celebrating their faith. God knows, there is enough Christmas celebratory demonstrations in the private sectors of our society, from malls to movies, and beyond. It is not our celebration but we only have heartfelt well-wishes for our neighbors who do celebrate it. The lights, the trees, the joy and good cheer brings us pleasure to behold as well. But it does not belong in any public place associated with our government, for that smacks of state-sponsored religion. That goes for the Hanukkah menorah as well. Our nation is made up of people of many faiths. Lighting a menorah in a city hall or in the White House is not a show of diversity. It is a thin vail to cover up the state’s endorsement of Christianity. If it was a serious demonstration of the support of religious diversity, then the various holidays of each and every faith in our nation would be equally receiving state-sponsored celebrations. Each of those faith holidays would likewise be declared public holidays. Schools would be expected to teach about them all and students would learn to sing their songs. But considering how numerous those holidays are, that is an impracticality. That is why we need to stick to the First Amendment and adhere to is demand that our government remain religiously neutral, respecting and protecting the Freedom of Religion of ALL faiths.