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February 13, 2012
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Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
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Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
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Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
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Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
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Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
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Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
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January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
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Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
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January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
Dec. 10, 2004
/ 26 Kislev, 5765
A ‘Chrismukkah’ world
By
Jonathan Tobin
Mixed messages for a new generation are, at best, a mixed blessing
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
You can, if you like, call it progress. Decades ago, when I was growing up, I was thrilled whenever I spied anything on television that gave any sort of play to a Jewish holiday.
In those days, when American popular culture often gave short shrift to minority religious observances, coming across anything that gave Chanukah equal time with Christmas on the small screen was about as likely as your chances to hear the public-school choir sing "Maoz Tsur" as part of the annual holiday program.
Those were the bad old days, when Jewish children had to rely on their own resources and inner strength to resist the blandishments of the Christmas season that so consumed everyone else we knew.
Things have changed since then. Supreme Court decisions ultimately rendered public-school observances religiously neutral. And though many American Jews still spend the last month of the calendar year hyperventilating about the fact that Christmas is an integral and inescapable element of American culture, acceptance of the minor Jewish festival of Chanukah has never been greater. From a postage stamp to the huge menorahs erected throughout the country by Chabad (often to the embarrassment of other Jews, who want all religious observances out of the public square), Chanukah is definitely mainstream these days.
In an effort to avoid the Christmas envy that afflicted previous generations of American Jews, baby-boomers have also helped elevate the Festival of Lights into a very big deal. That assuaged our December depression, but it has laid the foundations for other problems.
CHANGE IN THE CULTURE
Along with mass-market merchandising, Chanukah hasn't gotten just time. In some quarters, it has simply merged with Christmas to create a new end-of-year, quasi-ecumenical, yet non-religious holiday, called, by some, "Chrismukkah."
Of course, there's no such thing, but the term — popularized recently by its mention on "The O.C.," a popular Fox nighttime television series — represents a sea change in American culture.
One of the by-products of the acceptance of Jews in virtually every sector of American society is the fact that barriers to intermarriage are also nonexistent. And with a huge population of mixed Jewish and Christian families, many of which prefer not to make a firm choice between religions, the merging of the two December observances into some inchoate blend of menorahs and trees was inevitable.
This has spawned not just the reference on TV (made by a character from an interfaith family), but a series of greeting cards and joke gifts that will, I'm sure, be great stocking stuffers. The market economy will always provide the public with something it wants if there's a demand for it.
Complaining about all of this being a slight to Judaism (not to mention Christianity) is about as pointless these days as warnings about the long-term problems that widespread intermarriage poses to the future of American Jewry.
Let's face it: Few people are interested in the demographic facts that intermarriage statistics present anymore. Those who worry about such things have, for the most part, decided to accept it as reality, and have moved on to other fights. Others prefer to put a happy face on the story, and spin scenarios about outreach efforts turning the lemon into Jewish lemonade.
The drift toward a Chrismukkah winter wonderland for us to frolic in is merely a reflection of the low priority many people place on religious faith, notwithstanding answers to exit polls culled from the last election.
So why would we expect pop culture to do anything other than combine the December holidays into one meaningless excuse for a party?
In truth, melding disparate holiday celebrations at other times of the year is far from uncommon. The recommendation a few years ago by the Dovetail Institute, a group that provides resources for interfaith couples and their children, that families stuff their Easter ham with Passover charoset is one example that's rather hard to forget.
Decrying any of this may be as futile as spitting into the wind, but it still behooves us to remember that, the calendar notwithstanding, Chanukah really doesn't fit into the mold that the ignorant would like to stuff it into.
The mixed message that Chrismukkah brings us does the children of intermarriage no favors. Those who seek to give the next generation a piece of their Jewish heritage by combining it with the traditions of another faith are actually asserting that neither has validity. Religion may have been drained out of Christmas for many of our neighbors, but it is particularly inappropriate for us to follow suit.
That's because Chanukah is far from being a blue-tinsel version of Christmas, or a fuzzy Jewish feast of goodwill toward men. Commemorating the struggle of the Jewish people for religious and political freedom in second-century BCE, the holiday provides a particularly apt message for contemporary American Jewry.
The observance of Chanukah embodies the will of the Jewish people to stay faithful to the traditions once assailed by foreign tyrants, and which are now cast aside by our own impulse to fit into an increasingly secular world. Its essence is that standing up and being counted among those who will not bow down to the false idols of the popular culture of the day is the duty of every Jew.
For the same reason, that's why we should probably worry less about getting equal time for Chanukah this December, and more about whether we are living up to the challenge that the memory of the Maccabees' great struggle set for us.
No matter where you are on the Jewish religious spectrum — or whether or not you live in an interfaith family — the eight days of Chanukah ought to speak of the need to reinforce our ties with fellow Jews, and to rekindle the spark of Jewish identity within ourselves. Anything less is a terrible waste of candle power.
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JWR contributor Jonathan S. Tobin is executive editor of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent.
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© 2004, Jonathan Tobin
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