Is anyone else here Jewish and celebrate Christmas?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Christmas and Valentines Day are secular now, Guys. Enjoy!

Well so are Rosh Hahahah and Yom Kippur --- just join Machar, the Jewish secular synagogue, to see that they are secular!

So if that is part of your heritage or not, you can enjoy! Not that I see why non-Jews every embracing our most important holidays.

But, please don't tell us Jews that because Christmas, which celebrates the birth of a person who other worship as a god, has become secular, Jews should embrace it. It's commendable for Jews to keep their unique culture and not assimilate with the majority Christian culture. I personally admire Jews who show that Christmas is not an "American" holiday any more than Hanukkah is -- American means diverse religions so no religious holiday is an "American" one.

I think we Jews should embrace it. We can still keep our culture and assimilate at the same time.

NP. And how is that working out for us? 75% of Reform Jews intermarry and they and their kids predictably stop keeping any traditions. The only Jewish movement that’s actually growing is Orthodox. Because they refuse to assimilate.

How often descendants of immigrants keep their culture after the 1st generation? My parents are Jewish immigrants and they raised me with a culture as an adult I choose not to care for.

So you're not Jewish. You're not a Jew who celebrates Christmas. You're someone who used to be Jewish, and now follows the majority holiday practices.

Oh, get over yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our family celebrates Christmas, Easter, Hannukah, and Purim, we just remove all the religious aspects

Same here, but I'm not Jewish. I was raised Catholic, but I'm no longer practing Catholicism. However, I celebrate Jewish, Hindu, and Christian holidays. I just love celebrations and having people of different cultures at my home.

If you are removing the religious part, then you aren't actually celebrating the holiday or culture.

They are celebrating the holiday in the way they choose. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like it or agree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, thank you for this thread. We just moved to this country, and my kid just went to middle school here. First day she comes back and tells us that when her science teacher announced that in the end of the year they are going to build a ginger bread house as a science project. Immediately, the girl who was siting next to my daughter turned to her and told her that because she is Jewish, my daughter has to build a ginger bread house for her.

We all were so confused at home and laughed very hard. We are not Americans. We are Christians who celebrate Christmas. But we had no clue what is a ginger bread house, what does it has to do with Christianity or Judaism. I honestly think that the little Jewish girl is so confused (and perhaps has parents who are clueless).

Reading this thread helps me to understand the mentality of American jewish

There is no “mentality of the American Jewish.” Jews who have roots all over the world, in many denominations, live all over the US. In fact, I live in a small town with one synagogue in our whole region, with Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, and humanist members, and we’re having trouble with our rabbi search because many of us don’t agree with what we need for our congregation as Jews.

Please don’t let one snotty comment from a child lead you to those beliefs about all American Jews.

How do you even know the girl said that? This is 2nd hand, from a child whose first language who may not even be English, to a parent whose first language is not English. I seriously doubt the Jewish girl instructed PP's daughter to make a gingerbread house for her. More likely she just said that she wouldn't be doing it. As she should -- a gingerbread house is a traditional Christmas craft. Yes, it can be secular, but a Jewish family is perfectly within their rights to decline to do traditional Christmas crafts IN SCHOOL.

I know it from my child, that I clearly posted in my message. English is her native language, along with few others. You don't know my child, you don't know the Jewish girl, but you chose to accuse my child of lying or misinterpreting information. The girl didn't just said that she cannot do it, but clearly said that my daughter has to do it for her. We are not talking about 2nd grade children, we are talking about kids who are 12-13 years old, who can understand perfectly what has been said.

I found it funny because there is nothing in Christianity about gingerbread house, so no, I don't consider it Christmas tradition at all. Maybe it is a secular tradition in some countries like Germany, but it is not a Christian tradition. We are Christian family and we never ever made a ginerbread house at all.

I never said that the particular Jewish family was wrong in declining anything (they can decline any courses offered by public school, it is not my business). I think they are confused about Christian traditions. And the proper course of action for the Jewish girl would be to discuss it with the school administration, not with the other students. The girl and her parent received the school curriculum for each subject that they had to sign. If the parent don't agree with some aspects of the curriculum, they should contact a teacher or a counselor at school to discuss their issues with the ginerbread house.

Gingerbread houses might not be Christian, but they are part of the Christmas celebration. Santa is also secular, but I sure don’t want my Jewish child doing any school projects that involve him.

Santa is not secular. Its part of Christmas.

Wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Christmas and Valentines Day are secular now, Guys. Enjoy!

Well so are Rosh Hahahah and Yom Kippur --- just join Machar, the Jewish secular synagogue, to see that they are secular!

So if that is part of your heritage or not, you can enjoy! Not that I see why non-Jews every embracing our most important holidays.

But, please don't tell us Jews that because Christmas, which celebrates the birth of a person who other worship as a god, has become secular, Jews should embrace it. It's commendable for Jews to keep their unique culture and not assimilate with the majority Christian culture. I personally admire Jews who show that Christmas is not an "American" holiday any more than Hanukkah is -- American means diverse religions so no religious holiday is an "American" one.

I think we Jews should embrace it. We can still keep our culture and assimilate at the same time.

NP. And how is that working out for us? 75% of Reform Jews intermarry and they and their kids predictably stop keeping any traditions. The only Jewish movement that’s actually growing is Orthodox. Because they refuse to assimilate.

How often descendants of immigrants keep their culture after the 1st generation? My parents are Jewish immigrants and they raised me with a culture as an adult I choose not to care for.

So you're not Jewish. You're not a Jew who celebrates Christmas. You're someone who used to be Jewish, and now follows the majority holiday practices.

One still retains their Jewish heritage- that never goes away- your ancestry doesn’t change just because you celebrate Christmas. So they are non practicing Jews who celebrate Christmas in a non religious way. They are Jews but just non practicing.

That's only if you believe Jews are a racial group. You wouldn't say that about any kind of Christian, Muslim, Hindu, etc. that was totally non-practicing, a non-believer, and held as a personal value that he/she should fully assimilate into the majority (Christian) culture in all ways.

I don't know who you are, but you have an agenda.

No sorry that argument doesn’t work... do you want to try again?

Yup.

PP: JEWS ARE A RACIAL GROUP. Look it up. Ashkenazi and Sephardic are racial groups. When my husband and I did our genetic screenings while I was pregnant, we had to get the Ashkenazi Jew panel, which includes screenings for diseases like Tay Sachs, which is much more common among Ashkenazi Jews. I did the 23 and me thing last year and came up with 50% Ashenazi. My husband came up with 75%. We could never set foot in shul again and that would still never change. We will always be Jewish.

You are simply ignorant.

I think you're the ignorant one. My DS's 23andme would likely show around 60% Ashkenazi. His dad is a secular Jew, and we aren't raising him Jewish in any meaningful way. The way things are going he will NOT be Jewish, depsite his genetics. Judaism is a religion and culture, which can absolutely be lost if you don't maintain connections to it.

No no no no no.

Your son is ethnically Jewish. Why deny it?

There are literally haplogroups distinct to Ashkenazi Jews. It is an ethnicity.

Again, if you answer what "ethnicity" means to you, that might be helpful. Obviously I agree that my DS has ethnically Ashkenazi genes. What's the point beyond that? He won't identify as "Jewish" the way things are headed now. So he's ethnically ASHKENAZI, not ethnically Jewish. Just like I am ethnically Irish/Celtic, not ethnically Irish Catholic.

And PS: one of the reasons, among others, that he won't identify as Jewish is because he thinks Christmas is better than Hannukah. Fact. Sorry.

If Judaism is reduced to Hannukah the game is already lost.

So I'm supposed to teach him that by dint of the slight majority of Ashkenazi genes, he's Jewish and not Catholic?

If you want to raise him as Catholic, that is your choice. Just don't blame "hanukah is not as good as christmas" for his desire to not identify as Jewish. Jews who participate more fully in Judaism are not as obsessed with the christmas vs hanukkah comparison.

A person born Jewish is Jewish no matter what they celebrate or how fully they participate in your narrow view of Judaism. You don't get to tell other Jews that they are not doing Jewish right. People with your judgmental attitude are one reason many Jews don't "participate."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our family celebrates Christmas, Easter, Hannukah, and Purim, we just remove all the religious aspects

This.

Why do you celebrate others holidays?

Because they are ingrained in American culture. It's like asking why Chinese immigrants celebrate Thanksgiving.

You think Purim is ingrained in American culture? I am pretty sure that 99.9% of non-Jewish people I know have never even heard of Purim.

I think this is probably true, since I'm Jewish and have only known about Purim for a couple of years. It's an awesome holiday, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another Jewish family here. No Christmas in our home, but happy to participate in friends' holiday celebrations in their homes. I have always felt it is really important to set up unambiguous Jewish identity for kids. That's obviously much more than a mere absence of Christmas, but families that intend to stay Jewish across generations stand a far better chance if kids grow up really feeling they are not part of the mainstream culture and really shouldn't disappear into it.

Hanukkah observance is modest and mostly for kids, but let's remember it is also about a victory over pressure to assimilate both religiously and culturally. In increasingly embattled times like today, when the Right has a problem with our stubborn religiousness and maybe our too-ethnic DNA and the Left has a problem with us if we insist on maintaining our particularity (and any kind of religious outlook or observance that would have been at all recognizable to our ancestors) Hanukkah actually offers great comfort.

So Hanukkah is the Jewish Christmas
Is sneering at Christmas the way to isolate the kids from the mainstream culture?
So what if someone has a holiday you do not celebrate? No need to hate a holiday you do not celebrate

I suspect your kids do feel isolated already anyway

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another Jewish family here. No Christmas in our home, but happy to participate in friends' holiday celebrations in their homes. I have always felt it is really important to set up unambiguous Jewish identity for kids. That's obviously much more than a mere absence of Christmas, but families that intend to stay Jewish across generations stand a far better chance if kids grow up really feeling they are not part of the mainstream culture and really shouldn't disappear into it.

Hanukkah observance is modest and mostly for kids, but let's remember it is also about a victory over pressure to assimilate both religiously and culturally. In increasingly embattled times like today, when the Right has a problem with our stubborn religiousness and maybe our too-ethnic DNA and the Left has a problem with us if we insist on maintaining our particularity (and any kind of religious outlook or observance that would have been at all recognizable to our ancestors) Hanukkah actually offers great comfort.

So Hanukkah is the Jewish Christmas
Is sneering at Christmas the way to isolate the kids from the mainstream culture?
So what if someone has a holiday you do not celebrate? No need to hate a holiday you do not celebrate

I suspect your kids do feel isolated already anyway

What a horrid response. Hope your kids have less hate in their hearts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Christmas and Valentines Day are secular now, Guys. Enjoy!

Well so are Rosh Hahahah and Yom Kippur --- just join Machar, the Jewish secular synagogue, to see that they are secular!

So if that is part of your heritage or not, you can enjoy! Not that I see why non-Jews every embracing our most important holidays.

But, please don't tell us Jews that because Christmas, which celebrates the birth of a person who other worship as a god, has become secular, Jews should embrace it. It's commendable for Jews to keep their unique culture and not assimilate with the majority Christian culture. I personally admire Jews who show that Christmas is not an "American" holiday any more than Hanukkah is -- American means diverse religions so no religious holiday is an "American" one.

I think we Jews should embrace it. We can still keep our culture and assimilate at the same time.

NP. And how is that working out for us? 75% of Reform Jews intermarry and they and their kids predictably stop keeping any traditions. The only Jewish movement that’s actually growing is Orthodox. Because they refuse to assimilate.

How often descendants of immigrants keep their culture after the 1st generation? My parents are Jewish immigrants and they raised me with a culture as an adult I choose not to care for.

So you're not Jewish. You're not a Jew who celebrates Christmas. You're someone who used to be Jewish, and now follows the majority holiday practices.

One still retains their Jewish heritage- that never goes away- your ancestry doesn’t change just because you celebrate Christmas. So they are non practicing Jews who celebrate Christmas in a non religious way. They are Jews but just non practicing.

That's only if you believe Jews are a racial group. You wouldn't say that about any kind of Christian, Muslim, Hindu, etc. that was totally non-practicing, a non-believer, and held as a personal value that he/she should fully assimilate into the majority (Christian) culture in all ways.

I don't know who you are, but you have an agenda.

No sorry that argument doesn’t work... do you want to try again?

Yup.

PP: JEWS ARE A RACIAL GROUP. Look it up. Ashkenazi and Sephardic are racial groups. When my husband and I did our genetic screenings while I was pregnant, we had to get the Ashkenazi Jew panel, which includes screenings for diseases like Tay Sachs, which is much more common among Ashkenazi Jews. I did the 23 and me thing last year and came up with 50% Ashenazi. My husband came up with 75%. We could never set foot in shul again and that would still never change. We will always be Jewish.

You are simply ignorant.

I think you're the ignorant one. My DS's 23andme would likely show around 60% Ashkenazi. His dad is a secular Jew, and we aren't raising him Jewish in any meaningful way. The way things are going he will NOT be Jewish, depsite his genetics. Judaism is a religion and culture, which can absolutely be lost if you don't maintain connections to it.

No no no no no.

Your son is ethnically Jewish. Why deny it?

There are literally haplogroups distinct to Ashkenazi Jews. It is an ethnicity.

Again, if you answer what "ethnicity" means to you, that might be helpful. Obviously I agree that my DS has ethnically Ashkenazi genes. What's the point beyond that? He won't identify as "Jewish" the way things are headed now. So he's ethnically ASHKENAZI, not ethnically Jewish. Just like I am ethnically Irish/Celtic, not ethnically Irish Catholic.

And PS: one of the reasons, among others, that he won't identify as Jewish is because he thinks Christmas is better than Hannukah. Fact. Sorry.

If Judaism is reduced to Hannukah the game is already lost.

So I'm supposed to teach him that by dint of the slight majority of Ashkenazi genes, he's Jewish and not Catholic?

If you want to raise him as Catholic, that is your choice. Just don't blame "hanukah is not as good as christmas" for his desire to not identify as Jewish. Jews who participate more fully in Judaism are not as obsessed with the christmas vs hanukkah comparison.

A person born Jewish is Jewish no matter what they celebrate or how fully they participate in your narrow view of Judaism. You don't get to tell other Jews that they are not doing Jewish right. People with your judgmental attitude are one reason many Jews don't "participate."

Uh-huh. Not judging is another Christian concept you have absorbed. Jews are responsible for other Jews and preserving our culture. Jews who do practice Judaism but practice Christianity, Islam, etc. are no longer Jews.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're Jewish and we do Christmas. Sorry Judaism, but you have nothing to offer me as good as the secular Christmas traditions. I love it, have loved it since I was a kid, and my kid loves it too. Amazingly, having fun hasn't stopped us being Jewish.

6 million died for tinsel and Elf on the Shelf?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, thank you for this thread. We just moved to this country, and my kid just went to middle school here. First day she comes back and tells us that when her science teacher announced that in the end of the year they are going to build a ginger bread house as a science project. Immediately, the girl who was siting next to my daughter turned to her and told her that because she is Jewish, my daughter has to build a ginger bread house for her.

We all were so confused at home and laughed very hard. We are not Americans. We are Christians who celebrate Christmas. But we had no clue what is a ginger bread house, what does it has to do with Christianity or Judaism. I honestly think that the little Jewish girl is so confused (and perhaps has parents who are clueless).

Reading this thread helps me to understand the mentality of American jewish

There is no “mentality of the American Jewish.” Jews who have roots all over the world, in many denominations, live all over the US. In fact, I live in a small town with one synagogue in our whole region, with Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, and humanist members, and we’re having trouble with our rabbi search because many of us don’t agree with what we need for our congregation as Jews.

Please don’t let one snotty comment from a child lead you to those beliefs about all American Jews.

How do you even know the girl said that? This is 2nd hand, from a child whose first language who may not even be English, to a parent whose first language is not English. I seriously doubt the Jewish girl instructed PP's daughter to make a gingerbread house for her. More likely she just said that she wouldn't be doing it. As she should -- a gingerbread house is a traditional Christmas craft. Yes, it can be secular, but a Jewish family is perfectly within their rights to decline to do traditional Christmas crafts IN SCHOOL.

I know it from my child, that I clearly posted in my message. English is her native language, along with few others. You don't know my child, you don't know the Jewish girl, but you chose to accuse my child of lying or misinterpreting information. The girl didn't just said that she cannot do it, but clearly said that my daughter has to do it for her. We are not talking about 2nd grade children, we are talking about kids who are 12-13 years old, who can understand perfectly what has been said.

I found it funny because there is nothing in Christianity about gingerbread house, so no, I don't consider it Christmas tradition at all. Maybe it is a secular tradition in some countries like Germany, but it is not a Christian tradition. We are Christian family and we never ever made a ginerbread house at all.

I never said that the particular Jewish family was wrong in declining anything (they can decline any courses offered by public school, it is not my business). I think they are confused about Christian traditions. And the proper course of action for the Jewish girl would be to discuss it with the school administration, not with the other students. The girl and her parent received the school curriculum for each subject that they had to sign. If the parent don't agree with some aspects of the curriculum, they should contact a teacher or a counselor at school to discuss their issues with the ginerbread house.

Gingerbread houses might not be Christian, but they are part of the Christmas celebration. Santa is also secular, but I sure don’t want my Jewish child doing any school projects that involve him.

Santa is not secular. Its part of Christmas.

Wrong.

Advertising icon

https://mymerrychristmas.com/history-of-the-american-santa/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are Jewish and have Santa for our special needs child. She wouldn’t understand if Santa didn’t stop at her house after she had been so good. We also have Hanukkah. Her delight is one of the best things about raising her.

😍

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Christmas and Valentines Day are secular now, Guys. Enjoy!

Well so are Rosh Hahahah and Yom Kippur --- just join Machar, the Jewish secular synagogue, to see that they are secular!

So if that is part of your heritage or not, you can enjoy! Not that I see why non-Jews every embracing our most important holidays.

But, please don't tell us Jews that because Christmas, which celebrates the birth of a person who other worship as a god, has become secular, Jews should embrace it. It's commendable for Jews to keep their unique culture and not assimilate with the majority Christian culture. I personally admire Jews who show that Christmas is not an "American" holiday any more than Hanukkah is -- American means diverse religions so no religious holiday is an "American" one.

I think we Jews should embrace it. We can still keep our culture and assimilate at the same time.

NP. And how is that working out for us? 75% of Reform Jews intermarry and they and their kids predictably stop keeping any traditions. The only Jewish movement that’s actually growing is Orthodox. Because they refuse to assimilate.

How often descendants of immigrants keep their culture after the 1st generation? My parents are Jewish immigrants and they raised me with a culture as an adult I choose not to care for.

So you're not Jewish. You're not a Jew who celebrates Christmas. You're someone who used to be Jewish, and now follows the majority holiday practices.

One still retains their Jewish heritage- that never goes away- your ancestry doesn’t change just because you celebrate Christmas. So they are non practicing Jews who celebrate Christmas in a non religious way. They are Jews but just non practicing.

That's only if you believe Jews are a racial group. You wouldn't say that about any kind of Christian, Muslim, Hindu, etc. that was totally non-practicing, a non-believer, and held as a personal value that he/she should fully assimilate into the majority (Christian) culture in all ways.

I don't know who you are, but you have an agenda.

No sorry that argument doesn’t work... do you want to try again?

Yup.

PP: JEWS ARE A RACIAL GROUP. Look it up. Ashkenazi and Sephardic are racial groups. When my husband and I did our genetic screenings while I was pregnant, we had to get the Ashkenazi Jew panel, which includes screenings for diseases like Tay Sachs, which is much more common among Ashkenazi Jews. I did the 23 and me thing last year and came up with 50% Ashenazi. My husband came up with 75%. We could never set foot in shul again and that would still never change. We will always be Jewish.

You are simply ignorant.

I think you're the ignorant one. My DS's 23andme would likely show around 60% Ashkenazi. His dad is a secular Jew, and we aren't raising him Jewish in any meaningful way. The way things are going he will NOT be Jewish, depsite his genetics. Judaism is a religion and culture, which can absolutely be lost if you don't maintain connections to it.

No no no no no.

Your son is ethnically Jewish. Why deny it?

There are literally haplogroups distinct to Ashkenazi Jews. It is an ethnicity.

Again, if you answer what "ethnicity" means to you, that might be helpful. Obviously I agree that my DS has ethnically Ashkenazi genes. What's the point beyond that? He won't identify as "Jewish" the way things are headed now. So he's ethnically ASHKENAZI, not ethnically Jewish. Just like I am ethnically Irish/Celtic, not ethnically Irish Catholic.

And PS: one of the reasons, among others, that he won't identify as Jewish is because he thinks Christmas is better than Hannukah. Fact. Sorry.

If Judaism is reduced to Hannukah the game is already lost.

So I'm supposed to teach him that by dint of the slight majority of Ashkenazi genes, he's Jewish and not Catholic?

If you want to raise him as Catholic, that is your choice. Just don't blame "hanukah is not as good as christmas" for his desire to not identify as Jewish. Jews who participate more fully in Judaism are not as obsessed with the christmas vs hanukkah comparison.

A person born Jewish is Jewish no matter what they celebrate or how fully they participate in your narrow view of Judaism. You don't get to tell other Jews that they are not doing Jewish right. People with your judgmental attitude are one reason many Jews don't "participate."

Uh-huh. Not judging is another Christian concept you have absorbed. Jews are responsible for other Jews and preserving our culture. Jews who do practice Judaism but practice Christianity, Islam, etc. are no longer Jews.

Sounds like a lot of group control, cult like pressure almost

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Christmas and Valentines Day are secular now, Guys. Enjoy!

Well so are Rosh Hahahah and Yom Kippur --- just join Machar, the Jewish secular synagogue, to see that they are secular!

So if that is part of your heritage or not, you can enjoy! Not that I see why non-Jews every embracing our most important holidays.

But, please don't tell us Jews that because Christmas, which celebrates the birth of a person who other worship as a god, has become secular, Jews should embrace it. It's commendable for Jews to keep their unique culture and not assimilate with the majority Christian culture. I personally admire Jews who show that Christmas is not an "American" holiday any more than Hanukkah is -- American means diverse religions so no religious holiday is an "American" one.

I think we Jews should embrace it. We can still keep our culture and assimilate at the same time.

NP. And how is that working out for us? 75% of Reform Jews intermarry and they and their kids predictably stop keeping any traditions. The only Jewish movement that’s actually growing is Orthodox. Because they refuse to assimilate.

How often descendants of immigrants keep their culture after the 1st generation? My parents are Jewish immigrants and they raised me with a culture as an adult I choose not to care for.

So you're not Jewish. You're not a Jew who celebrates Christmas. You're someone who used to be Jewish, and now follows the majority holiday practices.

One still retains their Jewish heritage- that never goes away- your ancestry doesn’t change just because you celebrate Christmas. So they are non practicing Jews who celebrate Christmas in a non religious way. They are Jews but just non practicing.

That's only if you believe Jews are a racial group. You wouldn't say that about any kind of Christian, Muslim, Hindu, etc. that was totally non-practicing, a non-believer, and held as a personal value that he/she should fully assimilate into the majority (Christian) culture in all ways.

I don't know who you are, but you have an agenda.

No sorry that argument doesn’t work... do you want to try again?

Yup.

PP: JEWS ARE A RACIAL GROUP. Look it up. Ashkenazi and Sephardic are racial groups. When my husband and I did our genetic screenings while I was pregnant, we had to get the Ashkenazi Jew panel, which includes screenings for diseases like Tay Sachs, which is much more common among Ashkenazi Jews. I did the 23 and me thing last year and came up with 50% Ashenazi. My husband came up with 75%. We could never set foot in shul again and that would still never change. We will always be Jewish.

You are simply ignorant.

I think you're the ignorant one. My DS's 23andme would likely show around 60% Ashkenazi. His dad is a secular Jew, and we aren't raising him Jewish in any meaningful way. The way things are going he will NOT be Jewish, depsite his genetics. Judaism is a religion and culture, which can absolutely be lost if you don't maintain connections to it.

No no no no no.

Your son is ethnically Jewish. Why deny it?

There are literally haplogroups distinct to Ashkenazi Jews. It is an ethnicity.

Again, if you answer what "ethnicity" means to you, that might be helpful. Obviously I agree that my DS has ethnically Ashkenazi genes. What's the point beyond that? He won't identify as "Jewish" the way things are headed now. So he's ethnically ASHKENAZI, not ethnically Jewish. Just like I am ethnically Irish/Celtic, not ethnically Irish Catholic.

And PS: one of the reasons, among others, that he won't identify as Jewish is because he thinks Christmas is better than Hannukah. Fact. Sorry.

If Judaism is reduced to Hannukah the game is already lost.

So I'm supposed to teach him that by dint of the slight majority of Ashkenazi genes, he's Jewish and not Catholic?

If you want to raise him as Catholic, that is your choice. Just don't blame "hanukah is not as good as christmas" for his desire to not identify as Jewish. Jews who participate more fully in Judaism are not as obsessed with the christmas vs hanukkah comparison.

A person born Jewish is Jewish no matter what they celebrate or how fully they participate in your narrow view of Judaism. You don't get to tell other Jews that they are not doing Jewish right. People with your judgmental attitude are one reason many Jews don't "participate."

Uh-huh. Not judging is another Christian concept you have absorbed. Jews are responsible for other Jews and preserving our culture. Jews who do practice Judaism but practice Christianity, Islam, etc. are no longer Jews.

Sounds like a lot of group control, cult like pressure almost

As with any religion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another Jewish family here. No Christmas in our home, but happy to participate in friends' holiday celebrations in their homes. I have always felt it is really important to set up unambiguous Jewish identity for kids. That's obviously much more than a mere absence of Christmas, but families that intend to stay Jewish across generations stand a far better chance if kids grow up really feeling they are not part of the mainstream culture and really shouldn't disappear into it.

Hanukkah observance is modest and mostly for kids, but let's remember it is also about a victory over pressure to assimilate both religiously and culturally. In increasingly embattled times like today, when the Right has a problem with our stubborn religiousness and maybe our too-ethnic DNA and the Left has a problem with us if we insist on maintaining our particularity (and any kind of religious outlook or observance that would have been at all recognizable to our ancestors) Hanukkah actually offers great comfort.

So Hanukkah is the Jewish Christmas
Is sneering at Christmas the way to isolate the kids from the mainstream culture?
So what if someone has a holiday you do not celebrate? No need to hate a holiday you do not celebrate

I suspect your kids do feel isolated already anyway

What a horrid response. Hope your kids have less hate in their hearts.

NP. Actually, PP is just pointing out the hate in your own heart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another Jewish family here. No Christmas in our home, but happy to participate in friends' holiday celebrations in their homes. I have always felt it is really important to set up unambiguous Jewish identity for kids. That's obviously much more than a mere absence of Christmas, but families that intend to stay Jewish across generations stand a far better chance if kids grow up really feeling they are not part of the mainstream culture and really shouldn't disappear into it.

Hanukkah observance is modest and mostly for kids, but let's remember it is also about a victory over pressure to assimilate both religiously and culturally. In increasingly embattled times like today, when the Right has a problem with our stubborn religiousness and maybe our too-ethnic DNA and the Left has a problem with us if we insist on maintaining our particularity (and any kind of religious outlook or observance that would have been at all recognizable to our ancestors) Hanukkah actually offers great comfort.

So Hanukkah is the Jewish Christmas
Is sneering at Christmas the way to isolate the kids from the mainstream culture?
So what if someone has a holiday you do not celebrate? No need to hate a holiday you do not celebrate

I suspect your kids do feel isolated already anyway

What a horrid response. Hope your kids have less hate in their hearts.

NP. Actually, PP is just pointing out the hate in your own heart.

Yikes. Someone’s getting a lump of coal…and hopefully a shrink.