Interfaith families raising Jewish kids -- talk to me about the December dilemma

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We celebrate both in our house too. DW was brougt up vaguely Catholic, I was brought up Jewish. We agreed to raise the kids Jewish, but DW wanted to keep the tradition of celebrating Christmas - and I don't blame her.

So we have a secular Christmas - a tree, ornaments, Christmas morning, Santa - the whole kit and kaboodle, but no Jesus. It's just a special time to create memories and be with family and appreciate everything we have.

But we go to Temple, kids have been Bar Mitzvahed, and we celebrate all the Jewish holidays.

The kids get it. They understand that they are Jewish kids, and a secular Christmas doesn't make them any less so.

Christmas and Chanukah both have their origins as pagan holidays anyway.

I wonder what your kids' families will be like -- I suspect even less Jewish, the way things are going.

Due to a remarriage, my Jewish "grandfather-in-law" (born in 1918) celebrated Christmas as a child. He passed that tradition on to his daughters who both managed to marry nice Jewish men and b'nai mitzvah all four of their children all the while putting up an annual Christmas tree. Of those children, three of the four married Jewish partners and all eight of their children either have been or will be b'nai mitzvahed. Jews stop practicing their faith for a wide variety of reasons. I don't imagine that a desire to embrace Christmas is one of the main ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BTW..Easter/Passover is much more complicated to explain to a young child.

Actually, it isn't. My 4 year old has a rudimentary understanding of Passover, and we've done seders with him since he was 1. There are kid-appropriate ways to do the passover seder-- we have toys and books, etc.

Ha! Passover, complicated? It boils down to one line: "we were slaves and now we're free." Also a significant part of the seder is explicitly about how to explain the story to kids and people at different levels of understanding/intelligence.

and keep in mind that it is a story, without any archeological or historical evidence to back it up. Jewish Academics have come up empty-handed on the exodus but have found plenty of evidence that ancient hebrews lived in ancient Israel all along.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bible_Unearthed

True. Though to keep this non-Santa tangent going, there IS lot of evidence that Jews were living in Egypt shortly AFTER the Biblical Exodus is supposed to have taken place -- see Simon Schama's The Story of the Jews for some fascinating details on everyday life in a large Jewish community in Elaphantine, on the upper Nile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BTW..Easter/Passover is much more complicated to explain to a young child.

Actually, it isn't. My 4 year old has a rudimentary understanding of Passover, and we've done seders with him since he was 1. There are kid-appropriate ways to do the passover seder-- we have toys and books, etc.

Ha! Passover, complicated? It boils down to one line: "we were slaves and now we're free." Also a significant part of the seder is explicitly about how to explain the story to kids and people at different levels of understanding/intelligence.

and keep in mind that it is a story, without any archeological or historical evidence to back it up. Jewish Academics have come up empty-handed on the exodus but have found plenty of evidence that ancient hebrews lived in ancient Israel all along.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bible_Unearthed

Fascinating. They weren't slaves - They were merchants, living in a thriving community, complete with a temple and extant records, written in aramaic and other languages. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephantine_papyri Unlike the exodus, there is actual evidence that this community existed. Artiifacts are in museums in Brooklyn and Munich.
True. Though to keep this non-Santa tangent going, there IS lot of evidence that Jews were living in Egypt shortly AFTER the Biblical Exodus is supposed to have taken place -- see Simon Schama's The Story of the Jews for some fascinating details on everyday life in a large Jewish community in Elaphantine, on the upper Nile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BTW..Easter/Passover is much more complicated to explain to a young child.

Actually, it isn't. My 4 year old has a rudimentary understanding of Passover, and we've done seders with him since he was 1. There are kid-appropriate ways to do the passover seder-- we have toys and books, etc.

Ha! Passover, complicated? It boils down to one line: "we were slaves and now we're free." Also a significant part of the seder is explicitly about how to explain the story to kids and people at different levels of understanding/intelligence.

and keep in mind that it is a story, without any archeological or historical evidence to back it up. Jewish Academics have come up empty-handed on the exodus but have found plenty of evidence that ancient hebrews lived in ancient Israel all along.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bible_Unearthed

True. Though to keep this non-Santa tangent going, there IS lot of evidence that Jews were living in Egypt shortly AFTER the Biblical Exodus is supposed to have taken place -- see Simon Schama's The Story of the Jews for some fascinating details on everyday life in a large Jewish community in Elaphantine, on the upper Nile.

Fascinating. They weren't slaves - They were merchants, living in a thriving community, complete with a temple and extant records, written in aramaic and other languages. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephantine_papyri Unlike the exodus, there is actual evidence that this community existed. Artiifacts are in museums in Brooklyn and Munich.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BTW..Easter/Passover is much more complicated to explain to a young child.

Actually, it isn't. My 4 year old has a rudimentary understanding of Passover, and we've done seders with him since he was 1. There are kid-appropriate ways to do the passover seder-- we have toys and books, etc.

Ha! Passover, complicated? It boils down to one line: "we were slaves and now we're free." Also a significant part of the seder is explicitly about how to explain the story to kids and people at different levels of understanding/intelligence.

and keep in mind that it is a story, without any archeological or historical evidence to back it up. Jewish Academics have come up empty-handed on the exodus but have found plenty of evidence that ancient hebrews lived in ancient Israel all along.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bible_Unearthed

True. Though to keep this non-Santa tangent going, there IS lot of evidence that Jews were living in Egypt shortly AFTER the Biblical Exodus is supposed to have taken place -- see Simon Schama's The Story of the Jews for some fascinating details on everyday life in a large Jewish community in Elaphantine, on the upper Nile.

Fascinating. They weren't slaves - They were merchants, living in a thriving community, complete with a temple and extant records, written in aramaic and other languages. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephantine_papyri Unlike the exodus, there is actual evidence that this community existed. Artiifacts are in museums in Brooklyn and Munich.

There are no artifacts from the exodus - not one pottery shard from 40 years in the desert. No spears or chariot wheels from when the red sea parted. No Egyptian records of hebrew slaves

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We celebrate both in our house too. DW was brougt up vaguely Catholic, I was brought up Jewish. We agreed to raise the kids Jewish, but DW wanted to keep the tradition of celebrating Christmas - and I don't blame her.

So we have a secular Christmas - a tree, ornaments, Christmas morning, Santa - the whole kit and kaboodle, but no Jesus. It's just a special time to create memories and be with family and appreciate everything we have.

But we go to Temple, kids have been Bar Mitzvahed, and we celebrate all the Jewish holidays.

The kids get it. They understand that they are Jewish kids, and a secular Christmas doesn't make them any less so.

Christmas and Chanukah both have their origins as pagan holidays anyway.

I wonder what your kids' families will be like -- I suspect even less Jewish, the way things are going.

Due to a remarriage, my Jewish "grandfather-in-law" (born in 1918) celebrated Christmas as a child. He passed that tradition on to his daughters who both managed to marry nice Jewish men and b'nai mitzvah all four of their children all the while putting up an annual Christmas tree. Of those children, three of the four married Jewish partners and all eight of their children either have been or will be b'nai mitzvahed. Jews stop practicing their faith for a wide variety of reasons. I don't imagine that a desire to embrace Christmas is one of the main ones.

Interesting -- does that next generation celebrate a secular Christmas too?