Reply to Christmas Trees

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Reply to "Christmas Trees"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think the smaller tree sounds like a nice idea, especially if it's surrounded by gifts and set up in an attractive way-- not a small after-thought.

It seems to me, though, that there is a much bigger, more prominent feature of your home that has far more symbolic significance to your kids than a tree of any size:  their father.  You married someone who isn't Jewish, who has a child who isn't Jewish, and who presumably has parents and siblings who aren't Jewish.  That's what a growing number of young Jewish Americans do today, that's what you did, and odds are good it's what your kids will do (it would be difficult to convey that they shouldn't seek happiness where you did).

Since half of their family and one of their parents is non-Jewish, it would be folly to think that walling the house off from non-Jewish symbols and practices will make them see themselves as somehow 100% Jewish to the exclusion of all else.  They are from an interfaith family.  That is beautiful in its way, very culturally and intellectually rich.  Why work so hard to convey that only 1/2 of their religious heritage applies to them?  How will that make them feel about their dad-- or what you feel about their dad?

It's one thing to decide that their religion will be Jewish, and another to describe your home as "a Jewish home," when that simply does not describe every valued person in the house.  [/quote]

This is wonderfully stated.[/quote]

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