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[quote=Anonymous]Christmas trees in Jewish homes: a brief history
University Professor Jonathan Sarna explains the rise, fall and subsequent rise of Christmas trees in Jewish homes.

By Julian Cardillo '14
Dec. 16, 2019

Louis Brandeis was well known for becoming the first Jewish person appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. So it may seem surprising that he celebrated the winter holidays with a Christmas tree in his home. 
But being Jewish and decorating a tree wouldn’t have seemed remarkable to Brandeis. Christmas trees were common in the homes of secular American Jews at the time. What’s happened since then is more complex.
“In the late 19th century, there were quite a few liberal Jews – especially those from central European backgrounds – who had Christmas trees in their homes and saw them as secular symbols of the season,” University Professor Jonathan Sarna told BrandeisNOW.
Brandeis had a tree in his home when his daughters were young. “For him, this wasn’t an overtly Christian symbol. It was a way to take note of the holiday season,” said Sarna.
Born in 1856 to immigrants from the present-day Czech Republic, Brandeis was raised in a secular household. Many other Jewish Amerians at the time shared Brandeis’ affinity for the trees, Sarna said.
“I think Jews who had Christmas trees did not really see them as Christian symbols,” he said. “At winter time a lit tree is beautiful and adds light during the shortest days of the year. It was a pretty way to commemorate the winter solstice or winter holidays.”
“Christmas isn’t even mentioned in the New Testament – trees were not necessarily ubiquitous at Christmas – so some Jews felt the trees were a symbol that could be shared by people of all faiths,” said Sarna.
The number of American Jewish households that brought Christmas trees into their homes declined toward the middle of the 20th century. By 1942, the number of Jews in America had climbed to 4.2 million, up from 1.5 million in 1900, strengthening traditional Judaism. 
“The sense developed that Christmas trees – the very word “Christmas” – was overtly Christian,” Sarna said. 
 “And whereas in the 19th century, Jews who had Christmas trees viewed them in no way antithetical to Jewish religious attachments, we see a change in the 20th century

https://www.brandeis.edu/now/2019/december/christmas-trees-jewish-homes.html[/quote]

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