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Susan Estrich: For Christmas or Hanukkah, Stay True to Who You Are
Right around now is when people start fretting over creches in the public square and arguing as to whether publicly funded Christmas symbols violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment. And right about now is also when certain Jewish groups begin insisting that the answer is to place a Hanukkah menorah right next to that creche, which leads atheists to complain about a plague on both their houses.
Years ago I was approached to bring one of these creche cases, and I politely declined. I’m not sure whether the creche violates the First Amendment or not, but to quote one of my favorite films, I really don’t give a (darn). Not my issue.
There are plenty of First Amendment issues that make my blood boil, but this isn’t one of them. If you want to have an official Christmas tree or menorah or whatever, mazel tov. Too many other things to worry about in this world than giving some of my conservative pals a chance to claim that my liberal friends are waging a war against Christmas.
But make no mistake: In my book, Christmas is a religious holiday. The fact that I’m not willing to sue to keep the tree out of the public park doesn’t mean that there will be one in my house. There won’t be. It doesn’t belong. I’m Jewish.
The essence of the First Amendment, in my book, is the freedom each of us has to pray or not to pray, to choose religion or no religion, to celebrate our holidays free from outside interference.
So all you Christmas Jews, I will fight to the end to defend your right to put up a tree and sing carols and the rest. But why? Why are you celebrating the birth of Jesus?
Need I point out that I don’t know of any Christians who celebrate Hanukkah, much less the more important holy days of Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. And while we’re at it, ask any educated Jew, and they’ll tell you that Hanukkah is a pretty minor holiday in our calendar, and that elevating it to Christmas-like standing is only one step away from putting up that tree. It’s a nice holiday, and I love jelly donuts (even if my single attempt to bake them failed), but it’s not the Jewish Christmas. There is no Jewish Christmas. Christmas is a Christian holiday, based in Christian faith.
Some years ago, before ideology took over talk radio, I interviewed a rabbi about Christmas, and he made a point I’ll never forget: If you want your grandchildren to be Jewish, you shouldn’t be celebrating Christmas with your children. And in the years since, as I look around, there is great truth to what he said.
When my kids were younger, there were plenty of occasions in the schoolyard when I would ask Jewish parents what they were doing for our holidays, and they would look at me like I was slightly crazy and explain that they didn’t celebrate the Jewish holidays because their children were “nothing.” Nothing. These parents who worried about whether the apple juice had pesticides and whether there was too much smog on hot days worried not at all about the spiritual nourishment that is as important as the quality of the apple juice. When it came time for Christmas, these same parents would tell me about their elaborate plans for celebrating a holiday that, as they would explain to me, meant “nothing” religiously.
Kids who grow up as nothing lose something that is very important. That something matters more than feeling left out when Santa skips your house. It defines us in critical ways, gives us comfort in difficult times, gives us faith when that is all there is.
For many years, I used to meet my mother every Christmas, and we would go see a movie and then eat Chinese. In the years since she passed away, I remember those Christmas Days with special fondness, days when my mother and I celebrated who we were, the ties that bound us. It matters.
So this year, I’ll be celebrating with my kids — and egg foo yung.
Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. God bless.
— Best-selling author Susan Estrich is the Robert Kingsley Professor of Law and Political Science at the USC Law Center and was campaign manager for 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis. Click here to contact her.
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» on 12.21.11 @ 03:22 PM
As a conservative, Christian and fellow human being I say the same and happy Hanukkah as well. Nicely put Sue, God bless.
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» on 12.25.11 @ 08:44 AM
Since you feel it’s you’re right to tell other Jews how they should and should not relate to the December holidays, as a fellow Jew I’ll reserve the right to tell you back: it’s none of your business how any other Jew relates to the holidays on the secular (or Hebrew) calendar; it’s not your duty to school other Jews in their own holidays as if only your way is the correct way to observe them; and it’s incorrect on the face of it to assume that you know how any Jewish family—parent or child—personally experience Chanukah, the Christmas season, or any other time of year. Not to mention the fact that your entire post reads as if you’re painfully unaware that half of klal Yisrael in the United States is intermarried and either raising children in potentially interfaith environments, or with children being raised by at least one parent for whom the traditions you brazenly criticize here are part and parcel of their own families of origin.
Every year, a steady stream of holier-than-thou Jews gets up on their personal bimas to proclaim that any Jew who doesn’t go through December in the exact, same manner that they do isn’t a good Jew. Really? Do them I ask, how many cheeseburgers did you eat last year? How much electricity do you use every week on Shabbat? Ever drive to a synagogue on a Saturday? Write a shopping list? Use a pen or pencil?
Yes? Then do the rest of us a favor and look at yourselves first, because you’re not as Jewishly perfect as you think you are. You want to keep everyone else to the letter of the law. The above things would be included in the letter of the law. And I highly doubt you, Susan, have never written on a Saturday.
Get it?
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