I find myself in a bit of a quandary. On the one hand I found myself agreeing with much of what Rabbi Noam Paley said in his Mishpacha Magazine article last week. On the other hand I found his take to be somewhat troubling.
Rabbi Paley is not that happy about the current secular fascination with Chanukah. While many of us are have celebrated the high level prominence the Menorah has achieved in recent times, Rabbi Paley said the following:
I myself have a hard time jumping onto the bandwagon of this celebration.
While admitting that this is a positive development in terms of our acceptance as equals in the country, he says that it has contributed mightily to the kind of assimilation that has led to intermarriage. At this point in time intermarriage is not only culturally acceptable it is actually culturally praised. The evidence of this is the increasing public symbolism of finding a Chanukah Menorah in the same public space as a Christmas tree. (Why he calls it a ‘holiday tree’ is somewhat puzzling. But I suppose it is based on the desire not to mention anything that is remotely part of a celebration by a religion we view as Avodah Zara. But I digress.)
That symbolism is increasingly being repeated in the homes of mixed religion marriages where each spouse gets to display his own religious symbols this time of year. There is a sense of pride among some intermarried couples in the sense that they can each celebrate their different religions under the same roof in complete harmony. “How wonderful!’ ‘A Christmas tree and a Menorah sitting side by side celebrating both our diversity and our brotherhood.’
I agree with him about the deterioration of religious values into mere symbols. That kind of ‘harmony’ on the part of intermarried Jews underscores the ignorance they have about the basics of our beliefs.
There is no way a knowledgeable Jew would tolerate a symbol of Avodah Zara in his home. Even one like a Christmas tree that has no religious significance to the holiday it represents. Symbols that are so are so strongly identified with that holiday send a message of acceptance of that holiday itself and thereby giving a certain amount of legitimacy to their beliefs. It is truly sad that there are so many Jews so ignorant of the most basic element of their religion.
As sad as that is, I am unfortunately not surprised by this. It is all part of the current pattern of American Jewry opting out of their religion. Which includes the fact that the children of the over 70% of non Orthodox Jews that are intermarried are not even Jewish if the female spouse is not the Jewish spouse.
In fact, the epitome of our acceptance was marriage of Chelsea Clinton to a Jewish man in a wedding that featured many symbols of a Jewish wedding. While intermarriage is by itself condemnable, the level of acceptance that showed is undeniable. The social media treated that event like their counterparts in the UK treated the marriage of royalty in the UK.
What prompted Rabbi Paley to express his thoughts on this issue is the unprecedentedly warm Chanukah message by Boris Johnson, the newly elected Prime Minister of the UK. In that video (viewable below) Rabbi Paley spotted a Menorah next to a Christmas tree.
Here is where I take issue with him. While it is true that the unprecedented freedom and acceptance has given rise to the kind of assimilation that at least in part is responsible for the exodus of so many Jews out of Judaism – that should not minimize that high value of that acceptance. The benefits of which are incalculable. Never In Jewish history have we been – not only accepted but even admired by our non Jewish fellow citizens.
Although antisemitism has been on the rise, it is clearly not on the part of the government. And I dare say not on the part of the vast majority of the American people. As I have said so many times, there are so many examples of the positive attitude about the Jewish people it would take volumes to list them all.
Ironically albeit sadly - it is the very increase in violent antisemitic attacks where this attitude became so apparent. That should be celebrated. Not looked upon as an impediment to our continuity. Because phenomenon of having symbols of ow religions on the part of intermarried couples is not the cause of the problem. The Menorah / Christmas Tree phenomenon is symptom – not a cause. A cause that is a complicated combination of assimilation; the lack of any decent Jewish education in the early part of the last century; a world at that time where ‘melting pot’ assimilation was the order of the day; and the requirement in so many jobs to work on Shabbos.
Adding to that was the advent of a heterodoxy that tried to eliminate (Reform) or alter (Conservative) our religious requirements so that we could ‘melt’ into that ‘pot’ with ease.
With fathers working on Shabbos (even as they might have regretted the ‘need’ to do so in order to make a living); parents sacrificing so much to send their children to the best colleges so they could achieve the America dream; and children seeing the hypocrisy of their fathers working on Shabbos while insisting their children be fully observant, they could not run away fast enough form their Jewish heritage and become full fledged melting pot American Jews. All of which bring us to this day. While the religious aspect of placing a Menorah next to a Christmas tree is something lament and not celebrate, the symbolism of acceptance those symbols also represent - is! These are two separate issues and in my view should not be conflated.