Wandering Jew

My Journey Through the World as a Jewish Person

Christmastime for the Jews

This is the title for a Saturday Night video, portraying Jews happily filling the streets as the goyim celebrate Christmas. Don’t forget the ubiquitous combo of “movie and Chinese food” 9although Indian food will do in a pinch.

Christmas Day was traditionally frought with fear among Jewish communities, as antisemtic tropes came to the forefront, Jews as betrayers and killers of the Lord. Martin Luther ( whose feelings toward Jews was mercurial and perhaps debatable) feuled the animus (On the Jews and Their Lies – Wikipedia, I cite to Wikipedia as I am lazy and this subject would require a book-size bibliography) as well as traditional Catholic Church teachings, now officially repudiated ( Vatican Declaration Absolves Jews of Deicide; Condemns Anti-semitism – Jewish Telegraphic Agency (jta.org) https://www.jta.org/archive/vatican-declaration-absolves-jews-of-deicide-condemns-anti-semitism.)

However, in Eastern Europe, Christmas Day was often associated with pogroms and uprisings against Jewish communities. During WWII, deportations continued, two of my granmother’s cousins were deported on December 25th to Auschwitz, from the Lodz Ghetto. I learned through DNA a few years ago that they managed to survive the horrors.

So where are we now? We discuss the microagressions of “Merry Christmas” greetings, and lack thereof. We debate Hannukah bushes and greeting cards and gifts — Hannukah is a fairly minor Jewish holiday, but is a major secular part of Jewish identity.

So, despite the wave of antisemitism — the tsunami — Christmastime for the Jews this year brings a bit of respite before the storm

Happy Christmakuh!

And don’t forget about Festivus and ‘The Airing of the Grievances.” https://youtu.be/1l8Eag9CAFk

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debjkay

I know a little bit about law and genealogy and the Holocaust and genocide. I want to share my personal impressions and musings and hope you will as well. To quote a needlepoint pillow I once saw in a judge’s chambers, “Sometimes wrong, but never in doubt.”