A Jewish view of Christmas
Taken from Doing December Differently - Book
contributor: Jonathan Magonet (Wild Goose Publ)
Description
A Jewish view of Christmas
I feel something of a fraud contributing to this collection. For, being Jewish, Christmas has meant nothing to me; and the fact that it is dressed in a kind of Britishness does not speak to me either. There are Jews who hold parties at this time, it being a holiday, and who might even go as far as buying a Christmas tree as a kind of cultural symbol. From time to time it is the Jewish child in a school who gets a leading role in a nativity play – ‘after all, Joseph was a Jew’. But I’ve done none of these things, and my children went to a Jewish school, so we were spared that particular dilemma. Sadly, my most positive early recollection of Christmas is the sudden appearance of a lot of excellent movies on television. For more than ten years, I have joined a couple of thousand other Jews, and a few Christian and Muslim guests, at a four-day celebration of Jewish learning called Limmud (study), which is certainly seen privately as a ‘Jewish escape from Christmas’. From 8 am to midnight people attend lectures, seminars, workshops and concerts on every conceivable aspect of Jewish culture. So to write about Christmas requires me to find a way into a subject that has never really spoken to me...
Taken from Doing December Differently by Nicola Slee and Rosie Miles. Click here
I feel something of a fraud contributing to this collection. For, being Jewish, Christmas has meant nothing to me; and the fact that it is dressed in a kind of Britishness does not speak to me either. There are Jews who hold parties at this time, it being a holiday, and who might even go as far as buying a Christmas tree as a kind of cultural symbol. From time to time it is the Jewish child in a school who gets a leading role in a nativity play – ‘after all, Joseph was a Jew’. But I’ve done none of these things, and my children went to a Jewish school, so we were spared that particular dilemma. Sadly, my most positive early recollection of Christmas is the sudden appearance of a lot of excellent movies on television. For more than ten years, I have joined a couple of thousand other Jews, and a few Christian and Muslim guests, at a four-day celebration of Jewish learning called Limmud (study), which is certainly seen privately as a ‘Jewish escape from Christmas’. From 8 am to midnight people attend lectures, seminars, workshops and concerts on every conceivable aspect of Jewish culture. So to write about Christmas requires me to find a way into a subject that has never really spoken to me...
Taken from Doing December Differently by Nicola Slee and Rosie Miles. Click here
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