"Merry Christmas", From Your Resident Jew!

I like Christmas. A lot.

I grew up in an Italian-Catholic neighborhood, and celebrated Christmas with the families of my friends since I was a little kid. Not "celebrated" in the sense of going to church - it's not my place - but I was always invited over to a friends house to eat, drink, and occasionally exchange a gift. I think Christmas trees are beautiful, I like Christmas specials on TV, and I enjoy getting into the spirit of the season.

And I thank God every day that I live in a nation as open and tolerant as the United States of America - a Christian nation to be sure, but a nation that has been perhaps the most hospitable in the the history of civilization to the Jewish people. May it always keep its (Judeo)Christian nature, and never forget its heritage, from which springs its greatness...

And on that note, here's an email once sent by Ben Stein, standing up as a Jew and an American to do battle against those who would wage war on Christmas:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat....

Merry Christmas!


(somewhat excerpted from this post, but with 25% new material!)