Kosher Christmas (Hal Cohen)

Hal Cohen -- World News Trust

Dec. 25, 2009 -- NEW YORK -- As the music reminded me for the third time in four stores that it is the “Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” a quick surf of the internet brought me to a clip of Bill O’Reilly talking again about the war on Christmas.

On this occasion, he was discussing the issue with John Stossel. An organization had apparently compiled a list of companies organized by how “Christmas friendly” they were. According to Stossel, the five companies at the top of the list had seen sales increase 1%. Likewise, the five at the bottom, the ones with the audacity to wish customers a “Happy Holiday,” had seen the 1% increase in sales.

In the interest of disclosure, I’m Jewish, though I suppose my last name gave it away. I have no problem with people saying, “Merry Christmas.” My response is usually to thank them for their good wishes. If Hanukkah has not yet passed, I might wish them a Happy Hanukkah. How in the world does acknowledging the existence of other holidays constitute an attack on yours?

Rule # 1: If someone wishes you a Merry Christmas, and you take offense, you are a jerk.

Rule # 2: If someone says Happy Holidays and you take offense, you are a jerk.

People who get offended offend me. I am completely intolerant of intolerance. I do not actually know whether Bill O’Reilly has ever uttered the phrase, “We’re a Christian nation,” but those who trot out this canard are sadly misinformed. What we are, as a nation, is the greatest example of religious tolerance in the history of man.

President John Adams, a devout Christian and one of the Founders who should know about the subject said so explicitly. In a 1799 treaty with Libya, he wrote that we are NOT a Christian nation and were not at war with Islam so there was no cause for them to attack our ships and arrest our sailors.

That being said, I live in New York City, and though I’m not an observant Jew, I am proud of my Jewish heritage. I am also a regular customer at a local pub in my neighborhood (some of my friends jokingly call me “Norm” after the character on “Cheers”). For regulars, the bar is like our living room, we watch television and hangout with friends. On Friends, they used a coffee shop instead, but the idea is the same. Apartments in NYC are smaller than on TV.

The local pub is therefore an extension of the home. One year, the Christmas decorations came out as usual, and I was sitting there thinking, "They should have a Menorah in the window."

I bought one and brought it in, and asked the owner if he would display it. He did and many people gave very positive feedback. One year it broke, and the owner took money out of petty cash and asked me to replace it. Many patrons would ask if the right number of bulbs were lit, or if they could add the next one.

Non-Jews would sometimes tell bar staff that the Menorah was not facing the right way. Naturally, they would ask me. Every year, I google Hanukkah to find out the answer, and like an Etch-a-sketch, it gets erased from memory as soon as Hanukkah ends. I tell them that anyone who thinks it is facing the wrong way is looking at it from the wrong side. In addition to hiding my renewed ignorance, it usually gets a laugh.

For a while, the bar owner and I would argue about how long to keep the Menorah displayed. He originally only displayed during the actual eight days of Hanukkah. I would say that it should be out as long as the Christmas decorations are up. When he would tell me that Hanukkah was over, I would respond by reminding him that it was not yet Christmas. This year his Menorah is still on display.

His point was valid in that the religious significance of lighting the Menorah only exists for the actual eight days of the holiday. However, the electric Menorah in the window has as much religious significance as many Christmas decorations. Christmas celebrates the birth of The Christ, Redeemer of Man, the Bringer of Peace foretold by Isaiah. The Nativity is religiously significant, but reindeer, stockings, pine, fir, spruce trees, and elves making toys at the north pole are relevant to Bethlehem how?

When you think about it that way, displaying a Menorah alongside Christmas decorations is a way to celebrate American values. The word Hanukkah comes from the act of re-dedicating the Temple in Jerusalem. That re-dedication came as the result of a rebellion against a foreign kingdom. In this case, however, it wasn’t taxes that were being imposed, it was religion.

Unlike our rebellion, where freedom fighters like those in New Hampshire had the motto “Live Free or Die,” it was the foreign king declaring that the Israelites must “Eat Pork or Die.” When you see the electric Menorah in the window, think of its relevance as a symbol of American values: rebellion against the will of a foreign king, and celebration of the freedoms we enjoy under the Constitution.

My father and I had dinner recently, and he told me about how much he loved Christmas decorations. He told me about his fond memories of the houses in Queens lit up in all their Christmas glory. I grew up in a mostly Jewish neighborhood where the only lights were the Menorahs in the window. Finally, when you consider the fact that the Judea that Jesus was born in had been restored by the very Maccabeen uprising Hanukkah commemorates, isn’t it only appropriate to include the Menorah with all the other lights?