George Washington's Chrismukkah Miracle

Like Tom, I believe strongly in the separation of church and state, especially in any context that pits the state institutions designed to indoctrinate our children, such as public schools, against my own right as a parent to indoctrinate my son. That said, Krauthammer is correct that too many American Jews have bequeathed "a fragile religious identity to their children," and America's Reform and Conservative Jewish movements deserve credit for the growing revival in Jewish education designed to correct this. Perhaps like Krauthammer, I feel little sympathy for Jewish parents who barely make the effort to teach Judaism to their children and then complain when they grow up, move to California and become Buddhists (or invent holidays like Chrismukkah.) But there are Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Humanist, atheist, and other parents who are working hard to pass on their beliefs, values, and traditions to their children who deserve not to be forced to compete with the combined resources of the state. That's precisely why Tom is so correct about the difference between malls and public schools.

However, I've struggled over the years with how I feel about state-sponsored Christmas celebrations well outside the context of indoctrinating children. Unlike a courthouse display of the Ten Commandments, for example, state-sponsored Christmas or Hanukah celebrations are temporary and relatively brief, and not permanent government assertions of religiosity. Assuming we agree that menorahs and Christmas trees both are religious symbols (we don't, but I'll get to that), in the interest of nondiscrimination, we either ban state displays of both or allow state displays of both. While there would probably be no ill effect to banning both, the effect of allowing both is a temporary state-sponsored acknowledgment of religious plurality, which is a net positive in a society that values the diversity of its citizens.

Krauthammer cites one of my favorite historical sources, George Washington's letter to the Jews of Newport, R.I., 1790 (which I also cite in an op-ed scheduled to be published Sunday.) If you've never read it, you should. We will only ever achieve Washington's vision of a "Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance," by honestly and respectfully engaging each other about our religious differences.

In that spirit, the particular manner of the state-sponsored display makes a difference because of the ways Christians and Jews see certain symbols differently. As Tom notes, most Jews see Christmas trees and Santa Clauses as symbols of a Christian holiday. But many Christians see them as secular symbols with little Christian meaning and look to nativity scenes as religious representations of the holiday. Krauthammer's incoherent mall manager notwithstanding, I think you'd be hard pressed to find even the most secular Jew who doesn't acknowledge that the eight-branched Hanukah menorah signifies the miracle of the Temple oil burning for eight days. But while both nativity scenes and menorahs represent religious miracles, where nativity scenes depict a central existential event in Christianity, menorahs represent a relatively minor miracle that didn't even find its way into the Jewish Bible. Moreover, as beautiful as nativity scenes are for Christians, accepting their meaning requires Jews to reject their faith, where nothing about Hanukah requires Christians to reject anything (although I suppose it might rankle Greek pagans a bit.) Therefore, while state-sponsored Christmas trees and menorahs probably strike the right balance in terms of religious plurality, my feeling is that state-sponsored nativity scenes tilt too far toward a state-sponsored challenge to my Jewishness.

As an aside, Krauthammer is right that American culture has inflated the importance of Hanukah. But practices in every religion have been influenced by their broader cultural contexts. Do you really think there were baubled fir trees growing in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago? More to the point, American Jews themselves have turned Hanukah into the major Jewish gift-giving holiday (traditionally it was Purim) to compete with Christmas for the affections of Jewish children. That seems very much in the spirit of the Maccabean defense of Judaism against Hellenist culture, which is what gave rise to Hanukah as a holiday.