The news that President Obama is cutting the guest list for the annual White House Hanukkah party from 800 to 400 lit up cyberspace over the past couple weeks. “More Proof Obama Hates Jews,” read one dispatch that crossed my desk. Other responses were equally hostile. Overlooked in the frenzy over whether the president was prudently cutting costs or (as one blogger vigorously insisted) purposefully “dissing Jews” was a fascinating question: How did the president of the United States come to hold an official White House Hanukkah party in the first place?
For most of the 20th century, the only December holiday that gained White House recognition was Christmas. Calvin Coolidge inaugurated the practice of lighting an official White House Christmas tree in 1923, and he also delivered the first formal presidential Christmas message. He assumed, as most Americans of his day did, that everybody celebrated Christmas. In 1927, he proclaimed that “Christmas is not a time or a season, but a state of mind.” If we focus on its message, Coolidge explained, “there will be born in us a Savior and over us will shine a star sending its gleam of hope to the world.” Silent Cal, so far as I can determine, uttered not one word about Hanukkah.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whom the American Jewish community adulated, proved no more sensitive when it came to Hanukkah. He sent evocative Christmas cards to Rabbi Stephen S. Wise and other friends in the Jewish community, and declared that Christmas was a national holiday “because the teachings of Christ are fundamental to our lives.” His successor, Harry Truman, another favorite of the Jewish community, echoed Roosevelt in his Christmas message to the nation. He called upon Americans to “put our trust in the unerring Star which guided the Wise Men to the Manger of Bethlehem.”
Perhaps the most astonishing of all White House Christmas messages was delivered by a man who should have known all about Hanukkah since he was born just blocks away from a large synagogue in Brookline, Mass., and had many Jewish friends and supporters. Yet John F. Kennedy egregiously declared in 1962 that “Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists, as well as Christians, pause from their labors on the 25th day of December to celebrate the birthday of the Prince of Peace.” He believed (or, at least, his speechwriter believed) that “there could be no more striking proof that Christmas is truly the universal holiday of all men.”
The first president who took official notice of Hanukkah was one of the Jewish community’s least-favorite occupants of the White House, Jimmy Carter. In 1979, he ended 100 days of self-imposed seclusion over the Iran hostage crisis by walking to Lafayette Park, lighting the new “National Menorah” erected there by Chabad-Lubavitch, and delivering brief remarks. Sensitized to the fact that Jews celebrate their own holiday in December, he carefully directed his next annual Christmas message only “to those of our fellow citizens who join us in the joyous celebration of Christmas.” Every president since has recognized Hanukkah with a special menorah-lighting ceremony, and limited his Christmas messages to those who actually observe the holiday.
Hanukkah came to the White House itself, in 1989, when President George H.W. Bush displayed a menorah there, given to him by the Synagogue Council of America. But the first president to actually light a menorah in the White House was Bill Clinton. In 1993, he invited a dozen schoolchildren to the Oval Office for a small ceremony. The event made headlines when 6-year-old Ilana Kattan’s ponytail dipped into the flame. Clinton ran his hands through her hair to snuff out the smoke.
Menorah lightings grew in importance during the Clinton years. Memorably, in 1998, Clinton joined Israel’s president, Ezer Weizman, in lighting a candle on the first night of Hanukkah in Jerusalem. But no White House Hanukkah parties ever took place under Clinton. Instead, he included Jewish leaders in a large annual “holiday party.” Jews mingled with Christians at those parties, but those who kept kosher did not find much to eat.
The first president to host an official White House Hanukkah party, and the first to actually light a menorah in the White House residence, was George W. Bush, beginning in both cases in 2001. Since Bush made a point of injecting religion, complete with baby Jesus, into his many annual Christmas parties — 25 of them in 2005 alone — a separate Hanukkah party for Jews showed sensitivity. The annual Hanukkah party also underscored Bush’s deepening bonds with Orthodox Jews, the Jewish religious stream most sympathetic to his “faith-based” agenda. Hasidic leaders in distinctive garb regularly appeared at these parties, and beginning in 2005 (after an embarrassment in 2004 when kosher and non-kosher foods were mixed up), the parties became completely kosher.
Barack Obama is thus only the second president in history ever to hold a White House Hanukkah party. The fact that he is limiting his guest list to the 400 Jews who are nearest and dearest to him is surely less noteworthy than how much America has changed since Calvin Coolidge lit up the first White House Christmas tree and paid no attention to Hanukkah at all.
Jonathan D. Sarna is the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University and the author of “American Judaism: A History” (Yale University Press, 2004). He is serving this year as senior scholar at the Mandel Leadership Institute in Jerusalem.
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Thanks to the author for clearing up just one more ridiculously false claim against a thinking-president, such as we've not seen in a long time.
Another perfect example of "give an inch and they'll take a mile".
I just wish I would be one of the 400!
In a shortening life, I do not read the sorts of blogs in which some complained about the number of people invited to the President's event---but I should be grateful if some learned reader could direct me to passages of Torah or Talmud which would provide guidance on the proper Jewish response to our situation of near bondage in the US....
Maybe Jeremiah will crash the party. Who knows??/
If he invites me I will bring the best potato latkes -ever!
So, there'll be Muslim and Hindu parties in the White House soon enough.
I believe there already have been celebrations of Muslim and Hindu holidays in the White House -- iftar meals during Ramadan, recognition of Diwali... You can probably find stories/photos online. And don't forget Obama's sedar this past year....How much America has changed since Calvin Coolidge!
Is Rashid Khalidi, jeremiah wright, or the ever popular white house party crashers, Tarek Salidi ( you know the guy who was chairman of the task force for palestine ) all good friends of the Obama's on the list.
Ob has many Jews in his administration because that was the only way he was going to get elected. I would like him to show more support for Jewish & Israeli causes. When sitting in Uncle Jeremiah's pews i'm sure he heard plenty of anti-semetic remarks and did nothing about it.
I am strongly against any racial or religious discrimination in any form and I respect the right of anyone to practice his or her religion providing that practice does not conflict with the laws of the land. It does bother me, however, that any branch of our government would segregate by entertaining any particular religious group or race. I am a strong advocate of the separation of church and state and do not believe that government, at any level, should differentiate by inviting any one particular religious group to a dinner; and I care not what that religious group is. We should all keep in mind that in order to maintain a true freedom of religion no one religion should be given favorable treatment or recognition. It is only in that way that all religion can be free and not discriminated against. To recognize or favor any one religion only tens to discriminate against the others. I was also bothered by the Bush statement as well when he said "this is a Christian nation".
What is an indication that assimilation has already happened, that it's a fact of life? Well, when a Jewish topic is viewed from a non-Jewish perspective in a Jewish newspaper, then you can be sure that the process of Americanization has been completed. Prof Sarna could have told us how Hanukka has developed since the arrival of Jews in the New World. He could have analyzed how the American Jewish community relates to Hanukka and its importance in comparison to pre-Holocaust Eastern Europe or in comparison to the attitude of Zionism. But, no - how the White House has changed vis-a-vis Hanukka is the topic at hand. Actually, the topic of Hanukka at hand is its serving as a barometer of the acceptance of Jews as part of the American mainstream - and not Hanukka as an expression of Jewish culture and distinctiveness as shared with other Jews of the world.
So, when will see the White House sukkah?
When the president moves into a sukkah constructed on the White House lawn then, and only then, will we will know that integration is fully complete.
The issue in the constitution is that no one religion shall be 'established' as the official government supported religion. The Founding Fathers were responding to the established Church of England that persecuted the Puritans and Quakers and denied certain rights to Catholics, three groups that came to the New World seeking religous freedom. America chose to 'separate' church and state, while England chose to support parental choice and funds schools for Angicans(C of E), Roman Catholics and Jews. Both societies acknowledge non-Christian festivals and we have, for instance, a large Menorah in Trafalgar Square lit each night in the presence of govt dignitaries. I recall Prince Charles and Camilla attending a Chanukah party for Jewish school children.
While there is beauty in all religious traditions, I think government and religion should remain seperated. How is it that the highest office in the land, can celebrate one or two religious holidays and ignore the rest? In all fairness, government need not respect one religion over another.
Joe Kennedy, a notorious antisemite, moved his family away from Brookline the year after Kehillah Israel was built. "There goes the neighborhood" indeed.
passages of Torah or Talmud which would provide guidance on the proper Jewish response to our situation of near bondage in the US....perhaps Zimbabwe would be more to your liking. There probably used to be a Judaica store in Salisbury (now Harare). Check it out
I just wish I could get an invitation so I could witness my daughter performing with her singing group, Kol Sasson, from the University of Maryland!
Let us not lose sight of the momentous positive meaning of having ANY ewish celebration in the White House -- in the context of centuries of Jewish disenfranchisement. For more, see especially www.hanukkiot.com
Jimmy Carter was "one of the Jewish community’s least-favorite occupants of the White House"? Which Jewish community are you talking about? According to http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/jewvote.html , 71% of Jewish voters voted for Carter in 1976, and 45% (still a plurality - greater than the 39% for Reagan) in 1980. Comparing this 45% to some other incumbent presidents running for a second term, 24% of Jewish voters voted for Bush in 2004, 31% for Reagan in 1984, 35% for Nixon in 1972, and 40% for Eisenhower in 1956.
"Sensitized to the fact that Jews celebrate their own holiday in December, he carefully directed his next annual Christmas message only 'to those of our fellow citizens who join us in the joyous celebration of Christmas.'"
This is missing the point. Even if Jews didn't have a holiday in December, we still wouldn't celebrate Christmas. The question of whether Christmas is a universal holiday for all Americans (it isn't, of course, and kudos to Carter and subsequent presidents for recognizing this) has nothing to do with Chanukah.
WOW - I am a christian and am always abashed by people who want to cut the "In God we trust" from our currency and other places of government historical sites. Funny how people only work certain things to their advantage, would this not be a case of seperation of religion and state? Ahhh got to love civil liberties unions, who only campagin for their own civil liberties.