Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wished Christians in Israel and throughout the world a Merry Christmas. In a videotaped message, Netanyahu noted that Christians throughout the Middle East are subject to persecution, except in Israel. “Christian communities across the Middle East are experiencing a particularly difficult time. They’re experiencing violence, persecution and fear,” Netanyahu said….
Lior Zaltzman Last week, I offered some homemade latkes to my upstairs neighbor, Caitrin Kiley. As she happily ate a few (with sour cream, for which she has a slight preference over apple sauce), she casually mentioned her family’s Christmas morning tradition. The Kileys, a Catholic family from Connecticut, have a longstanding routine. Assorted relatives…
Displaced Christians sell holiday crafts at a market in the Kurdish city of Erbil / Getty Images As a Jew, I’m not literally celebrating Christmas — it’s not my tradition. But I will spend the day celebrating the fact that Christians are proudly observing their traditions amid relentless persecution. This year has seen more global…
Photograph via Flickr/Creative Commons As an Orthodox Jew who believes in the world to come while participating pretty fully in the world at large, I will admit that there are certain things I like about Christmas aka “the holiday season.” I like the festive spirit, the Starbucks sweet and spicy Christmas blend coffee, and the…
(JTA) — While chestnuts roast on open fires elsewhere in Dallas, another holiday tradition beckons for some of the city’s Jews: the Christmas Day Classic recreational football game. The first such game took place in 1964, when 16 teenage boys were looking for a diversion on an otherwise uneventful day. Now those “boys” are in…
Vered Guttman (Haaretz) — My kids love Christmas. It’s the only time of year we eat Chinese food, a cuisine I’m not particularly fond of. But tradition is tradition, and I’m not the one to break the generations-long ritual of Chinese and a movie. This tradition is indeed so well established, that when I called to…
Have you heard the Christmas version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” a recently released YouTube sensation by Kansas-based band Cloverton? Well, I have, and I hate it. But not for the reasons you might think. Am I pissed off — as many Jews appear to be — on Cohen’s behalf, because he’s Jewish and these musicians…
A mocking holiday display depicting an angel falling into the pit of hell was deliberately knocked off its table in Florida’s Capitol rotunda Tuesday, but was quickly restored by a local atheist leader whose group sponsored the exhibit. Capitol police detained a Tallahassee woman who they said knocked over the display, which carried the tagline:…
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