Just in time for the last week of December, Beth Kissileff has a query about the Yiddish word khoge, which denotes a non-Jewish holiday. Does it, she asks, refer only to a religious holiday like Christmas, or does it also include “civic holidays” like Thanksgiving and New Year’s? Since civic holidays did not exist in…
(JTA) — Israeli President Shimon Peres sent out a mostly boilerplate Christmas greeting yesterday, but what jumped out at me were the video’s first 22 seconds, where Peres stands at the center of a group of kids dressed in Santa suits, all singing “Jingle Bells,” accompanied by a piano. Discerning viewers will note, though, that…
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered his holiday blessings to the Christian citizens of Israel on Tuesday, in which he stressed the importance of the community’s contribution to the Israel Defense Forces – accidentally stopping just short of uttering the word “Jewish” state. The video, released in Hebrew on the prime minister’s official channel, was widely…
Sarah Seltzer takes aim at Jews who choose to embrace a number of “Christian” traditions. Her guidance is simple: “No trees, no wreaths, no carols, no cookies — unless, of course, they’re fortune cookies.” As a firmly rooted Jew, I took offence to Seltzer’s, and I worry about what they imply. It seems that for…
Pope Francis, celebrating his first Christmas as Roman Catholic leader, on Wednesday called for dialogue to end the conflict in South Sudan and all wars, saying everyone should strive to be personal peacemakers. Speaking to tens of thousands of people from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, the same spot where he emerged to…
Thousands of tourists and Christian pilgrims gathered in Bethlehem for Christmas Eve. Many will attend midnight mass at the Church of the Nativity, where the patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Fouad Twal, will deliver a sermon. Twal is expected to condemn Israeli settlement during the sermon, which reportedly will be attended by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud…
Every year around Christmas, I see a schism among Jews. There are those of us with Christmas envy who want to join in and embrace it, and then there are those like me, the Scrooges. The ones who say, “Hey guys, this holiday celebrates the birth of Jesus. Not my messiah. Not my religion. Not…
‘Tis the season once again — the season of the December Dilemma. In its original form, the alliterative allusion is to the challenge of raising Jewish kids in a non-Jewish society. Everyone loves Christmas, right? So how come we don’t celebrate it? But the December Dilemma is dated. A majority of non-Orthodox Jewish marriages are…
שבֿע צוקער פֿירט דעם שמועס מיט וויווי לאַקס און ביידע לייענען פֿאָר עטלעכע פֿעליעטאָנען פֿון יענע צײַטן.
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