post-post-jew

Is Jewish Christmas a Holiday? By that I mean, is it widely practiced, similarly practiced, and/or repeated? Most of us in class last Tuesday found the SNL  “Christmas for the Jews” song utterly recognizable; conforming to stereotype, all the American Jews in class actually spend (or have often spent) Christmas together as a family eating Chinese food and going to the movies. The level of Jewish observance seems not to matter; Reform Jews, Conservative Jews, and Orthodox all get Chinese food—though observance may impact entrees ordered and the quality of your meal. It may have emerged as a counter-holiday, but it seems phenomenologically the same as a regularly holiday: we come together as a family unit by eating food both real and symbolic, seeing ourselves as conforming to a wider, unique nation/family in the process.

Of course the big difference is that there is no textual basis for “Jewish Christmas,” no legal code calling for its existence, nor even hinting at it. It appears to be a fully cultural holiday, likely unique to American Jewry. As such, we don’t readily perceive it as something Jewish. Ivan Marcus distinguishes between assimilation and what he calls “inward acculturation.” Inward acculturation is a borrowing from another culture wherein the item borrowed is perceived as Jewish. Circumcision. Bar Mitzvahs. Wedding bands. All of these things aren’t unique or original to Judaism, but we’ve nonetheless made them Jewish rituals. Is Jewish Christmas perceived as Jewish? It certainly doesn’t describe regular Christmas practice. As the song goes

On Christmas Eve, The Gentiles gather
Around the Christmas Tree
They stay at home, and party with
Their Goyishe family

And yet, without any sort of textual element, we don’t readily conceive of this phenomenon as Jewish. We seem to have entered a sort of neutral space when it comes to religion, though we’ve perhaps created a true ethnic holiday.

This year we have another innovation in Jewish practice: The Hanukkah Dragon.

DAVE: You know, a lot of people think that Jews don’t have anything like Santa Claus.

MARISA: Not true?

DAVE: We have a Hanukkah dragon!

MARISA: Instead of bringing holiday cheer he brings holiday guilt!

DAVE: And fire!

MARISA: (and Nice Jewish Guys calendars)

I’m not sure what to make of the Hanukkah Dragon. Why shouldn’t Jews have a mascot? John Stewart suggested as such back in Naked Pictures of Famous People. And a fire-breathing dragon is so ridiculously non-textual that it might work. After all, it would take a pretty grand misreading of the apocryphal story of Daniel and the dragon to link this back to Judaism.  And even though that would probably be the greatest act of inward acculturation of all-time, I’d prefer to let the Hanukkah dragon be its own creature, a nice piece of Jewish Americana with a bonus shout-out to one of next week’s topics, the Nice Jewish Guys calendar.