It Is OK To Be A Jew At Christmas

This piece in Reform Judaism really touched me.

Unike my grandmother of blessed memory, who had to escape the Russian revolution and come to the states for the freedom to practice the rituals of her faith openly, I have not been openly physically punished for being Jewish. I certainly have been discriminated against for being Jewish.

And yet my grandmother had decided early on, that she was NOT religious enough to become a Zionist; she declined to go to Israel. She told me to take care of America for her. I did the best I could, as an officer in the U.S. Army.

Has America taken good care of me?

They gave me “freedom.” I did break away from the religious traditions that were so strong they still held her (and to a lesser extent, my father) to guide their lives, and to a certain extent their identities, by tight-knit religious communities.

In this era, we still debate what it is to be American, as certain ethnic or religious groups wonder about being forced to regain alleged “homelands” they had been absent from for years.

Much the same way that French, when I lived in their homeland, occasionally wondered if people from North Africa were “really French.”

There is no doubt in my mind that our founding fathers did NOT intend the United States to become a Christian theocracy.

Jefferson said our government should protect “Jew and Gentile” and a lot of other folks, too.

There has been a progression. I am not too scared for my physical survival. I do not think I am at any more risk of physical violence than any human being in this era of; well, violence.

My last name proclaims my ethnicity. Every time a well-meaning patient or acquaintance wishes me a “Happy Jewish Chrismas” — and they do — I have to wonder if we have ever successfully achieved the separation of church and state, and whether I really am under the mantle of my government’s protection as much as someone who professes Christianity.