{"id":58339,"date":"2017-12-27T17:05:21","date_gmt":"2017-12-27T15:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=58339"},"modified":"2017-12-25T12:28:03","modified_gmt":"2017-12-25T10:28:03","slug":"27-05-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=58339","title":{"rendered":"Who Are The Jews Celebrating Christmas\u2026 in Israel?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Who Are The Jews Celebrating Christmas\u2026 in Israel?<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Eetta Prince-Gibson<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Shira Greenblatt, a secular Israeli Jew who was born and raised in Jerusalem, loves Christmas. \u201cEvery year I attend Christmas services at the Dormition Abbey on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem, and I will go again this year, too. It\u2019s very special to learn about Christianity here, in Jerusalem. And I love the lights, the songs, and the majesty,\u201d she enthused.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Greenblatt, 42, a secretary, is one of the thousands of Israeli Jews who attend Christmas festivities and religious services throughout the country. Christmas in Israel has become so popular that even Go Tel Aviv, a hip city guide, is offering an edition of The Five Top Places to Celebrate the Holiday Season in the Holy Land. \u201cThere is nothing like a beautiful Christmas tree to get into the atmosphere of the holiday season,\u201d the guide advises, citing some of Israel\u2019s best-lit trees and most inspiring masses.<\/span><\/p>\n

In towns with a Christian majority, mostly located in northern Israel, Christmas is a public holiday. The Jewish National Fund provides Christmas trees for NIS 80 (about $23.00), and the Jerusalem municipality provides lighted decorations, \u201cin areas where the holiday is observed,\u201d according to a municipal announcement, referring to non-Jewish neighborhoods.<\/span><\/p>\n

But for most Jewish and Muslim Israelis, Christmas is just another workday, with no religious, social or commercial impact. That suits some people just fine. \u201cAs an observant Jew who grew up in New York City, I am delighted that I don\u2019t feel Christmas here,\u201d said Benjie Cohen, 43, a businessman who lives in a religious neighborhood in Jerusalem. \u201cChristmas shouldn\u2019t be observed in the Jewish state.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But many Israelis do not agree. \u201cMy grandparents, who came from Poland, are upset that I go to the Christmas service at the Dormition Abbey every year. They have terrible memories about Christmas,\u201d said Matti Koller, 31, a Hebrew University student. \u201cI don\u2019t have any of those hang-ups. Judaism has its own simple beauty, but I love knowing about other religions, too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Dormition Abbey holds a service in German (the Benedictine vernacular) earlier in the evening for its own parishioners, and invites the Jewish visitors for a midnight service held mostly in English, with some Hebrew.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI probably have the distinction of being the only priest in the world who delivers a Christmas sermon to a mostly-Jewish audience,\u201d said Father Nikodemus, a Benedictine monk at the Dormition Abbey, who\u2019s in charge of the Christmas service. He estimates that about 1,000 Jews attend.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Window On Mt. Zion \/ Monks filing into the service at the Dormition Abbey in the Christmas procession in the mostly-Jewish Israeli congregation.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

In fact, there are so many visitors, that the \u201cWindow on Mount Zion\u201d project, part of the non-profit Jerusalem Intercultural Center, enlists and trains dozens of Jewish volunteers to act as ushers at the service.He believes for many of the Jewish visitors, the hymn-singing is the height of the service. \u201cThey especially love to hear \u2018Silent Night,\u2019 sung in German,\u201d he says. \u201cI actually think it\u2019s a bit kitschy \u2013 but if they like it, then we can sing it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Nikodemus is aware that Jesus can be difficult for Jews. \u201cChristianity was not kind to the Jews. So every year, I say the same thing: I have no intention to missionize. I merely want to share our joy at the birth of Jesus. I know that most of the people in my church do not believe that Jesus is the son of God and the Messiah. But at least we can all agree with something Jesus said: \u2018Love God and your neighbor as yourself.\u2019\u201d<\/span>
\n After the service, at about 1 am, the monks invite the participants to a reception in the Abbey, with traditional Christmas cookies and candies.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am thankful to the Benedictines for inviting us,\u201d Greenblatt said. \u201cIt\u2019s terrible that because we are the majority, we ignore Christmas, which is so important to Christians here and throughout the world. The only thing we know about Christmas is from TV and movies. I want to learn first-hand.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A few other Jerusalem churches open their doors to Jewish visitors on Christmas Eve, although many have limited their numbers, because \u201cthere were so many Jewish visitors that there wasn\u2019t enough room for the members of our own congregations,\u201d said a Protestant church official who asked not to be identified because \u201che didn\u2019t want to offend the Jews who show an interest in Christianity. But there were just so many of them!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The YMCA in West Jerusalem sponsors an annual Christmas Eve concert and a Christmas Bazaar, each of which is attended by hundreds of people, and its brightly lit tree is also a big attraction. \u201cI bring my children here to see the tree every year,\u201d says Merav Armoni, an elementary school teacher. \u201cI love the colors, the excitement, the lights. Everything in Israel is so Jewish, just looking at the tree feels like I\u2019m in Europe.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJerusalem is the most international city in the world,\u201d says YMCA director, Amos Gil. \u201cWe are proud when we help members of one religion learn about the others.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For others, Christmas provides an opportunity for Jewish-Arab coexistence activities. The NGO Shared Tourism, for example, organized over a dozen tours to Shefar-Am, an Arab city in the Galilee. According to Noam Horowitz, Program Director for Shared Tourism, more than 800 people \u2013 almost all of them Israeli Jews \u2013 attended these events, which included visits to Christmas markets and local churches (and even an interfaith candle-lighting ceremony during Hanukkah in the ancient synagogue in Shefar-Am.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Shared Tourism \/ An interfaith candle-lighting ceremony in Shfar\u2019am. Close to 800 Jews participated in the Christmas tour by \u201cShared Tourism,\u201d a joint Arab-Jewish venture in the Galilee.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Hana Bendcowsky, a tour guide and program director of the Jerusalem Center for Jewish \u2013 Christian Relations (JCJCR), an interfaith Jerusalem-based NGO, laments that for many Israeli Jews, the \u201cthe attraction of Christmas is the feeling that they are abroad, enjoying churches and Christmas markets.\u201d Despite that superficial pleasure she believes it can \u201clead to curiosity and to greater familiarity with the Christians who live in Israel.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The rabbinic establishment sees things differently. Each year, the rabbinate issues a \u201creminder\u201d to hotels and restaurants to \u201cavoid hosting parties to mark the end of the secular year.\u201d Until 2015, kashrut inspectors could even revoke the kosher certification from hotels and other establishments if they displayed a Christmas tree or sponsored a New Year\u2019s Eve party. (In 2015, under public pressure, the rabbinate disallowed this policy.)<\/span><\/p>\n

And last year, the rabbi of the Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa forbade students to enter the student union building due to a Christmas tree placed there. Writing on a website geared to the national-religious community, Rabbai Elad Dokow described the tree as an \u201cattack on Jewish identity,\u201d and added, \u201cIt is not a Christian religious symbol but, even worse, a pagan one.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of anti-Christian sentiment in Israel, and especially in some of the religious establishment,\u201d said Dr. Deborah Weissman, author of Memoirs of a Hopeful Pessimist and consultant to the International Council of Christians and Jews. \u201cSome of our religious leaders act as if we still have to be fearful of the Christians,\u201d she said, because of the years of persecution. \u201cBut those days are long gone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSecular Israelis \u2013 even those who would never step into a synagogue \u2013 are open to other religions,\u201d Weissman said, noting that it\u2019s not assimilation but coming from \u201cthe security of living in a majority culture.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Israeli education should include lessons on Christianity and Islam, she said. \u201cAfter all, Jesus was the most famous Jew of all time, and we should be secure enough to appreciate his teachings, even though we do not see him as the Messiah.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rabbi David Rosen, the former Chief Rabbi of Ireland and current Director of the American Jewish Committee\u2019s Department of Interreligious Affairs, agrees.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe rabbinic establishment in Israel is living in a time-warp,\u201d Rosen said, pointing out the ridiculousness of the rabbinate and other religious officials calling New Year\u2019s Eve Sylvester, since the day originally marked the day of the death of 4th century Pope Sylvester.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe only Sylvester I knew about when I grew up in England was the cartoon character that chased Tweety-Bird.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m delighted that Israeli Jews are interested in other faiths. Indeed, the entire Jewish world needs to seriously reevaluate its relationship to Christianity,\u201d Rosen said. \u201cAnd what better place than in the State of Israel \u2013 where we are a majority and no longer victims?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Eetta Prince-Gibson<\/strong>, the former editor in chief of The Jerusalem Report, is an award-winning journalist who lives in Jerusalem.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Who Are The Jews Celebrating Christmas\u2026 in Israel? Eetta Prince-Gibson Shira Greenblatt, a secular Israeli Jew who was born and raised in Jerusalem, loves Christmas. \u201cEvery year I attend Christmas services at the Dormition Abbey on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem, and I will go again this year, too. It\u2019s very special to learn about Christianity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58339"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58339"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58361,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58339\/revisions\/58361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}