Lary Bloom
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Friday, December 16, 2005
Oh Little Town of Cos Cob
This time of year, the firehouse in our town is lit with Christmas lights and it brims with commerce -- selling wreaths to benefit the all-volunteer Chester Hose Company. This is a fine thing, if an entirely Christian thing. We Jews have to face up to it: It's a Christian country (if unofficially) and, if our all-volunteer fire companies are to survive, well then, they should share in the business of Christmas.It is, of course, not such a simple matter, particularly when the decorations carry more religious significance than mere blue, green, yellow, and red lights. When the town of Cos Cob, Connecticut, put a creche at its firehouse two decades ago, the historian Barbara Tuchman objected loudly and passionately. We may indeed be a largely Christian country, she argued, but to put such displays in public places, supported by public dollars, is on its face discriminatory. And of course the controversy continues to this day -- the president lit the national Christmas tree, as it was always called, until the last few years, when, in an effort to be more inclusive
This is a fine line. On the one hand, Jews might easily join in the spirit of the season, in the way that many Christians are willing to participate in Jewish rituals (Passover comes to mind). On the other, given the liturgical gap between Judaism and Christianity and the historical baggage of religious discrimination (and extreme consequences to that) it's easy to see why many Jews can't easily do that.
As a child, I always enjoyed Christmas because that's when my piano teacher put aside the difficult classical pieces and brought Christmas carols to the house -- much easier to play, and more fun. I had to play them, however, when my mother was off at work, because she couldn't bear the idea that her son would dabble in such melodies and lyrics. The words "Christ the Lord" were never to be sung in our house.
My mother is gone, but the attitude lingers. When our synaogogue choir was asked to join in on a Thanksgiving ecumenical service this year, phrases like that were crossed out of the hymnal by the rabbi, who explained that he didn't want to offend anybody. But of course, crossing that out by its nature offends. The ecumenical effort means nothing if it waters down spirituality and identity.
So I say, oh come all ye faithful, or not, and enjoy the season.
Posted by:Lary Bloom at 8:20 AM
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