2012 UPDATE: THE WAR AGAINST CHRISTMAS: REFLECTIONS ON HANUKKAH, CHRISTMAS, AND "NITEL"

 The original reason for the season, 
the celebration birth of Jesus Christ.

 

December 3, 2012

This year not much is added, just a number of photographs. There is only so much you can say or print on this issue without becoming redundant. 

One thing new to me, however, were lines of Chrismukkah cards! Excuse me! This might be intended by some well meaning souls to unite the two holidays but it just does not cut it with me.It diminishes the full intent and meaning of Christmas. 

No matter how you cut it, it all stinks of "wannabe". Every last bit of it is a direct theft from another tradition but then, that is par for the course, is it not?
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BAN ON CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS IN QUEBEC QUICKLY OVERTURNED
 

December 2, 2011

Tonight I watched the news from Montreal in which it was decided to ban Christmas decorations from many government public places. Big sigh. “Here we go again” I thought. Back to the war on Christmas only this time in Canada, in one of the oldest most Christian cities in the country. Of course this caused uproar in Parliament and eventually the ban was withdrawn. I read letters in a few papers blaming the Muslims for this ban. Pffft! Stop with the Canadian Islamophobia already!

We know where this attitude comes from.

So here I am reposting my Hannukah envy piece from a few years ago only this time there will be more images simply because I found more!  So it is rather upgraded. I left the old posting up in case anyone misses the old imagery.

Please understand, I do not begrudge people of any sort celebrating their cultural holidays but it does seem to me that, for a holiday that is of very minimal importance in the Jewish religion, there is a great deal of “Christmas envy” being shown in these items. And some, of these items come from sites that serve all holidays but we already know the Christian versions so I only post the Hanukah ones. So here we go again folks….

I included bakewear and a few other items after some thought because these are also traditional Christmas family activities. I have NO PROBLEM with Jewish families and baking because these are such wonderful memories for the children and parents, however, I do not think baking sweets of this type, cookies and cupcakes, is not really traditionally Jewish for this time of the year.  
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DECEMBER 2, 2010

Hanukah is upon the world again. How do I know? I saw a member of Chabad lighting a huge menorah with Gordon Campbell, "esteemed" Prime Minister of our province in attendance! Nothing like seeing the enemy with your enemy side by side as they work to demean part of our Canadian heritage.

Once again I ask, since when did this joyous season for the Jewish people become so big in a Christian society?  

Is it part of the annual celebration of Christ's birth? Yes, I know the ancient mythologies and the arguments put up against the story of Jesus as read today, but my point is, this is the original celebration in these times for the people of the Western countries, Christians. It seems absurd that a religion bent on His destruction and the eradication of His followers, is a tad out of place. Or, is it just me?
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Or is this sudden huge emphasis on Chanukah simply Christmas envy?  (Speak to Freud about that!)

Or, perhaps, is it being brought to the forefront in the hopes that it will eventually replace Christmas altogether as part of the ongoing Jewification of Canada??

Or am I just a tad paranoid and reading far too much into this? 

NOW THERE IS CHRISMUKKAH!

 

These two cats have the common sense to not be amused. T

his seems to me to be the ultimate ripoff! 

 

 

 


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Scratching my head at this combination!

This judaization of Christianity
 appeals greatly to the Christian Zionists.


What!?

By Tom Piatak

December 16, 2009

VDARE.com
Reposted December 2, 2010

Eight years ago, when the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran a slightly abridged version of my first essay on the War Against Christmas, the paper offered a fair description of my argument to its readers:

“The public celebration of Christmas has been sacrificed, says Tom Piatak, to the feel-good forces of multiculturalism.”
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Those seasonal Christmas latkes will taste even more wonderful 

on this beautiful elegant table setting.

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Last year, so much progress had been made in fighting back against the War Against Christmas that The Daily Beast’s Max Blumenthal was reduced to willfully misreading my essay in an attempt to scare people away from the struggle. [Who Started The War On Christmas, December 8, 2008 ]

But two things Blumenthal wrote about my essay were somewhat accurate: I did quote American Heritage’s Frederic Schwarz as calling Hanukkah the “Jewish Kwanzaa”, [Merry Chanukah, American Heritage Magazine, December 2000] and I did write that Hanukkah was among the many alternative holidays presented by “multiculturalists” as “faux-Christmases” in “order to compete with, diminish, and ultimately efface Christmas”. 

Given Blumenthal’s singular focus on Hanukkah ~ which this year started at sundown last night, December 1 ~ I wondered if I had been unfair in my characterization of that festival.

Is Hanukkah at all comparable to Kwanzaa, and is it a desire to compete with Christmas really an important force in its celebration?

As fate would have it, an article addressing these questions appeared in my hometown newspaper, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, on December 20, 2008. The article, How Hanukkah Has Become Hip by John Campanelli, noted that:

“Until the late nineteenth century, the holiday was celebrated modestly in Jewish homes, with an adult male lighting candles and reciting the blessing”.

 

 

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 Christmas, Hanukkah, these look nummy!

Rolled dried fruits and flour balls...

 Traditional Christmas cookie cutters... 
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 Could there be a brandy or rum soaked fruit cake beneath the blue marzipan?
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Indeed, the article, citing Dianne Ashton, a religious studies professor at Rowan University who is writing a book on Hanukkah, noted that 

“It’s hard to tell exactly how things were celebrated because there’s almost no record of it. Ashton found no mention of Hanukkah in old diaries and letters. Instead, they mentioned the Sabbath, Passover, and other, more significant holidays”.

Needless to say, the same can hardly be said of Christmas: even though the Puritans succeeded in suppressing Christmas for a time, both in England and parts of America, Christmas was enormously popular both before and after the Puritan interlude, with such carols as The First Nowell. “I Saw Three Ships,” “The Coventry Carol,” and “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” surviving the Puritans and being embraced by the Victorians.

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Gingerbread houses originated in Israel thousands of years ago.....

(Note the recurring theme of coinage.... it is everywhere in Hanukkah.)

"Genuine Christmas carols that any Jew can sing with lusty pride and not a shred of prejudice; well maybe just a little.  Who else but a proud Jew could turn the Hallelujah Chorus into We Will Sue ya?  No stereotypes there, right? Laugh at well-known Christmas carols given the Yiddishe twist, and how they do not relate to the special birthday the majority of the world celebrates.  As the song says....Goys Rule the World (Don't ya believe it.) Laugh on the full 8 days of OUR holiday. .

Can anyone possibly explain this? Please?!
Why do I keep thinking of Christian Zionist indoctrination?

The whole world knows something about Christmas in 19^th century London, thanks to Charles Dickens, who quotes from “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” in A Christmas Carol.
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  It needs a few reindeer, don't you agree?

 

The impact of the Puritan interlude is also undermined by the fact that most Americans have ancestors from places where Puritanism never put a damper on Christmas. The 2000 census recording that more Americans claimed German ancestry than any other ancestry. And Germans, both Protestant and Catholic, have always celebrated Christmas with gusto.

This Hanukkah light display does NOT make me feel terribly warm and happy.

Chilly is more like it.

I have to admit, I like this fellow more than that hideous Grinch

(A Jewish Hollywood anti-Christmas creation I might add)

In fact, according to Ashton, it was the German-American zest for Christmas that was instrumental in creating the modern Hanukkah. The first concerted effort she found for more emphasis on Hanukkah occurred in the 1870s in Cincinnati where “Because of [the city’s] large German population, the traditions of Santa Claus, trees and gift giving were everywhere.”.

You do have to admit this is no goofier than those tacky reindeer antlers and caps that are everywhere during the Christmas season. (Although the shades are overkill!)

In response, Cincinnati rabbi Max Lilienthal promised that “Our children shall have a grand and glorious Hanukkah festival as nice as any Christmas festival.” 

Ashton’s account is consistent with the one offered by Frederic Schwarz in the American Heritage article in which he termed

 

Hanukkah the “Jewish Kwanzaa ~

an invented cultural celebration”. 

The first celebration of Hanukkah is described in the Bible I use, at 1 Maccabees 4, 35-59, but it is not found in the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh, since the book of Maccabees is not part of the Hebrew Bible. Indeed, as Schwarz notes,

“the tradition about one day’s worth of oil lasting eight days is not mentioned in any contemporary record. It first appeared several centuries later in the Talmud”..

Hanukkah matches, especially for the lighting of the menorah.

Because of Hanukkah’s absence from the Hebrew Bible, “many other Jewish holy days are more important from a religious standpoint ~ not just Passover, Rosh Hashanah (the New Year), and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), but also Simchat Torah, Shavuot, and Sukkot.” 

 

“Of course”, notes Schwarz, the reason Hanukkah now enjoys at least as much prominence as any of these festivals “is Christmas”. And in fact it took a while for the idea of Hanukkah as an alternative to Christmas to catch on. Schwarz cites an 1855 New York Times article describing how Jews “in most European countries” gave presents at Christmas, and how Jews in New York City exchanged presents at New Year’s. Writes Schwarz: 

“In neither of these cases was substituting Chanukah considered an option; it was simply too insignificant”.

 

A Jewish couple created the Meshuga Nutcracher
to save their child from Christian envy.

Empirical evidence showing that competition with Christmas is a driving force in today’s unprecedented emphasis on Hanukkah also became available last year. As Ray Fisman noted in his article The Invisible Hand of God in Slate, Stanford economists Ran Abramitzky, Liran Einav, and Oren Rigbi concluded [PDF] that “it is competition from Christmas . . . that makes families more likely to celebrate Hanukkah”.

Among the data supporting this conclusion was a survey conducted by the Stanford economists that showed that “only 30 percent of Israelis ranked Hanukkah as a ‘top three’ festival celebrated by their Jewish classmates” while “at Stanford the figure was more than 95 percent”.

Of course, there are different ways 

of interpreting the fact that Hanukkah 

is an historically insignificant holiday

now given great attention 

to compete with Christmas.

 An ancient traditional Hanukkah wreath discovered

in a cave near the spot where that Palestinian shepherd

discovered The Dead Sea Scrolls.. (Laughs)

Schwarz regards Hanukkah as “the greatest American holiday”, because it is “democratic, inclusive, and multicultural”, whereas Fisman wonders if the “outsize importance” attached to “a minor holiday largely unrelated to Judaism’s core values” is necessarily the correct response to the appeal of Christmas.

But there can be little real debate over whether Hanukkah has indeed become a “faux-Christmas”: plainly, it has.

 ..

Hanukkah Harry needs a Star of David embroidered on his jacket.
Or did Santa just get bored of Coca Cola red and white? 
The whole outfit stinks of unoriginality!
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Oy to the woild!
The REAL Hanukkah Harry. 

 
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  Oh dear! Looks as if Harry picked up
Hanukkah Harriet along the way to this Santa Convention.. .

That Harriet! We can see her panties!

Did you ever see Mrs. Claus' panties in public?

Last year I also came across, at the website of Catholic apologist Mark Shea, a 2004 article from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, discussing what Hasidic Jews call Nitel Night and the rest of us call Christmas Eve:

“According to kabbala (Jewish mysticism), on the night on which ‘that man’ ~ a Jewish euphemism for Jesus ~ was born, not even a trace of holiness is present . . . . For this reason, Nitel Night . . . is one of the few occasions when Hasidim refrain from Torah study. On this horrific night, they neither conduct weddings nor do they go to the mikveh (ritual bath)…” [For them, it's wholly unholy, by Shahar Ilan, December 24, 2004]

Calling Jesus "that Man" is actually a big improvement over the usual slanderous names given to Him by most Jewish people. We won't go into what the Talmud says about Him or His mother at this time, but I am sure you are already aware of this. SO this makes the Jewish celebration at this time of year just a little more insulting to Christians..

OK people. Who else is confused by this message? 

I mean, scratch-your-head and crinkle-your-nose confused!

Of course, such outlandish ideas are far outside the Jewish mainstream, and would be completely irrelevant to a consideration of Hanukkah except for this fact: the group responsible for erecting giant menorahs in public places to observe Hanukkah is Chabad. Chabad is run by the same Hasidic sect that observes Nitel Night.

The new Christmas season White House.
Rahm Emmanuel lighting the White House menorah a year or two ago.

Far more mainstream, and vastly more enjoyable, was Dahlia Lithwick’s witty and intelligent analysis last year in Slate of which Christmas specials are viewed as acceptable for Jewish children. 

But Lithwick was puzzled by the popularity of Dr. Seuss’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas among her peers, and concluded that “perhaps my colleague Emily Bazelon is right, and Jewish kids like the Grinch because ‘Without the ending, the movie is the ultimate fantasy for a Jewish kid with a case of Santa/tree/carols envy ~ Christmas, canceled.’” [Oy, Hark! | A Jewish parent's guide to Christmas specials, Slate, Dec. 17, 2008]
..

  Brittany does pepsi, mistletoe and 

Hanukah Harriet....

Adults can be envious as well. My uncle, who lived in Manhattan, noticed some years ago flyers for a performance in December of Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus at a Manhattan temple. What caught my uncle’s eye was the flyer’s description of Judas Maccabaeus as “Handel’s greatest oratorio”.

The implicit comparison, of course, was to Messiah, which was first performed in America at Christmas and has become a staple of the American Christmas, and the score of which Handel is depicted as holding in his hands at his tomb in Westminster Abbey.

 

Fortunately, such crabbed attitudes are in the minority. I agree with Dahlia Lithwick that “the proper non-Christian response to Christmas joy is not to try to block, suppress, or hide from it”, and Lithwick’s sentiment is, in my experience, shared by the vast majority of American Jews.

 Traditional (snicker) Yiddish wall hanging of the Hanukkah nut cracker.

Personally I think nutcrackers of any stripe to be ugly
and scary to most children.

But these Hanukkah nestling dolls are even worse. 

That traditional seasonal sword perhaps?

As I wrote in my 2001 essay, “Much of the public celebration of Christmas was capable of being enjoyed by non-Christians as well as Christians, and almost everyone did enjoy at least some of it. I know non-Christians who enjoy Christmas specials, Christmas movies, Christmas music; I do not think these people are unique.” 

Indeed, American Jews have made significant contributions to the American Christmas ~ contributions that have been widely embraced by American Christians. The best selling Christmas recording of all time is Bing Crosby’s rendition of White Christmas written by Irving Berlin, who was of course Jewish.
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Crackers and geld, or booty.... One is traditional, the other is not... 

Wait, is that a RED candy cane I see?

The driving force behind the War Against Christmas remains multiculturalism, ~ a credo embraced by those of all faiths and of none, that insists that Western culture, of which Christmas is undeniably a part, is problematic at best and oppressive at worst. 
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HUH? Snowmen in Israel? Fire and ice?

Multiculturalism at its most confusing!

As E. V. Kontorovich, himself Jewish, argued long ago, the public elevation of Hanukkah represented the first triumph of the multiculturalist idea in America. But the multiculturalist approval of Hanukkah is not based on an appreciation of Judaism, since, as I have demonstrated, Hanukkah has historically not been an important part of Judaism and an overemphasis of Hanukkah therefore leads to a misunderstanding of Judaism.

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Is this what it basically all boils down to?

The multiculturalists approve of Hanukkah for the same reason they approve of all the other faux-Christmases they are promoting these days, including Kwanzaa, Eid, Diwali, Bodhi Day, and the winter solstice: none of these holidays is Christmas. 

 

By endgame however, only Hanukkah would remain on the table since the Talmud is not racially tolerant in the least to anyone.

 

And thus we have the War against Christmas ~ a War that will only be won once we again realize that there is nothing problematic or oppressive about the public celebration of Christmas, one of the crowning glories of the Western culture that gave birth to America and sustains us still.

I do enjoy the amazingly diverse menorahs that are used at this time. 

 

 Truly the designs are individual, fun, and varied.

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  Military religious paraphernalia. Yes, it is a holy time of year..

 
The cult of the rabbi .

 
  

 


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HUH!!!?? lol...

  The College dorm or bachelor menorah?

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Speaking of bachelors or college dorms....

However, this next one is a bit different, perhaps bordering on that porn thing you might say. 

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The coolest menorah ever!

This is the best and sweetest menorah ever. 

It really made me smile from the heart.

Simple fish monger using up the scraps.

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Tom Piatak (email him) writes from Cleveland, Ohio.
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 And what, pray tell, is THIS?

I know there is a lot of controversy over the birth of Christ. I could tackle all of that another time.

For now, I speak of how it is, not how it shoulda coulda woulda been was the world a different place.

One thing I thought very interesting is, for a culture that is against Christian manifestations of their religion, whatever Christians do in red green and gold, the Jews do in blue and silver. 

Or THIS? Just TOOO confusing!

 There are so many contradictions here I do not know where to begin. Zio/Christian? 
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Disney does Christm...er, Hanu... er... well you figure it out! 
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 No number of Stars of David can ever make the tree 

other than a Pagan, neo-Christian symbol!

For more of the latest debate on the onslaught on Christmas as it has been going for the past decade, please refer to the following links. It seems the author has been involved for at least 10 years and has built up quite a library.

WAR AGAINST CHRISTMAS COMPETITION 2009: [blog] [I] [2] ~ See also: War Against Christmas 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999.

Their stockings were hung on the mantel with care, 

in hopes that Hannukah Harry soon would be there.

Something gets lost in the translation, don't you think?  
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Disco Mickey Mouse instead of an angel or a star?!!
Better not let the rabbis see this!

JEWISH LOBBY WAGES WAR ON CHRISTMAS TREES

Subtitled: the Kosher Nostra strikes again!

The Lobby for Jewish values passes out fliers against hotels,restaurants putting up Christmas trees, other Christian symbols ahead of civil New Year, say businesses who do so risk losing kosher certification. 

Maybe if I keep my head down none of my friends will recognize me.... 

Quit your whining! You think YOU look stupid?
I look like a putz in this thing!

 Shut up! Just shut up! Don't even think it!
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 YOU look stupid?! I am like so totally hissssssed at this getup.. 
I am SO gonna pee in her lingerie drawer!

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.An attractive rabbi!

  Oi vey, wait till these damn candles start to drip..

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Does this count as animal cruelty?

 
How about this?

 There ain't enough catnip in these mixed message cookies to make these outfits worth it!

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 And these doggie cookies, almost as ugly as Rabbi Schneerson...

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 Not on your life, I hear he is a real slave driver..... 

 
 ?????!

By Ali Galhar

Ynet

 

A new front for religious battles ~ hotels and restaurants. The "Lobby for Jewish values" this week began operating against restaurants and hotels that plan to put up Christmas trees and other Christian symbols ahead of Christmas and the civil New Year.

According to the lobby's Chairman, Ofer Cohen, they have received backing by the rabbis, "and we are even considering publishing the names of the businesses that put up Christian symbols ahead of the Christian holiday and call for a boycott against them." 

Fliers and ads distributed among the public read, "The people of Israel have given their soul over the years in order to maintain the values of the Torah of Israel and the Jewish identity.
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Won't a star of David treetop make it kosher, rabbi?

You should also continue to follow this path of the Jewish people's tradition and not give in to the clownish atmosphere of the end of the civil year. And certainly not help those businesses that sell or put up the foolish symbols of Christianity.".
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One man's fool is another man's Savior, Rabbi.

The Jerusalem Rabbinate also works each year to ensure restaurants and hotels receiving kosher certification from the Jerusalem Religious Council do not put up Christian symbols.

According to a senior official in the kashrut department, this is done each year consensually, but that businesses which do not meet this requirement may find their kashrut certificate revoked.

It should be noted that most of the hotels in Jerusalem and a significant part of the restaurants in the capital receive permanent kosher certification from the city's religious council. 
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Of course this piece means I MUST post an image of a Christmas tree!

Trey Ratcliff took this photo of his children a few years ago. 

On a final note....