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AmSpecBlog
Merry Jewish Christmas!
My friend Marty Beckerman calls attention to an ironic skirmish in the "War on Christmas":
"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" caused a stir at a New Hanover County school. A parent complained about the song's religious reference and got it pulled from her child's kindergarten Christmas show at Murrayville Elementary School. The song was pulled "because it had the word Christmas in it," said Rick Holliday, assistant school superintendent. A Jewish mother, who didn't want her name published, objected to what she called "religious overtones" in the song. So the principal agreed to pull it from the program.
Irony? "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was written by a Jew, Johnny Marks, who also wrote "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," and "A Holly Jolly Christmas." As Beckerman notes, Jewish songwriters also wrote or co-wrote such holiday standards as:
- "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)" -- Mel Torme and Bob Wells, both Jewish;
- "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" -- co-written by J. Fred Coots, Jewish;
- "Silver Bells" -- Ray Evans and Jay Livingston, both Jewish;
- It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" -- co-written by George Wyle, Jewish;
- "Sleigh Ride" -- co-written by Mitchell Parish, Jewish;
- "Let It Snow" -- Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne, both Jewish; and
- "White Christmas" -- Irving Berlin, Jewish.
Of course, none of these songs is as important as the original Jewish contribution to Christmas, but if the "religious overtones" of Johnny Marks' innocuous song are enough to shut down a kindergarten Christmas show, let's not risk an ACLU lawsuit by mentioning that whole Bethlehem-and-the-manger trip.
More thoughts on Christmas music here.
UPDATE: Roger Simon e-mails:
Very good.. but you forgot about Phil Spector's Christmas Album.... now that's my kind of Jew.
Forgot? Who could ever forget Darlene Love and the Wall of Sound behind "Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)"?
Comments
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ruth| 12.24.08 @ 11:35AM
Liberal 'tolerance' on display once again. I double over in laughter every time they start bloviating about their superiority.
Ron Lewenberg| 12.24.08 @ 12:33PM
The mother in question is an intolerant bigot. She care's not a whit about diversity, or the tolerence that is needed, above all by religious minorities.
I bet she is not actually religious and would be mortified at the actual message of Hannukah (Fundamentalism, national liberation, death to collaborators. There is a reason this holiday was intentionally downplayed after the failure of the Bar Kochba revolt.)
She should spend her time teaching her child to be Jewish. Perhaps a nice presentation to the class for Passover would have been nice. However, I doubt she knows enough for this. She likely defines herself as "not Christian" more than actually Jewish.
Roscoe Mendago| 12.24.08 @ 2:19PM
WOW!!!!
What a way to prove a point, priceless.
Ran| 12.24.08 @ 2:26PM
Heh... Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah to all from this Orthodox, ADD-riddled Libertarian-Conservative Jew.
I'm with Ron's view above. If the story has been reported accurately, then our Jewish mom's attitude is not the whole problem: That Mr. Holliday didn't [politely] tell her to take her whining to a professional is, perhaps, Mr. Holliday's error.
The reason for the mom's objection isn't based upon any Jewish restriction forbidding her child to sing or to hear Christmas songs or carols. [Either one is secure in one's faith or not.] If she had felt it was, then she should send her kids to a local Jewish school or to at least ask her local Rabbi.
Either way, her objection was religiously based, to be sure: The other religion requires the sacrament of "Separation of Church and State" at all public opportunities. That, again, would be a misreading of the law.
On the other hand... I'm delighted that more Christians these days are openly expressing Merry Christmas! to one another [and to me.]
Dale| 12.26.08 @ 10:51AM
I still am partial to anyone singing the Lord's Prayer, often rendered at Christmas Eve services; lyrics by Jesus Christ.
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