Opinion: There are many Israeli Jews that treat Christmas – and worse, Hanukkah and other Jewish holidays – as nice folklore, devoid of national identity; everything is the same, and therefore everything is nothing
Every year around the holiday season, Jews in Israel love taking their photo with a Christmas tree and enjoying the holiday spirit, whether it’s in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Nazareth or anywhere else regardless of how many Christians reside in that area.
It’s part of the Americanization that has increasingly cemented its hold on Israeli society. We can refer to these Americanized Israeli Jews as “Judomericans.”
The Judeo-Americans don’t operate out of religious conviction but on a materialistic-hedonist function, devoid of all national-religious significance.
They’re not particularly well-versed in, or attach special importance to, the historical and religious significance of Jewish tradition.
Some of them, in the same breath, respectively also show ignorance about Christianity.
In most cases, they lack basic historical-national-religious consciousness, and hence they are not necessarily interested in what Christians have done to the Jews throughout history.
Their interest in the fir tree is materialistic. That is, they are fascinated by the aesthetics and not the ethics.
There is a distinction to be made between today’s Judomericans and the Hellenized Jews of Jerusalem under Seleucid Greek rule during the Second Temple period.
The latter were trying to curry favor with a foreign ruler, given that they had no national identity to speak of back then. They wanted to enjoy their fair share of Greek spoils, but still maintained a fundamental understanding of Jewish culure and heritage.
Historian Joseph Ben-Matityahu, later known as Flavius Josephus, adopted the Greek culture and gave himself a Greek name, but still found the passion within him to pen his best-known work The Jewish War and others that later served as historical testimony, and some of them as letters of defense, for the Jewish people.
Americanization, however, is a phenomenon that mainly stems from ignorance of everything related to the Jewish tradition. The Judomericans do not consider tradition in the religious sense to be essential and meaningful, and hedonism is rooted deep within them.
They do place some importance on a Jewish state, but not as an entity that realizes the historical-religious memory of their people, but rather as an asylum that gives them stability and security, so that they can, if they want, get excited over decorated Christmas trees, Halloween costumes and upload selfies from a mediocre chef’s restaurant on New Year’s Eve in peace. The day is not far when we will also see them celebrate Thanksgiving.
As far as they’re concerned, the ideology and conceptual roots of the tradition are not important. This is superficiality, banality and shallowness: they treat Christmas – and worse, Hanukkah and other Jewish holidays – as nice folklore and as a culture without a national identity. Everything is the same, and therefore everything becomes nothing.
Therefore, the defiant and cynical question that is occasionally directed at the Judomericans — “Why do these hypocrites enjoy Christmas but do not fast in Ramadan?” — misses the point.
There is no hypocrisy here on the part of the Judomericans. They simply can’t be bothered doing anything that would harm their comfort and convenience.
If they don’t make any effort for their own religion, there is no reason for them to do so for the traditions and holidays of the goyim that entail physical and mental hardships.
Light-hearted actions, especially those that can be enjoyed in a physical way – they will take, and it doesn’t matter if they originate from Christianity or Judaism.
It can be enjoying decorations on a Christmas tree, Halloween costume parties and anything that brings materialistic happiness.
But holidays and acts that may burden them with laws and certain restraints — no thanks. From now on call them — Judomericans.
As reported by Ynetnews