Obviously, I hope that everyone in Ukraine stays safe and Ukrainians deserve all of our support right now but I also wanted to say that my heart goes out to all people in Eastern Europe and Central Asia who have been living with the fear of Russian intervention for years and now see their worst fears come true. I see so many posts about how “we shouldn’t worry as Westerners because the war will not affect us directly” and while this is absolutely true, I wanted to take a second to acknowledge those who do have to live with the fear that it might affect them directly. I don’t have anything more to offer than words and it’s not worth much but if you are from Poland, Estonia, Kazakhstan or any other country close to Russia or Ukraine and you are afraid because you don’t know what the current events means for the future of your country, I am with you in thought and sending you a warm hug with this post.
I don’t even think Christmas shouldn’t be all over the public space like it is. Clearly it does make a lot of people happy and I lowkey I actually kind of like it too! (Sort of. But I also don’t.) So, continue covering your town square or wherever with trees and lights, I’m not saying not to. What I *am* asking for is:
- Acknowledge that Christmas is not a universal holiday and that some people either feel negatively about it or just don’t celebrate it. Stop being offended by this.
- Stop forcing people to participate. Don’t make your Jewish employees wear Christmas outfits, don’t make schoolkids be part of Christmas plays, etc.
- Stop pushing back when Jews are honest with you about how they feel about it.
- Stop deflecting to talk about how Christmas traditions are actually pagan in origin. We know, and also it’s fully irrelevant to our issues with Christmas.
- Recognize things from other cultures. Or at very least don’t *prevent* members of other cultures from expressing them. If your employee wants to put up a menorah, let them. If your coworker wants to add a Chanukah decoration to your office don’t take it down when they’re not looking because it “messes up the Christmas spirit” or whatever.
- Recognize things from different cultures at other times of the year too. Let your Jewish students and employees take days off for the fall holidays. Maybe even consider merchandise or decorations for those holidays too!
- Stop with the double standards. You don’t get to say that a menorah is religious and a Christmas tree isn’t. Either both of them are or neither of them are. A menorah actually is a ritual object but a) plenty of secular Jews use them and b) I don’t think most Christians know that, they just think of Judaism (and therefore Jewish culture) as “a religion” and Christian culture as normal. When people claim to object to Chanukah (the holiday most widely — and often exclusively — celebrated by secular Jews) because it’s “religious,” they’re actually objecting because it’s non-normative.
- Listen when someone is telling you about their experiences with and thoughts about hegemonic culture. Don’t argue that actually it’s fine becaude Christmas is secular or pagan or whatever. Trust people about the experiences they’ve had and how things impact them.
