DANGERS OF ASSIMILATION IN THE TIMES OF TRUMP

Written on January 3, 2019

The Christmas holiday has come and gone for 2018, though ironically, that statement is incorrect.  There are twelve days of Christmas as indicated by the famed carol, yet almost nobody I know celebrates beyond December 25^th.  Many people aren’t even aware there are eleven other celebratory days.  I had to look them up myself.  It is a holiday that celebrates many great men in the Christian Faith, not simply the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.  It celebrates the Apostle John, the Pope Sylvester I, Saint Stephen on the day known as Boxing Day, and the list goes on.  I don’t celebrate Christmas, and it was a deciding factor in many of my long-term relationships.  Yet here I am, a Jewish father of two boys, going to see a Christmas display at a house only a few short blocks from our house.  And I start contemplating why?

I admit it is very hard sometimes to be Jewish around Christmas time.  It was particularly hard growing up in the public schools of the 1970’s when Christmas Pageants were the norm.  How can on not enjoy some of the festivities that come with Christmas, particularly in our country?  Many of them are wonderful.  My wife and I both hasten that post-Thanksgiving Day when local station KOST 103.5 changes their playlist to just Christmas music.  It pervades our household and our cars, not only for its uplifting and kindly way, but for its calming melodies and pastoral images.  The arrival of Christmas lights turns once foreboding or dull evening drives into re-invigorated ones, full of luminescence, spreading a warmth throughout forgotten neighborhoods and struggling ghettos. 

Then there is the arrival of Santa Claus, in shopping malls, on the streets raising money for charities, and in the parades that go on nationwide.  It is a glorious time where most people’s moods are uplifted.  It is true that the “Christmas Spirit” does seem to reside in all of us during this time of year. The day after Christmas is filled with beautiful Instagram posts of children opening presents, posing with their families under their respective trees and dressing in awful Christmas sweaters just for the fun of it.  Family dinners, fireplaces with people drinking hot cocoa and the dog wearing a reindeer tiara all grace the pages of Facebook friends far and wide. 

While I can acknowledge and admit my enjoyment of what the Christmas holiday means for this country, it is equally unsettling for me to see the number of images of known Jewish families posing in front of trees, opening presents because Santa did come by their house, or having a “holiday” dinner.  There are a lot of Jewish families that feel the need to do more than simply acknowledge this holiday, including mine.  Whether you have chosen to inter-marry or simply enjoy the idea of a tree in your house because of its beauty, it has started to nag at me.  Why are many Jewish folks afraid to stand out and be different?

Historically, the Christian faith’s origins were full of tumult, but that tumult often came at the expense of the Jewish faith from which they were diverging.  To forget the years of Crusades where the soldiers of Christianity marched over Jewish lives or the Inquisitions that brought torture to those Jewish worshipers who refused to convert to fulfill the King’s wishes of having everyone practice his faith, is to forget your family itself.  Somewhere back in the long chain of history, it is very likely one of my relatives was murdered by the very faith I now sometimes view with envy.

Am I suggesting we still hold onto that grudge now?  No.  But I was reminded recently that without historical context, we are but fools.

Just a few weeks ago, LeBron James, perhaps the greatest basketball player in history, posted on Instagram this: https://mobile.twitter.com/darrenrovell/status/1076842417104539649/photo/1.  Apparently unaware of the historical stereotypes of Jews being greedy and connected only to money, LeBron posted the lyric from 21 Savage’s song ASMR thinking he was relating an aspiration of his, to rise to the level of being rich like the Jewish folks he might know.  Funny thing is, I believe him.  Yet his ignorance is exactly the problem, particularly in a period where role models seem to be dropping quicker than the stock market.

In an era of renewed acceptance of racial slurs, a growth of hate crimes and rising anti-Semitism, assimilation would seem to be exactly what those touting this renewed Nationalism would want.  Yet those that choose to associate themselves with the White Nationalist Movement seek no conversion from outside their ranks.  They seek our expulsion, exile and even removal from humanity.  No amount of playing along will appease their wishes.  The Jews in Germany were among the most assimilated at the time, having even served in the German armies of World War I, fighting for their country.  That didn’t matter one iota to the Nazi Party. 

Just as we have witnessed atop this new America of Trump, you can attempt to appease the emperor all you wish – you still will eventually take your leave.  There have been many who have been all too willing to turn a blind eye, smile and do nothing, or simply accept what this administration is peddling, despite their own better judgments.   I might suggest that perhaps the idea of being an individual who openly practices Judaism or Islam in America is more important now than it ever has been.

Our history – where you and I come from as individuals and groups – is essential to our being.  Without it, we find ourselves saying and doing things that we wouldn’t condone in others yet we are completely unaware of it.  Thus, the reaction America had to the election of a first black president is the swinging back to a President such as Trump, a man aware of nothing but himself, his desires, his ego and his profits.  There is no history in a Trump America.  Trump no more recognizes Lincoln as ‘The Great Emancipator’ than he does his own father.

It is shocking that a group like Black Lives Matter (BLM) is even necessary today, and yet I still hear many whites denying racial issues are even present and wishing black people specifically would allow the past to be gone.  Yet, to ask any Black American to forget about slavery and move on is beyond simple ignorance.  It reeks of a greater insensitivity and arrogance that anyone could expect African-Americans to simply forget the past, trust the White Man, and let bygones be bygones, all while equal rights, though long voted in as the law of the land, still aren’t fully enacted. 

We’re suddenly living in a time where the second-safest country for me to raise a Jewish family and be who I am as a Jew has become more dangerous.  Just like many Christians aren’t aware of what the twelve days are about, it is hard to see many others of the Jewish faith having less and less knowledge about who they are and why they do the things they do.  Even my own actions at times give me pause and cause not just a simple raise of an eyebrow.

The battle against the forces of ignorance demand that we question why the differences of our respective histories is a bad thing?  Why are we so afraid to accept those who are not like us and embrace them?   Would you have been so bold as to tell Pablo Picasso to pipe down and go back to being more like Paul Gauguin?  Would you have directed the Beastie Boys to shut up and get back to playing Klezmer?  Would you have proclaimed to Run DMC that they should just go back to Motown?  Would you ask Bill Gates to stop dreaming so big and go back to computing simple math equations?  Individuality and progress are married hand and hand.

As much as we long to be a part of a larger whole because it feeds our egos, robbing yourself of your individuality crushes the soul.

It is understandable that a holiday such as Christmas, which has grown to have the giant moniker of ‘season’ as in “The Christmas Season” would be something that everyone would wish to join.  It is a very joyous time of year, and not just because of materialism, though the cynical side of me wonders how much of a ‘season’ it would be without Amazon.com and the many merchants who count on your revenue this time of year.   However, the altruistic side acknowledges the kindnesses and generosities that are enacted and can’t help but recognize the change in human nature that occurs during this short few weeks from Thanksgiving until the New Year.

Where the line is between admiring those customs of others and feeling the need to be a part of them is admittedly a blurry one.  Yet, each time someone tells me Merry Christmas, for whatever reason, I am reminded that they aren’t taking the time to acknowledge me even if they have the best intentions.  I remind my children that Christmas lights are indeed beautiful, but that we will not hang them up at our house.  I can tell them how wonderful of a man Jesus Christ was without believing he is my savior.  I can make it clear that Christmas music is beautiful and is a gift to us all, but so is Chanukah music and the songs and tradition was have.

My family also engages in practicing Shabbat every Friday Night and sitting down to the dinner with our family, singing songs, reciting the blessings over the candles, bread and wine, and spending that night talking to one another.  We try to practice Tikkun Olam, the bettering of the world, not just this one time of year either.  These are Jewish values that we should look to share with the world as much as the majority of the Christian faith looks to share the kindnesses of the Christmas Season.

I cannot forget who I am, and neither should anyone else feel that need.  Losing your identity of where you come from and doing something just because others are doing it comes at a price.  It did for our ancestors, and it was a steep one.  In our need to feel a part of something or to join in, I pray we will not forget where we come from. 

I hope everyone had a very happy and health holiday season.  Happy 2019.