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Semitism that seems to escalate
during the holiday season.
Marcy feels Christmas
celebration borders on the
excessive outside of the classroom.
A few weeks ago, she called up
WQXI and asked the radio
announcer if he would talk about
Hanuka more. “They advertise for
Christmas trees and wish
everybody Merry Christmas. They
tell you ‘don’t forget to tell
Santa'...and that’s hard to do,”
says Marcy. “But they never say
anything about Hanuka which is
not fair because we are equal."
When it comes to participating
in Christmas activities, Jana
Wolkow will draw the line if it
conflicts with her beliefs. Early in
December the class had a series of
projects to do. Jana read the
directions for one of the
assignments:
“Complete this sentence: Dear
Santa, I think you should visit me
because Your
friend
“Ms. Johnson! Do I have to do
this?" asked Jana. “I’m not
Christian."
"No," said the teacher, a little
embarrassed. as she quickly
directed Jana to the next project.
"I can't write a letter to Santa
Clause because there is no such
person." says a pragmatic Jana.
Christmas trees and ornaments
in the classroom brought some
mixed reactions from the children
I interviewed. Jana believes in
Christmas trees because “I believe
in trees. Everybody should believe
in trees." Jana helps her friends
decorate the trees because, “they
look so pretty.”
According to Darren, there are
no Christmas trees in his school.
“Not yet anyway," he says.
Although they look nice, he
doesn’t want to see them in the
schools. “There’s enough around
already. You get sick of them.”
Marcy must contribute one
dollar to the purchase of a class
Christmas tree. She won’t have any
trouble getting the money because
she gets a weekly allowance. But,
she doesn't think her mother will
be too happy about it.
Darren says, “I feel strange
seeing all these Christmas things. I
get a strange feeling when I’m
around a Christmas tree...like I’m
missing something."
The Christmas carols don’t
present insurmountable problems
to the children I talked to. Jana
says, “I don’t feel anything funny
when I sing those songs. I’ll sing
the word Jesus because it’s in the
song." She looks at me suspicious
ly, “It’s only a song.”
"We sing songs, like Rudolph
and stuff, but when Jesus is in the
song, I just pretend to sing by
moving my lips,” says Darren.
Marcy is mad. At the last
minute, her mother told her she
couldn't be a dancer in the “baby
in the manger” skit at school. “My
mom won’t let me perform
because I'm Jewish and she doesn’t
believe in Christmas. All it is is
singing and dancing. It doesn’t
mean that I am going to
automatically change my
religion.”
Eor the most part, being Jewish
in a predominantly Christian
classroom isn’t easy—especially
during the holidays. Jana said that
for the first time, her teacher wrote
a special sentence about Hanuka
on the chalkboard
“Look Jana, look, look, look!"
exclaimed three of her non-Jewish
friends.
“Boy, that sure is a dumb
holiday," said one classmate.
One of Jana’s friends turned to
him and said, “I wouldn’t be
making fun of it. What if you were
Jewish?”
The young people I spoke with
are proud to be Jewish. Jana says
Hanuka is the time of the year
when she feels the most Jewish
Last year, her mother came to
school to teach the class about
Hanuka. “I felt real proud of
myself when my mom was
talking,” says Jana.
The second grader continues. “I
feel lucky to be Jewish.”
“Hanuka is just as good as
Christmas because it lasts for eight
days," says Darren. “I don’t think J
want to celebrate Christmas
because I never tried it before.
Christmas is nice and there’s lots of
lights, but the Jewish people get
more lights."
“Why?”
"Because Hanuka is the festival
of lights.”
JNF donates Christmas trees
JERUSALEM (JTA)—The Jewish National Fund will
distribute some 1,400 pine tree tops among Christians residing in
Israel for use in observing Christmas. The trees will be distributed
among foreign diplomats, journalists and institutions. The JNF is
continuing a tradition which started some 20 years ago.
p— .— *
Happy Hanuka
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