Cholula!

well, it seems my quill hasn't graced the thin rice-paper of my little public diary here for a while and....

well, in the immortal words of Lewis Black, "mm, I don't give a shit."

I do, really. But. I do.

It snowed yesterday, before I went to New York. As predicted, it was really cool for a few minutes, then a pain in the ass because we had to drive to New Haven in it.

This is by no means a cry for response, but it is kind of a letdown when you put a lot of thought and energy into one of these entry contraptions and then get no response (comments, if you will.). Cause, y'know, when you do a diary or something, then you know it should be private, but with one of these things, there's a reson anyone can access it, and when nobody does, you kind of are left out to dry, a one-man show with no audience, kind-of-thing.

and by no means, my 3 loyal readers, respond because you feel obligated. continue as if you hadn't read that...just thought i'd put it out there, as this is supposed to be a medium for expression of emotions.

Anyway, the new Rebbi at my congregation does these Etanu thingies every week, a synposis of the torah portion as it might relate to us vulnerable, newly-independent college students. this week he talked about the changing of the Encinitas Holiday parade to the encinitas christmas parade.

My response:

This is an issue that frustrates me greatly. While I am of course in
favor of being all-inclusive and non-denominational when it comes to
all of the events which recently have become "holiday events" as
opposed to "christmas events", I really think that in this area the
Jewish community has become too stubborn. Yes, it is true that we
should raise an objection towards events which we pay for that are
focused towards the Christmas-observing population.

However, this is my issue (and this is something I see in the jewish
community everywhere which agigates me): I think that Jews have a hard
time telling themselves that they are not the majority (not even
close, as statistics point out). The fact is that, even though we are
proportionally way ahead in terms of academics and leadership of some
other religions, giving us the perception that perhaps we number more
than we do, we still live in a Christian society. the Jewish community
has this odd obsession with identifying ourselves as being a
legitimate part of society (what else could explain our fascination
with telling people which celebrities are jewish?) even though it's been centuries since we were outcasts from society, and "even in the
21st century, it's still us against the world".

Is it that big a crisis if it is called the Christmas parade?
Honestly, I think this is where some angst towards our community
begins: that we force them to take down the Christmas and put up the
holiday. Our only way out of being labeled perverse is to point to the
rarely-celebrated (at least in my experience in Encinitas) Kwanzaa,
and to say that they deserve equal treatment during the holiday season
as well. I personally do not think this argument holds water at all.

If, in the holiday parade, Jewish participants were refused, then of
course I would have a problem. But the reality is it that Christmas
dominates the landscape. Even through this I remember Jerry Falwell
saying that there has been a kind of war waged upon Christmas, who
"took the Christ out of Christmas. Unfortunately for
him, most of this war probably comes from within his own constituency, as
the main driving symbol of Christmas has been shifted from the birth
of Jesus to the almighty dollar. Even Jewish children are caught by
the magical nature of the tree, Santa, and the presents by their
friends at school. Is this a religious message? absolutely not. Should
they be sheltered from it? That's a parent's decision, I think.

But who are we to force equal treatment? The holidays rarely fall
during the same period and have very little else to do with each
other, sans time of the year. I think the Jewish community has the
maturity to say that we understand the world we live in and can accept
that - I would hope that it also has the beitzim (huevos) to tell the
congregations as well.