Winthrop Behavior Was Contradictory

This letter comes in response to last week's decision of the Winthrop House Committee not to provide 30 dollars for a house Hanukkah party requested by students while funding a hundred-dollar Christmas tree. When asked for explanation, the newly elected committee co-chair, Kristen Galanek, said the committee made a distinction between the Hanukkah party, which "had the explicit purpose of being a religious party," and the Christmas tree, which was "kind of secular" and had "no religious element about it."

If the Winthrop House Committee wants to fund only secular social events in their House, it is within their purview to do so--although refusing to give aid to the wealth of religious expression on campus makes that decision open to question. However, the real problem is the characterization of the Christmas tree as "secular." The tree that is in the dining hall of Winthrop House is not a "holiday tree" or a "winter tree" or even a "secret elf tree." It is a Christmas tree, plain and simple. The particular image that the tree inspires for non-Christians is not a secular, American one--but a picture of the Christmas holiday that is most emphatically not resonant to a range of students on campus. Many students at Harvard--Jewish students, Muslim students, and others--have never had a Christmas tree as part of their formative American experiences. To say that the tree speaks to them as "a fact of American life and culture," to quote one Winthrop resident, is simply untrue.

There is nothing wrong with students celebrating Christmas any way they choose, of course, with or without a tree. However, if the Winthrop House Committee members want to spring for a Christmas tree, then they should realize that for many students, it doesn't stand as an American cultural symbol, but as a religious symbol. If they are funding a tree, it is only appropriate that they also provide funding for other programs of religious significance to students of other faiths.

Galanek and newly elected House Treasurer Arzhang Kamarei said that the new policy at Winthrop will be to consider funding for any event proposed to the committee, regardless of religious affiliation. We applaud this change in House behavior. We only regret that this change came too late for the Jewish students in Winthrop House. Jeremy Dauber, Chair   Elie Kaunfer, Chair-Elect   Harvard-Radcliffe Hillel   Sarvar Khobaib   Vice-President Harvard Islamic Society