Give Jewish Holidays Equal Prominence

To the editors:

As a Jew, I find an explicit Christmas season far preferable to the type of ecumenical holiday season described in the Crimson’s editorial today and often practiced at Harvard.

There is nothing wrong or discriminatory for a predominantly Christian school to celebrate an important Christian holiday. But I find it insulting that the only Jewish holiday to make it into the cannon of holidays at Harvard is the one Jewish holiday that usually falls out near Christmas.

Putting a menorah next to a Christmas tree is not a significant way of giving Jewish concerns parity with Christian ones. Canceling classes on Rosh Hashannah would be a reasonable way to balance the public celebration of Christmas with Jewish concerns. While that might not necessarily be the best policy to adopt (all holidays of all religions couldn’t be similarly honored), such an action makes more sense from within a Jewish context than putting menorahs next to Christmas trees. Hanukkah and Christmas are juxtaposed by the calendar most years, yet they stand at opposite poles of importance within their respective religious traditions.

I am not complaining. I have enough historic sensibility to understand that difficulty observing Jewish holidays and feelings of discomfort about the abundance of Christian symbolism during the Christmas season are both among the more benign results of living as a minority. However, after missing seven days of classes during the first three weeks of this semester because of the series of Biblical Jewish holidays, I do not feel welcomed and included when Harvard incorporates the minor holiday of Hanukkah into the Christmas season.

David Wolkenfeld ’03

Dec. 4, 2001