Chrismukkah- Is it good for the Jews?

Rabbi Paul Plotkin
3 min readDec 29, 2024

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For the first time in 20 years Hannukah and Christmas were observed on the same day. The media was in a frenzy. You would have thought it was a harbinger for the coming of the messiah. “Behold how good and how pleasing it is for people to dwell together in unity”. Ps 133:1

But why is it such a good thing?

Many of the articles written and tv news reports focused on how many interfaith families could now celebrate both holidays at the same time instead of separated by weeks. This of course is the “fault” of the Jewish calendar. Without explaining it, note that some years Hannukah is as early as Thanksgiving or as late as Christmas. So Chrismukkah is seen as a good thing and by implication interfaith families are a good thing. I am more than aware that almost everyone reading this has a close relationship to an interfaith family. That is the reality of life in the diaspora. Many of us make the most of it to preserve our relationships with our children but I am not prepared to universalize this as a norm, which is precisely what Chrismukkah is doing. When I would counsel families after I converted the non-Jew about how to handle the “Christmas dilemma” I always made the point that they should attend the Non Jewish family’s celebrations but as observers not participants so that the children would be respectful of their other grandparents but at the same time would know that it was not their celebration. This way they could all share but the Jewish identity of the children was clear. Chrismukkah does the exact opposite. It levels the field and in the great American Way, you can have full ownership of both, and belong in neither.

Having said that I am not writing this blog for that reason alone. I have a greater fear that is in its own way more of an existential threat.

We are living in an unprecedented time at least in my lifetime of antisemitism in the United States. If we remember Charlottesville the antisemites were marching with their tiki torches chanting, “Jews will not replace us”. This was based on a theory, propagated by Tucker Carlson that the Jews are planning to take over the country and replace the gentiles. As unreasonable as it sounds this is what many of the radical right antisemites believe. It is an old antisemitic trope. There is an international conspiracy of Jews to dominate the world. It is the old theory that the Rothschilds control the world, or that an international cabal of Jews are plotting to take over. This is the gospel of The Protocols of the Elders Of Zion, or that George Soros is the Boogey Man who wants to control the United States. All this is drivel, but it was drivel in Germany until it was government policy to eradicate the Jews and all the danger they posed.

Jews are less then 2% of the population in the United States yet they somehow fear we will take over. Now comes the important Christian holiday of Christmas. It is a federal holiday because in truth and in history the US is a Christian country. Now this year the 2% are on equal footing with the hundreds of millions of Christians celebrating the day. Every time the media combined them I cringed. In Hebrew there is an expression. “Don’t open the mouth of Satan”. That was precisely my fear.

We would like to believe that we are accepted in this country. That showing the “minor” holiday of Hannukah as somehow equal to Christmas we are proud and accepted in this country as equals. Those days are gone. Shootings in temples, encampments on campuses, professors cheering on Hamas’ brutal attacks are all too common now. That is the new reality.

Is Chrismukkah good for the Jews?

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Jan 5 weston B’nai Aviv 9.30am

Jan8 Wynmor Hadassah 12pm

Jan 12 Beth Shalom Atlanta 9.30am

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Rabbi Paul Plotkin
Rabbi Paul Plotkin

Written by Rabbi Paul Plotkin

I am a retired Conservative Rabbi. I was a pulpit Rabbi for 40 years. I supervise a chain of kosher Delis called Ben's .

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