A guest post by CA
DB,
I know that some of your loyal readers who hail from the right side of the political and religious spectrum sometimes defend American right-wing political commentators who go on and on about how the evil Liberal Atheists are supposedly waging a war on Christmas. And some of the right-wing J-bloggers even agree with this assessment and believe that we Jews should show some respect to Christians.
However, over in the Eretz HaKodesh, aka Israel, it seems that the shoe is on the other foot. It seems that the right-wing Orthodox Jews over there are, indeed, waging a war against Christmas, threatening to pull kashrut certification of Establishments that display Christmas decorations.
I guess the religious powers in Israel really don't care whether they offend Christian pilgrims who visit this time of year, or drive the Christian pilgrims to the Arab side of town, where they can be properly indoctrinated into the Arab side of the Arab-Israeli issue. And what about the Israelis of Russian descent who the Rabbinate doesn't think are Jewish and won't let them convert? They might be Christian, but they're also just as Israeli as any hareidi, in fact they serve in the army. And what kind of message will this send to Sen. Orrin Hatch when he comes to visit and sing his Hannukkah song in Jerusalem?
In other words, there are lots of reasons why a kosher-certified establishment in Jerusalem might want to put up Christmas decorations without it meaning that they want Jews to celebrate the holiday.
Feel fee to pass this on. I'm looking forward to seeing the (figurative) exploding heads.
[DB: Three quasi related points: (1)I'm in favor of any effort by any individual to defeat Christianity, and to undermine its lies, but do not desire assistance from the government. Let falsehoods be defeated on the merits, with no help from the state. (2) If a private kashrus organization wishes to pull certification from an establishment that puts up trees and lights, that's fine with me; and its also fine with me if a private kashrus organization looks the other way. (3) The great thing about America is that Jews are no longer required to show Christmas any respect, and I'd prefer that we didn't.]
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