Tag Archives: Jewish-American

A Jewish Christmas

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General Information 

Informant: Josh Greene 

Place: Hanover, NH 

Date: October 29, 2021 

Genre/Form of Folklore: Customary/Material 

Title: “A Jewish Christmas” 

Informant Data: Josh Greene, 21, is a current junior at Dartmouth College majoring in Government while serving as the football team’s starting long snapper. Josh was born and raised in Palm Beach Gardens, FL where he attended The Benjamin School. Josh lives with his parents and younger sister when he is home on off-terms. He follows a Jewish faith and is also a columnist for The Dartmouth and writes bi-weekly to highlight his journey as a student-athlete.  

Contextual Data: For many Americans, December 25 is a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus, but for those of a Jewish religion it is a time to consider one’s relationship to the wider society. Some Jewish families have chosen to adopt the Yuletide festivities. Some have emphatically rejected the rituals and symbols of Christmas. Still others have sought ways to meld Christmas and Hanukkah. Christmas, in effect, has become a prism through which Jewish individuals can view how living in this land of freedom has shaped their religion, culture, and identity.  

Social Data: For centuries, the Jewish people of Central and Eastern Europe feared Christmastime. At any other time, religious Jewish individuals would be studying Torah in the synagogue, but not on Christmas. Wary of being attacked in the street, they took refuge in their homes, playing cards or chess with their families. The story was different in Western Europe, where, for the Jewish elite, holiday symbols — such as the Christmas tree — signified secular inclusion in society. Today, thousands upon thousands of American Jewish people have become vested in Christmas through Hannukah and mitzvot. Now, Christmas is an occasion for many American Jewish people to proudly affirm their identity as both American and Jewish. This item of folklore was collected through a face-to-face interview of the informant just before the beginning of the Christmas season. 

Item: Decorative menorahs and dreidels hung on the walls with festive lanterns illuminating the house. Instead of green and red décor, blue and white items pervaded the scenery. Additionally, Jewish families typically top their trees with the Star of David rather than an angel/star. 

Transcript: 

Collector: “How does you and/or your family go about decorating your house during the Christmas season? What sorts of decorations do you put up every year and what factors do you think influence this decorative style?” 

Informant: “Well I think there is this preconceived notion that Christmas and Hannukah are the same holidays, but they’re not. Jews don’t celebrate Christmas quite the same, at least my family. We never really decorated too much… sometimes put up a Christmas tree, maybe a big family Christmas dinner. We always knew it was Christmas, and still recognized what the day was for, but never felt the need to put up a lot of decorations for it. The most I think my parents ever did was hang the Star of David above the front door, and these blue menorah banners that hung in our dining room. Growing up we had a small artificial tree with a menorah top and with blue and white lights, but we haven’t done that in a while.”  

Informant Comment 

Now, I celebrate Christmas with some of my friends and family the same way most people do – but’s usually a pretty small and informal thing. 

Collector Comment 

Historically and culturally, Jewish people haven’t celebrated Christmas because it was once a tragic day – So I understand why Josh and his family don’t celebrate or decorate the way many other non-Jewish American families do. But I was happy to hear that they are being festive by means of Jewish holiday. Josh and his family don’t celebrate Christmas because of the folkloric tradition of recognizing and utilizing the day as a day of rest in preparation for Hannukah. 

Collected by: 

Joshua Betts, 21 

Bradenton, FL 

Hanover, NH 

Dartmouth College 

RUSS 013 

Fall 2021 

How Jewish Families Celebrate Christmas Dinner (Evan Fu)

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General Information About Item:

  • Material Lore, Christmas Dinner Description
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Jonah Kershen
  • Date Collected: 10-21-2021

Informant Data:

  • Jonah Kershen is a male Dartmouth student in the class of 2022. Jonah hails from a Jewish family and lives in Hartford, Connecticut. Jonah is an Economics/Computer Science double major at Dartmouth and plays for the Club Soccer team on campus. He plans to work as a trader upon graduation.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Jonah’s family is traditionally Jewish – Jonah celebrates all Jewish holidays and consumes a fully kosher diet himself. While the family primarily celebrates Hannukah during late December, the family still observes the gift-giving and family-time-oriented nature of Christian Christmas. Like Chinese people, Jewish people tend not to celebrate Christmas in a traditional, Christian American sense.
  • Social Context: This description was mentioned when the interviewee was asked about their Christmas traditions. While Jonah was clear that his family chose not to practice many traditionally American Christmas rituals, he did emphasize that his family (and other Jewish families) tended to repeat certain activities on Christmas, including a Christmas dinner.

Item:

  • Jonah’s family’s Christmas dinner almost always features takeout Chinese food. Like Jewish people, Chinese people tend not to celebrate Christmas extravagantly, and most Chinese restaurants are open on Christmas Eve. Jonah’s family typically orders food from the vegan/vegetarian (kosher-certified) menu at a local Chinese restaurant called Black Bamboo. After finishing their Chinese food, they usually eat a homemade, Jewish dessert such as chocolate babka. Jonah emphasized that his family simply considers the Christmas holiday as a period of rest, and they appreciate that Chinese restaurants remain open on the holiday. He mentioned that most of his Jewish family and friends alike will order Chinese takeout on Christmas and have a quiet, filling meal with just their immediate family.

Transcript:

  • “In terms of dinner, we usually just order takeout from this Chinese restaurant called Black Bamboo which is open on Christmas Eve. They have a pretty awesome vegan/vegetarian menu that we order from, and my mom will usually make a chocolate babka or some other Jewish dessert to cap off the dinner. It’s hilarious – literally all my Jewish friends and their families order Chinese takeout on Christmas. I think Jewish people just consider the holiday as a day of rest where the parents can just get away from work and have a nice dinner with the family.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • “We owe a lot to the Chinese people, to be honest. Can’t imagine how many Jewish families they feed on Christmas.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • Like the Chinese food recipe that I collected from my mother, I wanted to interview members of other minority folk groups in America and investigate their Christmas food traditions. I thought that interviewing a Jewish person would be particularly informing due to the religious conflict of interest. Obviously, Jewish people would celebrate Hannukah a few days after Christmas and care less about the Christian holiday. I found Jonah’s responses to be very interesting – he mentioned that many Jewish families in his immediate network simply considered the Christmas holiday as a period of rest and would also order Chinese takeout for Christmas dinner. This tradition appears to be folkloric in nature among the Jewish-American folk group. Jewish families appreciate the day of rest and choose not to cook a large, effortful dinner for many mouths, opting instead for the convenience of Chinese takeout. This practice appears to be shared among many Jewish families and is an incredibly interesting discovery in my collection process.

Collected By:

Evan Fu, 21

Palo Alto, CA

Hanover, NH

Dartmouth College

RUSS013

Fall 2021