Have yourself a Jewish little Christmas 12/14/2020 at 6:44 PM Posted by Kevin Edward White
By Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe, December 14, 2020
For Jews in old Europe, the Christmas season was a time to be watchful and wary and to keep out of sight. For their descendants in America, the Christmas season which is also the season of Chanukah, of course is a time to celebrate and give thanks for the freedom of religion that protects the menorah in their living room window no less than the Christmas tree in their neighbor’s.
In medieval and early modern Europe, this time of year often brought sermons filled with invective against Jews for the supposed crime of crucifying Christ. Instead of “good tidings of great joy,” there were apt to be blood libels and pogroms. In some Polish and German communities, Jews referred to Christmas Eve as Vay Nacht (Woe Night), a bitter play on Weihnahchten , the German word for Christmas. So great was the fear of antisemitic violence that r
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(Part 3 in a 4-part series on popular Christmas songs)
If any song could provide the theme for Christmas 2020, it would be “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” Just like I was home for Thanksgiving and Canada Day and Mother’s Day and Easter. I anticipate being home for New Year’s Eve and Valentine’sDay, too. While the song calls out a longing for home, most of us are itching to go somewhere. Anywhere other than home.
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Smiley: A Christmas song to break your heart theadvocate.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theadvocate.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
No matter your religious beliefs, come December it s hard to escape malls decorated with bells and trees, peppermint and gingerbread coffee drinks at chain shops, and radio stations that switch to 24/7 Christmas tunes.
But amid the holiday hysteria, we d like to remind you of one very cool fact about Christmas music namely, that some of our most beloved yuletide tunes were penned by songwriters of the Jewish faith.
In the first half of the 20th century, the music industry was one of the few fields where non-Christians weren t discriminated against at least, not as much as in other fields. The Jewish contribution to the modern Christmas canon is songs about the secular (but no less important) parts of the holiday: family, friends, and the joy of the season. The following songs, all written by Jews, are not just celebrations of the most unifying parts of the holiday season but a triumph of the American melting-pot immigrant experience. (And by the way, the worst Christmas song