And aside from the fact that we can’t really know, as I’m sitting here surrounded by Christmas cheer – in a world turning against the people and the place that gave them Jesus – I just don’t see the point in telling Jews that the originis of our dreidels and latkes may not have been specifically Jewish.

Hey, I wasn’t born Jewish either, but as a convert, both these rabbis are obligated to, would, and do, treat me exactly the same as if I had been. And who am I, compared to a golden steaming latke, just the smell of which can open the gates of heaven?

The importance of Jesus is not his Jewish birth, but the way in which his life has served as a beacon for the Christian faithful. It make seem disrespectful to make such an analogy – I certainly don’t mean it to be – but what’s important about latkes and dreidels is not who made the first one, but the light and warmth they continue to bring to Jewish homes in times of darkness and bitter cold. For me, eating latkes and playing dreidel will never be acts of acculturation, but rather celebration. And very specifically, Jewish.

On a related note, every Pesach my dad Z’L would remark how lucky we are that chazal didn’t have potatos when they instituted the ban on kitniyos, or potatos would certainly have been included, since you can make far better fake-wheat products from potatos than from peas and beans!

I’ve gotten grief for over 20 years over the kind of Jewish Music I play, because it sounds treif or goyish. This usually comes from people who idealize a certain style of Jewish Music that has its origins in the same Eastern European pubs that people went to to get sauced up for a good pogrom.

We’re Americans, and we have American Jewish music now. Deal with it.

Happy Channuka, Meryl.

He used to have a radio show in Charleston, too. Wish he had one here in Richmond.

An interesting read, and a wonderful example of Jews constantly having to “fight the man”.

I wonder how much of “Christmas” is even Christian? I know the tree, the yule log, the DATE, and a number of OTHER things are non-Christian….

Now you’re going to have to start posting more on the actual Hebrew language, as all I know about it is what I heard from my Jewish Dive Master (Marshal Shaeffer, the motor city mashugina){spelling} and the band “2 live Jews.”

And yes, that WAS a real group…