{"id":65069,"date":"2021-12-23T14:06:45","date_gmt":"2021-12-23T19:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=65069"},"modified":"2021-12-24T14:15:03","modified_gmt":"2021-12-24T19:15:03","slug":"for-a-growing-number-of-jews-in-israel-its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/for-a-growing-number-of-jews-in-israel-its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"For a growing number of Jews in Israel, it\u2019s beginning to look a lot like Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By ASAF SHALEV<\/p>\n<p>TEL AVIV (JTA) \u2014 You ask Yaeli Amir, a seven-year-old Jewish girl growing up in a rural town in Israel, what her favorite holiday is, and she won\u2019 t name any of the almost countless Jewish ones. Instead, she\u2019ll say, without hesitation, \u201cChristmas!\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_65070\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Israeli-Christmas-2.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-65070\" class=\"wp-image-65070 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Israeli-Christmas-2-300x167.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Israeli-Christmas-2-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Israeli-Christmas-2-1024x569.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Israeli-Christmas-2-768x427.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Israeli-Christmas-2-1536x853.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Israeli-Christmas-2-2048x1138.jpg 2048w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/167;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-65070\" class=\"wp-image-65070 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Israeli-Christmas-2-300x167.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Israeli-Christmas-2-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Israeli-Christmas-2-1024x569.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Israeli-Christmas-2-768x427.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Israeli-Christmas-2-1536x853.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Israeli-Christmas-2-2048x1138.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-65070\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Christmas display at the entrance to the Tel Aviv flagship store of Tiv Ta\u2019am, an Israeli supermarket chain known for selling food that doesn\u2019t meet kosher dietary rules. (Asaf Shalev)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Amir knows all about Santa Claus, and the decorated tree people keep in their home, and the gift-giving. But the joy derives primarily from the weather: \u201cIt\u2019s fun because it snows and you get to play in the snow,\u201d she said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>She hasn\u2019t exactly gotten to play in the snow on Christmas in Israel. But she\u2019s imbibed the holiday\u2019s traditions while watching movies like \u201cThe Grinch\u201d and going on a family trip to New York City, where she got to hug a Santa mannequin.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Amir\u2019s secular Jewish parents embrace Christmas, not for religious reasons but as an occasion for celebration. The same holds for Halloween.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Yaeli\u2019s mother, Dana, said her rural cooperative village, known as a moshav, is planning to host an American-style Halloween with costumes and trick-or-treating next year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am on the moshav\u2019s education committee and we just talked about how we have to plan a Halloween party next year because all over Israel they have started to celebrate Halloween,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are about the last moshav that hasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Signs that similar sentiments are widespread can be seen all over Tel Aviv, the bastion of secular Israel. The party stores near Tel Aviv\u2019s Levinsky Market carry Christmas-themed decorations and clothing accessories. Tiv Ta\u2019am, a supermarket chain notable for selling food that doesn\u2019t meet kosher dietary rules, has a large Christmas tree display at the entrance to its flagship store. Only about 2% of the population of Israel are Christians, the vast majority of whom identify as ethnically Arab, according to the Pew Research Center.<\/p>\n<p>One of the factors likely driving this trend is the influx over the past 30 years of more than a million immigrants from the former Soviet Union, many of whom were deeply secular and, in some cases, identified as Christian or had Christian spouses. The highly assimilated immigrants also brought with them a civic holiday called Novy God that resembles Christmas.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_65071\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Arieli-Christmas-scaled.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-65071\" class=\"wp-image-65071 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Arieli-Christmas-300x167.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Arieli-Christmas-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Arieli-Christmas-1024x569.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Arieli-Christmas-768x427.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Arieli-Christmas-1536x853.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Arieli-Christmas-2048x1138.jpg 2048w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/167;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-65071\" class=\"wp-image-65071 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Arieli-Christmas-300x167.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Arieli-Christmas-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Arieli-Christmas-1024x569.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Arieli-Christmas-768x427.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Arieli-Christmas-1536x853.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/12-23-2021-Arieli-Christmas-2048x1138.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-65071\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yaeli Amir, 7, a Jewish Israeli, hugs a Santa mannequin at the Christmas and City store in New York&#8217;s Times Square during a visit to Manhattan in 2020. (Courtesy)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Of course, the fact that the Holy Land is the place where Jesus is believed to have been born, lived and died raises awareness of the holiday, although in recent years COVID-19 and occasional unrest have suppressed tourism to Bethlehem and other sites connected to the Christmas story. Instead, with strict foreign travel restrictions in place, Jewish Israelis have been flocking to Christian sites like Nazareth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re not going overseas so fast at this point in the coronavirus,\u201d a Haifa psychologist, Roni Harari, told Agence France-Presse this week. \u201cHere it feels like a little bit of abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But there\u2019s also a newer phenomenon at play: Israel\u2019s massive tech sector. Concentrated in and around Tel Aviv, the culture among startups and established companies is shaped by secular Israelis, including a significant contingent of Soviet immigrants or their children.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>According to Tamara Raynor Cote, a public relations account manager and HR coordinator in Tel Aviv with lots of tech clients, the industry likes to foster holiday spirit during Halloween and Christmas.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of HR or office managers will buy into these holidays,\u201d Raynor Cote said. \u201cWhen I went to buy Halloween decorations it was me and all the HR managers of Tel Aviv.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She said tech companies who are competing to recruit from a limited supply of computer engineers want to project an image of excitement and cosmopolitan savvy. They routinely throw parties where pop stars perform, for example. Having employees celebrate during Christmas and Halloween at the office and posting photos of them doing so on social media generates a desirable kind of buzz.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt comes down to wanting to look international and fun, it helps with recruitment,\u201d she said. \u201cHaving the appearance of being a globally-minded company is appealing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a recent podcast discussing \u201cChristmas in a Jewish Majority State,\u201d the American-born Israeli writer Yossi Klein Halevi suggested that Jews in Israel could appreciate Christianity and Christmas without the anxiety that religious Jews like him experienced growing up in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were now a sovereign state with a Christian minority. We had reversed the dynamic. And so I felt this tremendous opportunity as an Israeli\u201d to learn more about Christianity and Islam, he said on the podcast, a production of the Shalom Hartman Institute, where he is a senior fellow. \u201cI could discover Christmas\u2026. I could allow myself the possibility of holy envy to a religion that I\u2019d grown up fearing and loathing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Amid the holiday excitement, Dana Amir, Yaeli\u2019s mother, paused to reflect on the significance of marking holidays that come from outside the Jewish tradition. When she was growing up, her family would have frowned upon the idea.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomeone said, \u2018Let\u2019s also do something for Christmas as a moshav,\u2019\u201d Dana recalled. \u201cI told her, \u2018Good thing my grandmother isn\u2019t alive to hear what we are doing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Dana says she is raising Yaeli and her two sisters to appreciate Judaism, and that enjoying the trappings of Christmas doesn\u2019t come at the expense of celebrating Jewish holidays. \u201cIt\u2019s all in good fun,\u201c she said.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"For%20a%20growing%20number%20of%20Jews%20in%20Israel%2C%20it%E2%80%99s%20beginning%20to%20look%20a%20lot%20like%20Christmas\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":65070,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65069"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65072,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65069\/revisions\/65072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}