By Eric George Tauber
CINCINNATI, Ohio — Several years ago, on the sixth night of Chanukah, Chabad set up a giant Menorah for a celebration at Mission Valley Mall. It was fun. Kids were busily making crafts. Some were dressed as Maccabees and Dreidels and there was Chanukah music coming from the speakers. This is the only time one ever hears Chanukah music in a shopping mall.
I shall note here that we were not trying to take away from anyone else’s holiday. We were there, in one small corner of the mall, to celebrate our holiday. Those who wished to have themselves a merry little Christmas were no concern of ours. Now, that really should go without saying, but not everyone took it the same way.
We were taken aback when a young man I could best describe as a lumbering jackass approached us and roared, “MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!”
The jackass then ambled off with a pleased-with-himself expression that said, “Yeah, I sure told them.” We looked at one another bemused, shrugged and went about our business.
On the drive home, I just couldn’t let it go. Why did he shout at us like that? What did he think he was accomplishing? What was he really trying to say?
Most of us get wished the wrong holiday all the time. Unless one goes about garbed in a gabardine or a hijab, it’s Christmas by default. Maybe we correct them and maybe we don’t, but this greeting is normally intoned with cheer, evoking images of decorations, colored lights, presents, happy songs, sweets, retail shopping…yada yada. You get the idea.
What I think the jackass was really saying was, “How dare you not bow down my culture’s hegemony? Who do you think you are by not assimilating?” These were the sentiments of King Antiochus IV, the villain of the Chanukah story. Antiochus tried to destroy us through assimilation, forbidding the practices of Judaism and imposing on us the rites of the ancient Greeks. Those who refused, such as the Seven Sons of Hannah, were brutally tortured and murdered right in front of their mother. That is why the Maccabees rose up in revolt.
Efforts to assimilate us have been repeated throughout Jewish history. During the Inquisition, our choices were to live as Catholics or be tortured and burned as Jews. With the Reformation came the Lutheran Church, but the deal did not get better. Likewise, the Allahdad of 1839 forced many Persian Jews to convert to Islam and the Bolshevik Revolution forced the practitioners of all religions to—at least outwardly—forsake their faith for Communism. These are just a few examples, but there are many more.
That loud, lumbering jackass yelled at us, insisting that we give in, assimilate and celebrate his holiday instead of our own. By doing so, he reminded us of the very reason why we celebrate Chanukah. Jackasses like him come and go. Empires rise and fall. Tyrants disappear. And yet, in the words on Stephen Sondheim, “We’re still here” reciting our blessings in the language of our ancestors. Every year, we sing old songs and write new ones. We observe old traditions and create new ones. May we never forget who we are. As the candles flicker, reflected in the eyes of our loved ones, let us remember to be thankful that we have lived to celebrate another Chanukah.
Amen.
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Now residing in Cincinnati, Eric George Tauber was a San Diego based freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts. He may be contacted via eric.tauber@sdjewishworld.com