How to Be Oh-So-Sensitive to Jews at Christmas

If you watch White Christmas , be considerate: also watch Munich
By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 14, 2009 4:37 PM CST
How to Be Oh-So-Sensitive to Jews at Christmas
A little interfaith sensitivity will help you avoid faux pas around Christmastime.   (Shutterstock)

"Just because anyone with half a brain celebrates Christmas," Paul Rudnick writes in that bastion of traditional Christianity, the New Yorker, that's no reason to alienate your yarmulke-wearing friends. Some tips:

  • Calling Jesus "Our Savior" might seem gauche. Just call him "the Jew that got away."
  • Gifting for a mixed couple made easy: The Christian wife gets a candle, the Jewish husband "a lovely framed portrait of his parents, rending their clothes and sobbing."

  • Take interest in Jewish holiday tradition. Sample question: “Does your family sing ‘Silent Night’ in Hebrew?"
  • Sidewalk Santas could upset your Jewish friend, so "say something comforting, like 'Jesus barely knew him.'"
  • "On Christmas Eve, why not remind Jewish children to leave out milk and cookies for Mayor Bloomberg?"
  • Hanukkah should not be referred to with pejoratives like "their Christmas" or the "Goldberg variation."
For more "helpful" tips, click here.
(More Jewish stories.)

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