[HANASHIR:7799] Christmas is NOT an American Holiday

[SHARON PLIER <CantorShar...>]

Dear Friends at HaNashir,

Please note that I have a new e-mail (and for the moment it carries my
married name rather than my professional name by which most of you know
me.).

Sharon Steinberg may now be reached at:
    CantorShar (at) msn(dot)com

    While I have all of you on-line, I want to let you know that I will be
compiling stories, anecdotes and wisdom from people for a book that I am
writing which will be called,

    Christmas is not an American Holiday.

    It will not be a book only about Christmas -- but about the separation
of church and state in America and how people are innocently and not so
innocently crossing the line of what's appropriate -- especially in the
public schools.  I was motivated to write this book after this past
"holiday" season when all three of my children were being indoctrinated with
Christmas in the schools.  As I spoke to the various teachers and
administrators, I ran into various reactions -- all of which were similar --
people just hadn't thought about it enough to realize that they were
crossing the line.  They universally wanted my input on how to become
sensitive so that they would not make these mistakes again.  It is my hope
that in writing this book, I may sensitize some educators and others who
deal with the public.

I realize that HaNashir is not about this kind of thing, but as musicians, I
know that many of you run into this a lot -- especially in programming those
famous holiday concerts that we have all been trained to think are required
of us..

I hope that some of you will want to respond to me privately with stories,
wisdom and suggestions on how to approach this topic.  I will be publishing
stories from various people, so if you respond to me, please indicate
whether your story would be available for publication; whether or not you
would like to be anonymous; or whether you are sending me something for me
to read, but not to include.

I also challenge all of you composers out there to begin creating "secular"
plays and songs that speak to the winter season without being religious --
so that there are alternatives to "Santa's Christmas Hoedown" (in which my
son was asked to play Santa -- the teacher told me it was okay because Santa
is a secular figure) and "The Twelve Elves of Christmas" -- both of which
were performed in my sons' public elementary school this year.  We could
also come up with a few religious plays as well -- I bet they'd get a lot of
play in those schools that want to show off their cultural diversity.

Please do respond privately to me as the HaNashir list-serve is about our
musical concerns, and I apologize for using this forum for this purpose but
hope you don't mind.

My best wishes for a healthy and happy secular new year.

B'shalom,
Sharon Steinberg


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