RE: Jews and Christmas music

[Adrian A. Durlester <durleste...>]

With all due respect Wolf, the way to make sure "Never Again" is a reality
is through education, mingling and exposing the Xtian community to Jews and
Judaism.

I would remind you that the Jewish people, albeit under the command of G-d,
were responsible for a great deal of genocide among the people of Canaan (if
we accepted the biblical accounts as correct.) We need a theodicy to deal
with that as much as we need one for the Shoah.

You've seen my posts on Prince of Egypt. You know I believe that the Xtian
community is co-opting our Jewish heritage, and I resist and resent that.
But the answer is to be in their face about it-and if that means being in
their churches, so be it. It is not an endorsement of their past history.

We have to learn to separate, to some degree, history and present reality.
Try reading Hosea, and tell me your modern sensibilities aren't offended by
the misogynistic metaphors employed. Does that render the words of Hosea
useless and meaningless? No. We can learn from them with endorsing the
patriarchal and economically repressive
society that produced them. Similarly, we can learn from our Xtian friends
and fellow travelers on this planet. We can attend a church service, sing a
brilliant setting of Xtian liturgical text and still not be endorsing
Xtianity as a religion.

It WILL happen again if we continue to separate ourselves so much from the
goyim that we become a mystery and then a threat.

We should follow Jeremiah's advice to the exiles, and find a way to work
within the larger society we find ourselves in.

And while we're at it, we can deny, as a people, culpability in the death of
the Xtian messiah, and blame the Romans. But anyone who thinks the Pharisees
didn't have a hand in arranging the death of this radical who challenged
priestly authority and the economic realities of that society is quite
naive. For their own purposes, the framers of Xtian tradition chose to use
the Jews as scapegoats. The results have been heinous, to say the least.

G-d did not fail us in the Shoah-humankind failed itself. Let's learn from
this to be vigilant but also active in bringing a realistic picture of who
and what we Jews are to our Christian neighbors. And that might involve
aiding in their celebrations, performing their churches, etc.

Adrian


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
[mailto:owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org]On Behalf Of Kame'a Media
Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 1998 6:15 PM
To: World music from a Jewish slant.
Subject: re: Jews and Christmas music


Dear List-Members:

I received a few pieces of private mail regarding my earlier posting as
to why I feel it is not appropriate for Jewish people to hire themselves
out to sing Christian holiday music in a church.  Perhaps the following
will help underscore the point I am trying to make and perhaps make
people better understand the feelings surrounding this issue by Shoa
survivors, their families and other Jewish people.

For about fifteen years, up until her death in 1990, I enjoyed a close
friendship with  Sarah Nomberg-Przytyk.  As an Auschwitz inmate, her
"job" was that of secretary to the infamous Nazi monster (makh shimoy)
Josef Mengele.
In her book, "Auschwitz: True Tales from a Grotesque Land", she
describes how, at Christmastime, the S.S. officers would sing "Silent
Night" and other Christmas Carols in the shadow of the crematoria.

Where are your warm and fuzzy feelings at now?

Wolf Krakowski