The Jewish Transcript, Seattle
Jan. 9, 2004
Letters
Can the candles burn the tree?
My late great-uncle Yossel (and today’s Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox) would have loved Joel Berkovsky’s article "Interfaith Families" (Dec. 12, 2003, Hanukkah section).
A Lithuanian-raised rabbi of an Orthodox Brooklyn shul, my great uncle didn’t come to my Reform Bar Mitzvah, although he did show up at the reception. I don’t think he has as much as a sip of water.
Of interfaith couple Mark and Jane Young of N.J., Berkovsky writes they "lived in a classical Reform Jewish home on Long Island, where the family lit Hanukkah candles and exchanged Christmas gifts."
Did their house have classical Greco-Roman pillars? Of my large Bar Mitzvah class, I knew of not one household where Christmas presents were exchanged or where Christmas trees were present.
For Berkovsky to nonchalantly write that a "classical Reform home" is so non-Jewish (and therefore Christian by inference) that Christmas gift exchanging is "classical" (read: to be expected) is demeaning to everyone involved with the Reform movement.
Akiva Segan
Seattle