Transcript
A (0:18)
Well, the clue is in the music. You'll have noticed it's been new and improved with literal jingle bells there. I'm Jonathan Friedland in London.
B (0:28)
I'm Anit Levi in Tel Aviv.
A (0:29)
And it's Unholy, our special for Christmas, because as the music gave away, it is that time of year. Some of you may have noticed that outside it is that day, that time of year. Obviously a massive deal all over the world. Except your need, surely where you are. You're the one exception, aren't you?
B (0:50)
Well, a little bit of caveats to that. We'll talk about that in a moment. But yes, this will be the episode in which two Jews take on Christmas for sure.
A (0:58)
Whether Jews mark this or not and whether Jews in Israel mark it even at all. I mean, my assumption is they don't. But, you know, correct me if I'm wrong, we can. We can plunge right in.
B (1:10)
I always do. We'll get to Israel and, and what happens here? I think it's really interesting because some of the more commercialized aspects, the American aspects of Christmas have sort of trickled down. Of course, when you add to that the Russian community celebrating a novigod the end of the New Year, the Russian New Year's, well, we'll get to all that. But I think one of the interesting things when we talk about Jews and Christmas is particularly that Jews, I mean, you know this much better than I do, feel kind of outsiders on Christmas. And they have developed over the years their different sort of ways to feel part of the traditions, you know, kind of strip away the theology, but yes, still kind of take part in the. In the traditions or carve themselves their unique own traditions on Christmas, which has.
A (2:00)
Definitely happened in America most obviously, where there's a whole kind of American Jewish minhag around or custom around Christmas of going to the movies and then eating Chinese food, which turns out to have a really interesting origin. That there were actually, you know, in those areas of New York in the early waves of Jewish, you know, immigration to the United States, who were Jews neighbors in some of those parts of Brooklyn, the lower east side, etc. There were Chinese communities there and Chinese restaurants were open. That's, we're told that's how it started. It turns out there's a rabbi who has made a real study of this area of research and has gone sort of full Talmudic on how exactly it happened. I came across a concept I didn't know about, about a sort of hidden trafe, which I love this idea that Jews who are completely you know, they do, did observe and do observe kashrut. Nevertheless, quite like Chinese food, because there might be pork, but it would be hidden inside a sort of wonton, and therefore you could pretend you hadn't really been aware it was there. Which I think is a brilliant piece of sort of, you know, Jewish reasoning. It reminded me a bit of those people, and I know many of them who have holiday rules when it comes to kashrut. You know, they are observant inside the house, they're observant even outside. But when they go on holiday, then they allow themselves to eat shellfish and pork and so on. So apparently this was the concept of plausibly deniable trafe. Safe trafe, it was known as, meaning Chinese food where the pork was hidden. So that's all part of it. In my own upbringing, it was, you know, you said about Jews feeling like outsiders. It was a very much a kind of conscious, deliberate effort. It's not like we were excluded actively from Christmas or we were sort of shut out and we was there pressing our faces against the glass, desperate to get in. I think we sort of opted out of it. We took ourselves out of it. I think I may have mentioned on the. On the podcast in previous years, my beloved great Aunt Yehudit, or Yiddis as her name was, said. Yiddi, we all called her, who wouldn't say the word. She would literally say Kratzmach, a sort of Yiddish formulation, to kind of avoid saying it. It's the Yiddish equivalent, really, in a way of writing a Xmas, so that you don't say Christmas, which I have to say is still my habit. I write Xmas partly because it's shorter, but there was an avoidance. And so, you know, my family, we had a little growing up, we had a very, very small flat by the seaside in the town of Bournemouth, where there's a small Jewish community. And we would go there. But I think it was deliberate, this. We would actually travel down there on Christmas Day. So, in other words, when everyone else was having the big lunch and turkey and gifts, we were sort of on the M20 motorway, as if deliberately to make sure that it was a kind of nothing day. I think things have moved on a bit since then, but I think opting out of it is part of it. I don't think it's the case that, you know, Jews are denied access to it if they want it.