DETROIT
JEWISH NEWS

ovember 2 2, 2007 / 12 Kislev 5768

rouble with presents

Chanukah

big gift? seem like assimilation

gift giving: modern Jewish traditior

by Jordan Birnholtz

by Avi Buckman

ome time for Chanukah, this year starting at sundown Dec. 4,

the question arises: "What are you getting for Chanukah?"
People all around me would talk about the phone they're
getting or the hottest game system or maybe tickets to a Detroit Lions'
game. As for me, I could brag about the modest gifts — the board
game, the new Zits comic book, maybe a gift card. The chocolate gelt
can be good, too, and a small sum of money is always an easy present
to accept. Getting these modest gifts doesn't really bother me because I
don't believe the nice gifts should bear the label of Chanukah.
The idea of giving gifts has really evolved over time. At first, dmei

Chanukah, or gelt, was given out to play dreidel or save for something
sweet. However, this Chanukah gelt was small and did not nearly match
up to modern-day Chanukah presents. Because Chanukah is around
the time of Christmas — and at Christmas, presents traditionally are
this gift-giving icon has heavily influenced the Jewish holiday.
given
This is ironic because the story of Chanukah is that King Antiochus
persecuted the Jews and outlawed Jewish practice. He forced the Jews to
Hellenize, or become part of the Greek culture. The heroes of the day,
the Maccabees, fought the Greek Empire so that Jews wouldn't have to
assimilate. Because the holiday focuses on not assimilating, wouldn't it
be hypocritical to adopt the Christian practice of giving gifts near the
time of Chanukah?
Whenever a non-Jew talks about Chanukah, two questions usually
are asked: "Isn't that the holiday where everyone gives presents?"
and "Isn't it like Christmas?" This annoys me because not once
does anyone ask if that's our Festival of Lights, or even our Kwan-
zaa or Diwali (an important Hindu fall festival).
We influence what others think of us, and it is important that
we don't make Chanukah the "Jewish Christmas," but rather the
holiday celebrating that Jews are still around.

n a modern Jewish household, issues of faith surface regularly — deci-

sions about attending weekly services, keeping kosher, how to observe the

High Holidays, for example.
Chanukah has proved to be particularly divisive. A serious schism has de-
veloped between two camps those who participate in gift giving and those

who do not.
Some families opt out of what is generally perceived to be a standard-
issue Jewish practice, claiming that gift giving encourages materialism.
Others may deem it untraditional, demeaning to the holiday and without
a base of religious merit. They believe that in exchanging presents, Jews
are adopting a piece of a foreign, Christian religion.
Both positions are understandable, but disintegrate under scrutiny.
Those who fear negating the true significance of Chanukah with con-
sumerist culture are acting illogically and irrationally If parents can im-
part to their children that, while the gifts are nice, they do not constitute
the essence of Chanukah, there is nothing wrong with the practice. Do
not inflate the importance of the presents and do not give in excess, and
there will be no risk of killing the holiday. As the adage goes: everything
in moderation.
Those who claim gift giving is not a tradition should realize it very
much is. Traditions are, by definition, artificial social constructs, formed,
disbanded and reconstituted at the whim of society. The majority of
Jewish families engage in the exchanging of gifts and, as a result, it is a
tradition —just one of a modern time, not of antiquity. Most Jewish
traditions have little to do with the precise commandments of our origi-
nal religious texts and developed at a later date, influenced by time,
further invalidating claims of anti-traditionalism.
However, some may still claim that, in trading presents, we are
harming our own Jewish identity by adopting a Christian practice.
This is not the case. Gift giving has little to do with Christmas other

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b gilh continues on page B4

teen2teen November • 2007 B1

Illustration by Josh Loney, 15, Bloomfield Hills Andover High School

