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8 | DECEMBER 12 • 2019
1942 - 2019
Covering and Connecting
Jewish Detroit Every Week
jn
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S
ymbolic objects convey
meaning without words.
A Christmas tree, for
example, speaks. What does
it say?
Once, in Northern Europe,
people had a
Yule log that
spoke about
Norse mythol-
ogy. Christmas
trees in America
do not say
anything about
Norse mythol-
ogy.
Later, the Christians who
conquered Europe repur-
posed the trees as symbols of
Christianity. Taking an ever-
green tree into your house in
winter, when all other trees
in the northern temperate
zone have no leaves, now
demonstrated Christian faith.
Christmas trees in America
say that for some Americans;
but some secular Americans
— and some Jews — also have
trees, without that faith.
So what does a Christmas
tree in a Jewish home say?
For most of our history,
Jews around the world have
lived in someone else’
s home-
land. It takes psychic effort
not to join the majority.
In the 1950s, a psychologist
named Solomon Asch mea-
sured the temptation to con-
form to the majority. He ran a
test, supposedly a vision test,
asking subjects to pick out the
longest of three lines. People
did that with 98 percent accu-
racy. He then presented the
lines to a group and asked
each person to announce the
longest line. The diabolical
part: He had “confederates”
in the group who answered
incorrectly. The real subject
of the experiment answered
after the confederates. If three
or more people had already
chosen a short line, the sub-
ject often agreed with group
about one third of the time.
Although nearly everyone
could quietly write the correct
answer, only about quarter of
the subjects could answer cor-
rectly out loud every time.
It takes significant effort
not to conform.
I suspect a Christmas
tree in a Jewish home
says, “The folks who
live here do not feel
up to being different.”
Maybe they think,
“We could do with-
out the tree; it is for
the children. Why
should they have to
be different? Just let
them fit in. Anyway,
who wants to explain
why we do not celebrate
Christmas?”
Maybe the tree in a Jewish
household says that the folks
here love the traditions of
American Christmas, sup-
porting the retail economy
by purchasing cards, toys and
small household devices. I do
not think so. I think it says,
we do not have the energy not
to conform.
Jews exist in the modern
world because our ancient and
medieval predecessors had the
energy not to conform.
Louis Finkelman is a JN contributing
writer, a professor at Lawrence
Technological University and a rabbi
at Congregation Or Chadash.
Louis
Finkelman
Contributing
Writer
essay
A Christmas Tree Says Something
of
cor-