The Invisible Holiday
This weekend marks a major holiday for our friends of Jewish Faith in America - Passover. During this week the Jewish people celebrate liberation from slavery at the hands of the Pharos, and the intercession by their God that formed the foundation of their religion. Yet the American media is silent. I compare this with the gratuitous greetings of wishing Jews a Happy Channukah during the Christian holy season. By contrast, Channukah is a celebration of a military history, and by the accounts of most of the Jew I know, a minor holiday. Passover is the real thing, yet our Christian culture doesn’t even acknowledge this. We’re still stuck onto the new popery and beating that story to death, although papal succession is something that happens every few decades. Freeing a people from slavery happens quite infrequently. It’s a big deal.
So what are the media talking about today? Popes, Iraq, Elian Gonzales, Star Wars fans… the usual drivel. Our Christian brethren don’t want to validate any other belief system by wishing friends and neighbors a happy holiday. Not publicly. Better they publicly snub the Jews than remember that Jesus was Jewish, remember that their faith and their holiest tome are inescapably Jewish in origin. If it wasn’t for Judaism, perhaps Jesus never would have been, perhaps the Christian concept of God would never have been. Perhaps the fundamentalists would be worshiping the storm gods instead.
Happy Passover to all my Jewish friends!