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In the absence of an appropriate support group, I need to make a confession. My name is Dina and I didn't know what an advent calendar was until I was 18 years old.
When you grow up in a Jewish household, there are certain things you won't encounter in December; advent calendars, pine trees, tinsel, turkeys, mistletoe, Santa, crackers and...I can't really think of anything else Christmas-sy.
Obviously I was aware of Christmas, conceptually. I'd even starred in a nativity play at school but didn't understand the symbolism of the props, as evidenced by my throwing baby Jesus across the stage at one of the wise men (which I now know is unacceptable and a letter of apology followed shortly). I'd just never really noticed how big it was.
So, it took me living in a university hall of residence before my first real brush with the advent.
Rather than being enthused by the spirit of the season, I was disconcerted. How many other British traditions was I totally unaware of? Why do people wait 25 days before eating all the chocolate?
A whole other world, and one which I had no way of relating to. Now we're here again, that time of the year when I and - judging by anecdotal conversations - my fellow Jews feel slightly divorced from mainstream society.
It's not that I don't like Christmas. I just don't understand it.
Part of it is jealousy. Say what you want about Chanukah, but I have a sneaking suspicion it's just not as good. How can eight days of doughnuts (google it) compare to the most wonderful time of the year?
Then there's having to explain yourself. People get this strange look in their eye when you tell them that no, you're not looking forward to Christmas because you don't celebrate it. It's an almost indescribable mixture of pity, fear and bewilderment.
So, each year, I try to get through the holiday season with voluntary or paid work (Crisis at Christmas, by the way, is full of Jews doing the same) while my friends hide away with their families.
Occasionally, someone will take pity on me and I'll get an invite for Christmas dinner. But I'll never really know how good Christmas is for everyone else, or understand why people seem to like it so much, or why the season of joy and goodwill to all men is restricted to 12 days.
So, with that off my chest, I leave you with this video. To my knowledge it remains the most honest and engaging description of how my people feel every time 25 December rolls around.
Follow Dina Rickman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dinarickman
Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and wish you all a Happy Peaceful New Year.
Yours truly the infidel
With regards to feeling 'slightly divorced from mainstream society', I would say work on it, with luck you'll soon get your decree absolute.
Because after reading your comments about Jewish banks and zionism - repeating the same old anti-semitic nonsense - I wouldn't call you a Christian at all.
And if "he came to free us from slavery personal and actual", how come you're still a slave to that bigotry.
The Apostles never celebrated His birth, the believer was commanded to celebrate his death and ressurection. Not His Birth!!!!
I myself am a Messianic Jew (i believe in Yeshua HaMashiakh (Jesus the messiah). When I celebrate Hanukkah, i remember that Yeshua came as a light into the world.
The angel on top of tree represents the Anti-Christ, Santa clause is pagan and the biggest lie to children, the tree is mentioned JER 10:3-4 For the customs of the people are vain; for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with
hammers, that it not move. This is a pagan tree, and by putting presents under it is a form of offering to the tree, the yule log, the wreath. any image of heavenly being is wrong. Best way to find out is to research it = THE TRUTH ABOUT CHRISTMAS.
I hope this helps. Just one correction in love, i don't say Jewish feasts, but G-ds feast, as they were given by G-d himself. May G-d bless you
A major Jewish religious figure in Israel has likened non-Jews to donkeys and beasts of burden, saying the main reason for their very existence is to serve Jews.
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual mentor of the religious fundamentalist party, Shas, which represents Middle Eastern Jews, reportedly said during a Sabbath homily earlier this week that "the sole purpose of non-Jews is to serve Jews." Yosef is considered a major religious leader in Israel who enjoys the allegiance of hundreds of thousands of followers.
Shas is a chief coalition partner in the current Israeli government,
Yosef, also a former Chief Rabbi of Israel, was quoted by the right-wing newspaper, the Jerusalem Post, as saying that the basic function of a goy, a derogatory word for a gentile, was to serve Jews.
"Non-Jews were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world-only to serve the People of Israel," Yosef said in his weekly Saturday night sermon which was devoted to laws regarding actions non-Jews are permitted to perform on the Sabbath.
Yosef also reportedly said that the lives of non-Jews in Israel are preserved by God in order to prevent losses to Jews.
In fairness, if you look at the American political system with Michele Bachmann's mangling of yiddish in order to establish her credentials with the Jewish-American lobby, you can be excused for developing that view of the world.