If Moses walked into a shtiebl in Jerusalem would he be welcomed, let alone lauded? On the face of it, if the greatest Jewish leader and teacher of all time walks into any Jewish establishment, he should be celebrated and venerated. But if here were dressed in the fashion of his time — billowing robe, sandals, cloth headdress — he might be tossed out.
I thought of this as I walked through Jerusalem’s Old City last week. I entered through the New Gate as I wanted to take some pictures for a Catholic friend who has never been in Israel. Suddenly, I found myself at Santa’s House. Incongruous is putting it mildly. There, in the Middle East, amid Jerusalem stone dating back over 1,000 years, were red-striped candy canes, pine boughs and glittering ornaments. European and American Christmas traditions are so ubiquitous that they define a Christian holiday not only worldwide, but even in the very place where the religion began. I remember the same in Bethlehem, when it was easier to travel there pre-Oslo. I noted the irony, even as I enjoyed the decorations.
But then I remembered the Moses question.
Jerusalem has always had a strong chasidic community, and today people from these communities are out and about in general society in much larger numbers. As I reflected on Christmas, I realized we have something analogous in Judaism, too. Haredi and chasidic Jews are often depicted as, for lack of a better term, “old school” Jews. In fact, chasidic Judaism is a relatively recent innovation, dating back to the late 18th-century, hundreds of centuries after the Jewish exile from Judea.
The garb of today’s haredi and chasidic Jews reflects the Eastern European environment of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, with bitterly cold temperatures requiring wool and fur. Not exactly the temperate, dry climate of the Levant.
One could argue that Christians and Jews in Israel should embrace living in the environment of their religious ancestors and reject the customs that were forged in a foreign, European context. That approach, however, would excise meaningful traditions and customs built over millennia outside of the holy land. So I don’t expect non-Middle Eastern Christians or Jews to throw off their family traditions because they find themselves living in the Middle East.
But both Santa’s Workshop and the chasidic Jews of Jerusalem are a reminder that authentic, traditional and original are subjective terms.
Shana Goldberg may be reached at shana@ijn.com
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