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The Eye of the Storm
by Batya Medad
Batya Medad made aliya from New York to Israel in 1970 and has been living in Shiloh since 1981. Recently she began organizing women's visits to Tel Shiloh for Psalms and prayers. (For more information, please email her.) Batya is a newspaper and magazine columnist, a veteran jblogger and recently stopped EFL teaching. She's also a wife, mother, grandmother, photographer and HolyLand hitchhiker, always seeing things from her own very unique perspective. For more of Batya's writings and photos, check out:
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Shevat 30, 5770, 2/14/2010
The United States, A Christian CountryThere's lots more to read on my other blogs, Shiloh Musings and me-ander. Take a look at the weekly Jewish bloggers magazine, Havel Havelim. The United States, A Christian Country I grew up in mid-Twentieth Century United States. I always lived in areas which were mostly Jewish, but I never had a doubt, no doubt at all that the United States was at heart, mind and media a Christian country.  "Before the Jews came, we had such beautiful Christmas pageants."  As I remember, the early history and its stories of religious freedom were about various Christian groups, not full religious rights for all religions, Hindus, Muslims, Jews and any others. We lived with other Jews to feel more comfortable. The local New York City public schools were closed Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur. No other Jewish Holidays seemed to be known. We weren't religiously observant. In neighborhoods like ours, the schools kept the "winter holiday celebrations" pretty G-dless and sans Jesus, too. We sang about snow, Santa and dreidles. The only "religious" song was "Silent Night," which most of us Jews didn't quite understand. Easter, I associated with bonnets and decorated eggs. I never caught onto any religious message about it from the TV shows; it remains an enigma. Yes, television was the great educator and assimilation tool. May father learned English in school and both my parents learned American customs and values there. But I learned from the TV. As a teen I felt that I had to choose between being Jewish and being an American, Being American meant accepting christian customs and priorities. In Great Neck North, NY, I had a teacher who would complain that the Jews ruined things for Great Neck. I was amazed and asked what she had meant:
Every once in a while I hear or read discussion about the place of Christianity in America. I accept it as the dominant ruling religion. That's why I strengthened my Judaism, became Orthodox (Torah observant) and moved to Israel. Tags: Jewish World ,Aliyah & Absorption |