This is my last blog of 2010, and I thought I’d cast my mind block to how life used to be as British Jew at Christmas in England. 

As Britain and most of Europe freezes and all around the snow is deep and crisp and even, here in Israel, (even if this is where it all started), Christmas is not celebrated by the general population but is celebrated in Nazareth (a predominately Christian town for obvious reasons), in Jerusalem, and Bethlehem in the Palestinian Authority.  (Although I did see a Xmas tree and tinsel stall in Hadera earlier this week doing pretty good business – well, a man‘s gotta make a shekel! 

As a secular Jewish kid going to state primary school in the mid-1970’s (Moor Allerton Hall Primary School, actually), and growing up amongst a predominately white, Christian population, I always found myself liking Christmas a great deal. There were two reasons; one, was that it was beautiful to see all the decorated Xmas trees and lights inside and outside people’s houses, and two, ‘cos we got presents at Christmas as well as Chanukah (just so we didn’t feel left out). Most Jewish kids that I grew up with landed the present double as well. 

My class of 25 kids included at least six Jewish children (as far as I can recall), myself, Wendy Feldman, Michael Manning, Raina Saunders, (she became ‘Reindeer Saunders at Christmas), Simon Lewis, and Rochelle Bloomfield. I remember being about seven years and being asked by the teacher, Mrs Armour, to explain to the rest of the class all about the Jewish ‘Festival of Lights’ – Chanukah. 

‘Well’, I said, ‘we’re celebrating the fact that the Romans destroyed our temple and killed lots of people and there was a jug of oil that lasted for eight days, until someone came along with another jug to keep the light going!’ Silence. 

‘Thank you Paul’ said Mrs Armour, then James Cheseldine said ‘Well what’s so good about that then?’

‘Ah, said I, well we get lots of presents, light candles for eight days and are meant to get a present on each of the days.  

‘WOW!!!!’ said the amazed children. ‘And’ I continued, ‘we also get Xmas presents as well’.

‘Wow, Unbelievable’ gasped the class. Then Anna Kingston-Jones raised her hand and declared, ‘Mrs Armour, what do I have to do to be Jewish?’

 

A lot of Jewish children that went to state schools felt they were missing out on something at Xmas time, even if we did all get to watch the Morecambe & Wise Christmas Show, The Wizard of Oz and The Queen’s Speech, the same as everyone else. My family was particularly lucky though, because my mother’s birthday is 25th December, Christmas Day itself, (good day for a Jewish girl), so we always had a party anyway. And our next door neighbours and best friends, the Bosher family were Malaysian Catholics and we always were invited to their sumptuous Malay Christmas buffet - stuffed turkey accompanied by fried rice and stir-fried vegetables, which invariably followed breakfast of smoke salmon and cream cheese bagels provided from our side of the fence. Pluralism at its finest! 

Being Jewish in a very white Christian country wasn’t always a barrel of laughs though. One day in 1975, eight-year-old Paul was walking home from school when two ‘brave’ 15-year-olds came out of a side ‘ginnel’ (do you remember that word), and started pushing me around. 

‘You dirty Jew’. ‘Sheenie’. ‘You killed Christ’, accompanied by punches and kicks to the head and stomach as I curled up on the ground trying to protect myself. The insults and the blows continued until a scream from across the road from Mr Swindells, a neighbour of ours and a teacher at the school, and the lads ‘legged it’ running back up the ginnel as the teacher held me and asked me if I was alright. He took me bruised and battered the last few hundred yards to my home, where Mum did the patching up. 

Up until that day it had never crossed my mind that I was any different from the rest, (even allowing for Chanukah, Pesach, Yom Kippur and Jewish New Year). My friends came from all backgrounds, I sang in the school choir and even had a solo chorus in ‘Nymphs and Shepherds’, had been a pixie in the Christmas play and was a willing recipient of the annual Easter egg from Uncle Laurence and from our neighbours.  

Even now though, so many years later and living in the only Jewish country in the world, (and being proud to do so), I still have a hankering for the happy Christmas times, people being particularly jolly (many doubtless a shade tipsy), present and cards between neighbours, snow falling on Christmas Eve, and the big blockbuster movie on Christmas afternoon.  

In so many ways Jewish people in English-speaking countries are so assimilated that their contribution to the greatest of Christian festivals is sometimes overlooked. I’ve always thought it a shade ironic that one of the most famous Christmas songs and film of the same name, ‘White Christmas’ was the product of Daryl Zanuck’s Jewish-owned 20th Century Fox studios, had a musical score returned by Irving Berlin (a Russian-born Jew originally named Israel Balin, and co-starred Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, (a New York Jew born Daniel Kaminsky). Oh, mustn’t forget the two female leads Vera Ellen and Rosemary Clooney, George’s aunty! 

Whether it’s Christmas or Chanukah, or any other festival you happen to be celebrating at this time, wherever you are in the world, the wishes remain the same for a fun holiday, and a happy, healthy and prosperous year ahead in 2011. 

Thanks a lot for listening/reading during the last 12 months and ‘Shalom from Israel’.

 

 

Add Comment