FROM THE ARCHIVES: YEAH, BUT WHAT'D YOU GET ME FOR KWANZAA?:

Holidays can be double the fun when Jews, Christians intermarry (SARA OLKON, Dec. 19, 2003, Miami Herald)

Tonight, Mary and Joseph Goldstein will light the Hanukkah menorah and recite traditional blessings with their two young sons.

Next week, the interfaith Plantation family will gather around the Christmas tree. There will be talk of Santa and the wild shredding of gift-wrap. The menorah will recede into the background.

Mary is Catholic and Joseph is Jewish, and in the diversity that is South Florida their efforts to grapple with dueling holidays are not unusual.

The conflict is highlighted this year by the vagaries of the calendar: The eight days of Hanukkah -- which begins tonight -- will intersect with the birthday of Jesus.

''We are really in limbo,'' said Andrea Moskowitz, also a Catholic whose husband Ira is Jewish.

Holiday decorations in their home include a Christmas tree, garlands, candy canes, stockings, a Hanukkah banner, a Star of David and a Jewish ornament in different colors.

Too confusing, said Rabbi Solomon Schiff, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Association of Greater Miami, who does not recommend intermarriage in the first place.

''We discourage celebrating the two together -- it's a disservice to each one,'' said Schiff. He said such a duality ends up diluting the holidays.

Never mind the Holidays, here's the real racket: Bapmitzvahs! When your kid turns thirteen you have the combined Bar Mitzvah/Baptism and you can pretty much pay for their college education, since both sides of the family have to pony up.

MORE:
-The Pain and the Delight of Colliding Cultures (D�sir�e Zamorano, December 20, 2003, LA Times)

This year Hanukkah overlaps with Christmas. On my kitchen counter the challah sits next to the tortillas. In the pantry the Masa Harina is somewhere behind the matzo meal. In the refrigerator I store rendered chicken fat, or schmaltz, next to the manteca, or lard.

Let the culture wars begin - and like everything else in my life, they begin at home. My husband and I were quite smug about being ahead of the curve on the Latinas-marrying-Jews trend, which hadn't yet been documented when we wed 14 years ago.

He arrived as a teenager from England; my family has been here for generations. In his home, the language in which to keep secrets from the children was Yiddish; in mine, Spanish. My favorite joke is that I married the immigrant.

We were married by a rabbi and a Baptist minister - my grandfather.

[originally posted: 2003-12-20]

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 16, 2006 11:59 PM