by George Gazarek
Being a young man who spent thirty years as a Christian, twenty-six years as an agnostic, and fourteen years as a Jew, I sometimes reflect on my varied life experiences and come up with unusual questions. December 6 is Saint Nicholas Day. And so, about a few weeks ago, I found myself reminiscing about my childhood experiences on Saint Nicholas Day. As a family of Czechoslovakian heritage, we celebrated Saint Nicholas Day by hanging our stockings from our bedroom door knob on the night before. If we were good that year, we woke to find our stocking filled with candy and toys. If we were bad, we instead found the stocking filled with coal. And yes, there were a few years where the coal from the basement furnace found its way into my stocking. These thoughts prompted one of those unusual questions, which I immediately typed into Google: “Do Jews have a Saint Nicholas?” The following four stories, which I had never heard of before, were very unexpectedly found in that search.
Anne Frank
From June 1942 to August 1944, a Jewish girl named Anne Frank kept a diary of her experiences in Amsterdam after the Netherlands fell to Nazi control during World War II.
Anne begins her diary entries by talking about her 13th-birthday party, when she received the diary. Anne decides to give her diary a name, Kitty, and to write to Kitty as if the diary is the close friend she has always wanted. Anne mentions that the anti-Jewish laws in Amsterdam prohibit Jews from visiting Christian homes. Anne’s father has given her mother’s bicycle to Christian friends for safekeeping, since Jews are not allowed to use bicycles. Anne’s father decides to buy Anne a children’s Bible so she can learn something about the New Testament. He determines he will need to give it to her on St. Nicholas’ Day instead of Hanukkah because stories about Jesus do not seem like an appropriate Hanukkah present.
Manna
The Book of Exodus states that the Israelites consumed manna for 40 years but that it then ceased to appear once they had reached the borders of Canaan. Despite the eventual termination of the supply of manna, Exodus states that a small amount of it survived within an omer-sized pot or jar, which was kept inside the Ark. For many years, Roman Catholics have annually collected a clear liquid from the tomb of Saint Nicholas; legend attributes the pleasant perfume of this liquid as warding off evil, and it is sold to pilgrims as “the Manna of Saint Nicholas.” The liquid gradually seeps out of the tomb, but it is unclear whether it originates from the body within the tomb, or from the marble itself, since the town of Bari is a harbor, and the tomb is below sea level. There are several natural explanations for the fluid, including the transfer of seawater to the tomb by capillary action. In the seventeenth century, a woman marketed a clear, tasteless product as a cosmetic, “the Manna of Saint Nicholas of Bari.” After the deaths of some 600 men, Italian authorities discovered that the alleged cosmetic was a preparation of arsenic, used by their wives.
Elijah
Is Elijah, the annual Passover guest, also the “Jewish Santa Claus”? Rabbi Laura Baum of Congregation Beth Adam in Loveland, Ohio—who is also the founding rabbi of OurJewishCommunity.org, an online progressive Jewish community—told the Jewish News Service that to connect the story of Elijah to many modern Jews, Jewish leaders such as Baum have come up with creative new ways of bringing the story of Elijah to life. One of those new ways is to connect the mysterious and mythical figure of Elijah with another: Santa Claus. “What I realized is that Elijah’s role during Passover is very similar to Santa Claus’s during Christmas,” Baum said. “Elijah and Santa Claus have this theoretical journey around the world, visiting homes and having food and drinks left out for them.”
The story of Santa Claus is based on the legend of Saint Nicholas, a 4th-century Greek and Turkish Christian bishop who became famous for his generous gifts to the poor. Like Elijah in the Bible, Saint Nicholas is seen as a fighter of injustice. “As a liberal Jew, Judaism is a lot of different things: community, connection to tradition, and an evolving framework of how we think about the world. But Judaism is also about having fun. So why not have fun with the story of Elijah and capitalize on his journey around the world?” Baum said.
OurJewishCommunity.org launched the ElijahTracker.com website, which allows people from all over the world to follow Elijah on his journeys during the week of Passover, much like NORAD’s Santa Tracker on Christmas Eve.
“We have been doing it for two years now and people are really excited about it,” Baum told JNS.org. On ElijahTracker.com, Elijah is seen visiting places from all over the world, from Hawaii to Uganda to, of course, Israel.
How Did Christmas Come to Be Celebrated on
December 25?
Joseph A. Fitzmyer, Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at the Catholic University of America, writes about the date of Jesus’ birth: “The DePascha Computus, an anonymous document believed to have been written in North Africa around 243 CE, placed Jesus’ birth on March 28. Clement, a bishop of Alexandria, thought Jesus was born on November 18.” From his reading of historical records, Fitzmyer guesses that Jesus was born on September 11, 3 BCE.
Both Jews and Christians have borrowed heavily from the pagans for their festivals and holidays, and Christmas is no different. Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, a week-long period of lawlessness celebrated Dec. 17-25. The festival began when Roman authorities chose “an enemy of the Roman people” to represent the “Lord of Misrule.” Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week. At the festival’s conclusion, December 25, Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman.
In the 4th century CE, Christian leaders succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians. The problem was that there was nothing intrinsically Christian about Saturnalia. To remedy this, these Christian leaders named Saturnalia’s concluding day, December 25, to be Jesus’ birthday. Christians had little success, however, refining the practices of Saturnalia. The earliest Christmas holidays were celebrated by drinking, sexual indulgence, singing naked in the streets (a precursor of modern caroling), etc. Over the centuries, the Jews were mocked and made to suffer as a part of these celebrations.
But that was then and now is now. And now the Catholic Church has a Pope who embraces the Jewish people. And now, most Christians observing Christmas truly do wish peace on earth and goodwill to all. The seasons of Hanukkah and Christmas are both seasons of hope. Hope for better times where we can all see the divine in each other and grow to love and respect all people as the one family that we truly are.
Shabbat Shalom.