Chanukah came early this year, and I hope you had a fun one. Now that it\u2019s almost over, it can be a long dark vacation for those of us who do not observe anything on Dec. 25.<\/p>\n
I say this because, although my family is clearly in the \u201cChanukah only\u201d category, I know other families handle this differently. Some families are multifaith and observe several winter holidays. There are even (this was a surprise to me) Modern Orthodox Jewish families who have used Dec. 25 to create an entirely kosher Christmas dinner \u2013 because everyone had the same day off of work. Some Jewish people choose to observe aspects of Christian or pagan holidays, and, well, that\u2019s up to them. It\u2019s not the custom in my home, but we\u2019re all lucky to be in a place where we are free to choose our own traditions.<\/p>\n
A strange thing happened to me this fall. A friend of a friend put together a \u201cwomen-owned businesses\u201d shopping guide. It had a hashtag of #ShopWithHer. My work includes writing and editing, which can be hard to advertise. The other part is that I write downloadable knitting patterns. That means knitters, or those who love them, can go online and download a pattern I wrote for the price of a big cup of coffee. It\u2019s not a huge earner, but I have a \u201cwoman-owned\u201d business, so I asked to be included.<\/p>\n
The emphasis of the guide\u2019s creator was to highlight women and minorities. It was the week after the Pittsburgh massacre, so when I got to that question, I said something like, \u201cI\u2019m Jewish and an immigrant and now a dual-citizen. I moved from the U.S. to Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why did I mention being Jewish? Jews are a minority in North America. While it has been popular in recent years to downplay any issues of our minority status, the truth is that there are still challenges to being Jewish here. For instance, violence like in Pittsburgh \u2013 and the assumption that, if we want to pray in peace, we should be hiring armed security.<\/p>\n
If we just go back in history a little ways, we should think about quotas at universities, country clubs and other organizations that didn\u2019t admit Jews at all. There were countless other places with no formal policy, but where folks made sure that we knew we didn\u2019t belong.<\/p>\n
For those who think that\u2019s all in the past, I can say sarcastically, sure it is \u2013 my father\u2019s university (Duke) had quotas when he attended it. The Women\u2019s Junior League in Virginia did not accept \u201cour kind\u201d when I was a kid. The issue of \u201canti-Jewish\u201d or antisemitic discrimination is not new, nor is it going away. The recent rise of hate crimes is well-documented in the news. Some American universities and colleges are canceling study-abroad programs to Israel, or their faculty members refuse to write letters of recommendation to Israeli study-abroad programs. I get e-newsletters from JTA and other Jewish organizations \u2013 and the news is clear.<\/p>\n
When the #ShopWithHer guide came out, I was excited \u2013 and then shocked \u2013 to see my entry. Where other minorities were labeled \u201cWOC\u201d for \u201cWoman of Colour\u201d or \u201cLGBT\u201d or \u201cDisabled,\u201d mine read \u201cImmigrant, Other.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m proud of being Jewish and it\u2019s not a part of my identity that I hide. I shouldn\u2019t need to feel ashamed of it. I\u2019m also well aware of our minority status, particularly when we\u2019re surrounded by a holiday that celebrates the birth of another religion\u2019s messiah. However, I didn\u2019t include my business in this guide so I could be made \u201cother\u201d all over again. Why was I labeled \u201cother\u201d? Was it an attempt to protect me from hate? Or do I belong to a category that the guide\u2019s creator didn\u2019t feel was valid?<\/p>\n
\u201cOthering\u201d isn\u2019t my invention \u2013 if you\u2019ve taken social science, religious or cultural studies, philosophy, history or other humanities classes at a university, you\u2019ve likely heard of it. There are academic conferences and teacher in-services on the topic. A simple definition? It\u2019s the action of deciding someone else is different or alien to you, \u201cnot one of us.\u201d It\u2019s a very primitive tribalism that helps people survive in adverse conditions. Some theorists think it references early human civilization, and others think it comes from times of war, famine and other natural disasters.<\/p>\n
You can read about the \u201cin group\u201d of the Israelites and \u201cothers\u201d in the Torah. There\u2019s a lot of tribalism at work in some of our most common stories of identity. At the same time, we\u2019re reminded, \u201cYou should love the stranger,\u201d for \u201cWe were strangers in the land of Egypt.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s right, Jewish tradition teaches us to love the \u201cother.\u201d In the face of increased hate crimes, discrimination and erasure, it can be hard work to keep reaching out and loving others. Perhaps it is ignorance that allows our identities to be ignored or disregarded; I\u2019d like to think that, because the alternatives aren\u2019t nearly as harmless.<\/p>\n
It feels awful to have one\u2019s own religious tradition erased. This time of year, it happens a lot. We\u2019re faced with holiday greetings, music, customs, lights and foods that aren\u2019t ours. When Chanukah is long over, it also feels ridiculous to wish someone or thank someone for a \u201cHappy Chanukah,\u201d even though it\u2019s well-intentioned.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m still struggling with what to say to this shopping guide\u2019s organizers. Saying nothing is an option, as is trying to engage in a dialogue. Maybe it\u2019s enough to send along a copy of this column. There are so many ways to divide and diminish others, rather than celebrating and boosting our identities and differences. Chanukah is a holiday that, unmistakably and militantly, celebrates religious freedom. Perhaps it\u2019s time for us to be our own modern version of Judah Maccabee, strong in the face of dangerous discrimination, but also trying to embrace the Jewish notion of loving the stranger rather than \u201cothering\u201d her.<\/p>\n
Joanne Seiff<\/strong> writes regularly for CBC Manitoba and various Jewish publications. She is the author of three books, including <\/em>From the Outside In: Jewish Post Columns 2015-2016, a collection of essays available for digital download or as a paperback from Amazon. See more about her at joanneseiff.blogspot.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Chanukah came early this year, and I hope you had a fun one. Now that it\u2019s almost over, it can be a long dark vacation for those of us who do not observe anything on Dec. 25. I say this because, although my family is clearly in the \u201cChanukah only\u201d category, I know other families […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2517,5780,8565,8566],"class_list":["post-31113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-op-ed","tag-chanukah","tag-culture","tag-minorities","tag-othering"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31113\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}