When Christmas Was a Time of Fear for Jews

We all know about the American Jewish tradition of dining out in Chinese restaurants on Christmas Eve. It’s a sign that American Jews have always enjoyed themselves that night, alongside their fellow Americans, albeit not quite in the same way.

When Jewish immigrants came to America, they quickly adopted Christmas as an American holiday, distinct from its Christian context. In the 1920s, even the religiously traditional New York Yiddish newspaper, the “Morgn-Zhurnal,” would print pages full of Christmas greetings from local businesses in Yiddish, wishing readers “a freylekhn Christmas”, a happy Christmas.