If the only journal I read was Slate, I would be forced to conclude that at least 50 percent of the country is of the Jewish faith and that the most important country in the world is Israel. I would not know that only 2 percent of the country practices Judaism or that Israel has a population of less than 8 million people or that China has more than 1.3 billion people and India more than 1 billion.

How about a story about how Asian Americans experience Christmas , or Muslim Americans, or Hindu Americans or die hard Athiests. And while your at it you might want to dedicate a series of articles about China and a couple of articles on the Middle East from an Arab perspective.

The fact that the best legal journalist in the country was allowed to publish this piece of tribal paranoia does not reflect well on the Slate editorial staff.

"I would not know that only 2 percent of the country practices Judaism or that Israel has a population of less than 8 million people or that China has more than 1.3 billion people and India more than 1 billion."

and yet so many work in the various media.

The anti-Jewish (the real term for anti-Semite) sentiment seems to come out best at this time of year.

The 8 million people of Israel enjoy freedom of speech, an independent judiciary, unfettered opposition parties. This is the definition of a free democratic society - not just elections. Let's see you get that out of the umpteen billion enslaved peoples of China and India.

The vast majority of American and world media is controlled and produced by non-Jews. The vast majority of banks and financial institutions are controlled and managed by non-Jews.

Jews are, in fact, disproportionately represented in the ranks of Nobel Laureates, Scientist, Writers, Musicians, business managers and many other fields that require intelligence, character, hard work, humility, and creativity. These are all traits developed from the faith of Torah (The Bible - not the old testament - there is nothing old about it except the anti-Jew sentiment of non Jews who named it such).

The problem with this time of year for most Jews is their feelings about their own faith and traditions. These are typically formed as, and end as, a 13 year old. Jews who continue to live and learn their faith past bar/bat mitzvah age have little or no problem with Christian holiday celebrations and their pagan based traditions (trees, lights, bunny rabbits, eggs). We couldn't care less what Christmas specials our kids watch because they are educated and comfortable with their own beliefs and traditions. Only parents who are uncomfortable with their own faith have a problem with 'The Grinch Who Stole Christmas'.

By the way - If you can prove me wrong about Jews controlling the banks, please let me know. I need to know which one of my fellow tribesmen to call to get some much needed cash.

"These are all traits developed from the faith of Torah"

Actually it's due to Jews having a history of being in professions (due to prejudice) that were considered dirty (i.e. moneylending)...as a result, Jews tended to be better educated...

i think you're putting the cart before the horse here. Jews tended to be better educated because our religion demands that we are literate. Because they were literate (and educated) then they were able to work as moneylenders.

"By the way - If you can prove me wrong about Jews controlling the banks, please let me know. I need to know which one of my fellow tribesmen to call to get some much needed cash."

Best of luck with that... nobody said that they were good at it.

The answer to anti-Jewish is not to put China and India on the same level. This might be useful when discussing the Kyoto treaty, but generally, not so much. For example, yes Virginia, India hs free speech, elections, rule of law (including an independent judiciary), etc. You also exaggerated the population levels of said countries. There are not "umpteen" billions worldwide.

As to what "we" Jews feel about Christmas specials, the article assumes some do "care" about such things. I also don't know about that 13 year dividing line you set up. How arbitrary.

Some of the stuff you wrote is spot on, but really, two wrongs don't make a right.

-j

Nothing puts me in the holiday mood better than this little 46 second video...

I certainly loathe this article, and have no idea why the editors believe it belongs in Slate. Maybe they will print out a hard copy and stuff it into Christopher Hitchen's bathroom stocking...where, at least, it would be put to some use.

Oh yeah, I totally agree. Just because Jewish writers may be in the majority at Slate doesn't mean that they have to broadcast their cultural musings all over the place.

I mean, what if that practice happened on national level? Can you imagine living in a United States where the religious majority flaunted their beliefs in public? I shudder to think of what our country would be like if Christians tried to saturate our society with their ideological agenda, bombarding us with yuletide music, holiday programming and tacky decorations for days on end. It would be extraneous and insufferable. Yeah, I'm so glad that our society isn't an uber-magnification of the perpetrations enacted by those Jew bastards at Slate...

Oh, wait...

Just on a side note, I think remember reading that it was also because in the middle ages Christan's were not allowed or were at least discouraged from charging interest, so those jobs went to Jews.