Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Oy Vey, Rudy!!

Down in North Carolina they will be singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer in the Christmas pageant much to the dismay of a local jewish mother. This mother had asked the school board to not use the song because it had the words 'Christmas' and 'Santa Claus' saying they were religious overtones that she did not want her child exposed to and the school was a secular environment. At first the principal pulled it from the program, but unhappy parents flooded the school board with phone calls and the song was put back in. According to Fox News, she got lawyers involved. She lost. Apparently she asked for a Hanuka song to be included but since 'Rudolph' was ruled secular they declined to do so.

The main thing that frustrated me about the video interview, is the reporter begins by painting a picture of a over reactive grinchy mother who would steal the joy of christmas from the other children. After effectively convincing you she is nuts there is the mention of 'oh and by the way, she's Jewish'. Nice, eh?

This is a decent example of why I chose to homeschool. This child could certainly opt out of the school pageant but she could not opt out of weekly music class. It's true that the characters of Rudolph and Santa are secular. (actually Santa may have pagan roots so he is certainly not christian.) The song itself does mention the word Christmas and isn't like the song 'Frosty the snowman' which is purely secular. And although the holiday of Christmas is mostly secular in celebration now, the actual word 'Christmas' is obviously christian. So what was the mother to do? Obviously the school board thought they were being sensitive to their populace by not including songs like 'Silent night' but it still poses a bit of a problem. On top of that they could have easily included "Dreidal, dreidal, dreidal" to the program as a Jewish secular alternative, I mean nothing religious there...or is there?

2 comments:

Yeshiva Boy said...

I think the Jewish mother made a gigantic Chillul Hashem. This is exactly what we don't need. Yes, if she chose government school for her kids, she could pull them out of choir if it offends her. The dominant culture that has been so good (so far) to Jews is Xtian. We should be appreciative guests. This is NOT our home, but theirs. Our home is Eretz Yisroel.
blessings, michal

Philly Farmgirl said...

I hear what you are saying. I also thought she did not have to bring lawyers into it and cause such a ruckus. For sure she could have pulled her child out. Still, this country, which has been very good to us, is based on freedoms. The Driedal song would have been a nice addition IMO.