Christmas in NYC

Only in NYC can you walk into a bagel shop on the Upper East Side and find a local newspaper with an article titled, “Central Park Santa Misses Christmas: Edwin Bobrow has donned the suit – and the yarmulke – for the past nine years.” 

The Strauss-Cohns @ Rockefeller Center
 for Christmas

See article here.

Turns out Mr. Bobrow, 85 and a self-described Jewish Agnostic, has been sitting in Central Park for the past nine years to sit with children and bring them some season’s joy under the idea that Christmas is everyone’s holiday. Back surgery has kept him at home this year so he was unable to be serve as St. Nick.

He’s an agnostic. I’m not sure if he is a synagogue-goer. And avowedly not a regular kippah-wearer, but when he dons the Santa Suit the yarmulke goes on. Is that not fascinating?

I am not a psychiatrist but let’s just sit with that for a minute. Why do you suppose he puts on a kippah? He says that “I put it on underneath the hat (so that) Jewish kids would come to see me, and I would say, ‘Santa’s not just Catholic, he’s Jewish too.’ It was important for me to make that connection, because, from the time I was a kid and even now, there’s always been jealousy that other kids have Christmas.”

Okay – again, I’m not a psychiatrist but it seems to me that he is putting the kippah on not to remind the kids so much as he is reminding himself of his own Judaism and Jewish roots – self-proclaimed agnostic or not. In this season, we who are not Christians are surrounded by music and celebration of a holiday that I disagree is not “everyone’s holiday”. I think it is fine that Mr. Bobrow dresses up in a Santa costume. I think it is fine for him to put a kippah on underneath the Santa Hat. I think it is fine for Jewish kids to sit on Santa’s lap. I think it is fine for Jews to wish non-Jews “Merry Christmas” and I’ve even come to the conclusion that when someone wishes me a “Merry Christmas” it is not the time to launch into an explanation that I’m Jewish and Jews don’t celebrate Christmas. Rather, I simply smile and return the greeting with appreciation for someone’s kindness.

I had a great Christmas this year. Marsha, the kids and I were in New York City and celebrated the season with going to a circus, taking a beautiful walk and what else: seeing a movie and having Chinese food. And to do it in Manhattan? A dream. A m’chayeh (wonderful experience).

But Mr. Bobrow’s comment, that surely was said not to inspire a rabbi in North Carolina’s sermon, is so indicative of the American Jewish mindset. We are always wanting to fit in and be a part of the world around us. We want to justify our actions when they are, on their face, not Jewish. We often hide our Jewish identity beneath an exterior costume – sometimes even changing our names. We confuse believing in God – or certain conceptions of God – with being Jewish. We assume what the majority culture has must be better than our own and therefore have feelings of jealousy leading us to abandon our own traditions or redeveloping what we have already in our own culture.

But maybe I shouldn’t say these things because quite frankly, I think for the most part, they are of an older era. I think in the past Jews wanted to fit in and were jealous and assumed questioning meant walking away from tradition …

I think we do fit in and we often fit in best when we preserve our identity and stand confident in our heritage and tradition. I think we don’t fit in when we don’t understand who we are or who we want to be. Those are the awkward moments – when we are unable to define ourselves. I think we are not jealous of what others have because we have so much. Different is wonderful when you can define what different is and what different means. I have never felt lacking without Christmas and it has nothing to do with the fact that “we have Hanukkah”. I would never use Hanukkah as a counterweight to Christmas as it demeans both holidays. Christianity is Christianity and Judaism is Judaism.

If a Jew wants to dress up as Santa to bring good cheer to children and the season, then I think that is wonderful. And if he can preserve his own identity by making sure there is a yarmulke underneath the Santa hat, then zei g’zunt – he should do so in good health – or long for it when he is recovering from back surgery. But may he do it from a position of doing a mitzvah – recognizing that we do such things as Jews because we are instructed and informed by a 3,000 year old tradition that has not just advocated but commanded kindness. Being happy and bringing joy are not seasonal activities but lifelong pursuits.

Kindness and generosity are the core of Jewish lore throughout the ages – whether we have lived in Minsk or Fez, Addis Ababa or Alexandria, from Tiberias on the shores of the Kinneret to Tiberon on the shores of the San Francisco Bay – g’milut chasadim – deeds of loving kindness drive our souls.

We all have a chance to be Santa. We all have a chance to bring kindness to other people and share the generosity of our souls. I think that while the Jewish Santa in Central Park is an interesting story and indeed indicative of the American Jewish experience, the central theme is one that does belong to everyone – the chance for each of us to serve as, what we would call, a “lamed vavnik” – one of the 36 righteous that roams the earth doing deeds of loving kindness for the sheer reason that it is the right thing to do.

So may I now exclaim, right in front of your sight— A gut shabbes to all, and to all a good night!”