Vacation Until After Thanksgiving

Sometimes even a die hard New Yorker needs a break, so I’m heading out to Old Amsterdam, the City of Spinoza, and returning, meertz Hashem, for Thanksgiving with my family. I don’t think I will be blogging from Amsterdam, because as the folks at Cross-Currents always say, “If you think you’re too baked to blog, you are too baked to blog.�

So wish me well. And just one final thing, before I head out…

This time of year is often the time when some religiously minded Jewish blogs tackle the issue of Thanksgiving as a nisht pushet (not simple) controversy. True, the haredi Agudath Israel makes sure to have their annual conference on “what is called Thanksgiving Weekend,� (Good Grief!) but what do I care? You sure as shit aren’t going to see that kind of contempt for Thanksgiving from the Orthodox Union, who, unlike the Agudah, was born and bred right here in the good ole U.S. of A. So I paid it little mind at first. Sure, it is expected fare for a site like BeyondBT to discuss (a lot), but the administrators are quite supportive of those who celebrate Thanksgiving, and David Linn is careful to note that he personally celebrates Thanksgiving, and everyone is encouraged to be sensitive to family needs.

And yet…this “controversy� just won’t go away. I can’t believe who actually takes this “shayla� seriously. WTF is the problem? It’s (for my family, anyway) a kosher turkey dinner with kosher wine, with family and friends, with my father reminding us how lucky we all are to be here, and to be grateful. Our rabbi and rebbetzin stop by, and they’re Orthodox. I mean, Jesus Christ, we’re not bowing down to a statue of Zeus over here. It’s not like Chanukah. So when I saw Jewbiquitous treating this as a serious issue, with a headline even seeming to side with those who sought to forbid Thanksgiving celebrations, I became concerned, and quite frankly, a little upset. And it’s time to set them and whoever else is treating this meshegas seriously straight. And yes, I have been waiting a year to do this. So take a beat. Cause now the jokes stop, and I say what I have been meaning to say for awhile.

The question of whether it is kosher to celebrate Thanksgiving or not is a post-war phenomenon, appropriate only for post-war haredim. For those of us whose families came before, like mine, this is not a question, nor should it be. Those rabbis and communities who question it often come from post-war communities that have “treifa medina� residue. These people have no right to pasken for us on American issues (or really, on any issues), because our families wisely defied their leadership by coming here in the first place. They are the rabbinical heirs to those haredi leaders who gave some really, really stupid advice. At best. They have absolutely no business telling ANYONE whose family came here prior to WWII ANYTHING regarding America. They should stick to dictating to their own insular communities.

And you, or any BT, really, has no business even considering their position on such issues. They insisted that our families should stay in Russia and Eastern Europe. Be thankful your ancestors dismissed their exhortations about going to the “treifa medinah,� or if they were survivors, be thankful they made it here eventually.