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That & occur at the same season (today, in fact, they coincide) can, in modern society, lead to various misinterpretations & distortions: whether treating as a sort of second-rate Christmas, or, alternatively, inflating its importance (due to pressures of consumerism & acculturation), or just mashing up , , & into one common celebration of light & family. But there are some overlaps

A thread 🧵 of miscellany.

Many in the Anglo-American world will be familiar with the song Maoz Tzur (Rock of Ages).

youtu.be/MjqopjqqZeU
1st half: Hebrew, 2nd English

Text: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma%27oz_

Now listen to this:

youtu.be/sLj0CcYNf7A

Medieval Jews found the melody in the German secular culture, & Luther used it, too (+ elaborations by Buxtehude & Bach). It re-entered Christian culture as a Jewish melody via Marcello

promusicahebraica.org/2011/12/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma%27oz_

2/n

Until the era, the & were home to the largest , after which Europe surpassed them. For that reason & due to patterns, this culture is dominant in USA.

There is, however, unity in diversity. The C12 poem Ma'oz Tzur is used in both Askhenazi & / traditions, but the melodies are refreshingly different:

youtu.be/MjqopjqqZeU

youtu.be/rkIc1adgD_M

3/n

Back to Europe.

1935. Manfred Swarsensky, rabbi of the largest community there, writes Das jüdische Jahr (The Jewish Year). It is an act of both education & resistance in the face of Nazi oppression.
He explains the meaning of : "the power of the few,” & the victory over oppressors embodied by the song Maoz Tzur. He later goes on to contrast good vs. bad assimilation: openness to other cultures vs. abandonment of self & self-respect

4/n

Rabbi Manfred Erich Swarsensky (PT; 1906-81) was both a great intellectual & a charismatic leader of the largest community in (NB interdenominational). On , the Nazis burned his preferred synagogue (lbi.org/griffinger/record/2070) & sent him to .

Released in 1939, he settled in , where he led a reform congregation & became a leading figure in civic & interfaith life

wisconsinhistory.org/Holocaust

5/n

www.lbi.orgPrinzregentenstrasse Synagogue in Berlin, designed by Alexander BeerThe Edythe Griffinger Portal is a curated selection of items from the Art and Objects Collection, Archives, and Library of the Leo Baeck Institute (LBI).
Jim Wald

“‘'Death to Judah,’ so the flag says. ‘Judah lives forever,’ so the light answers,”' read the inscription on the back.

When this photo of a on a windowsill opposite a building with a flag went viral some years ago, the symbolism seemed almost too good to be true

But not only was the photo real. This year, the menorah returned from Jerusalem to for ceremonies in its native Kiel & with the President

nytimes.com/2022/12/19/world/e
6/n

We began with a secular song as melody but the influence runs in 2 directions:

"Dreaming of a : A musical documentary about the amazing story of a group of Jewish songwriters who wrote the soundtrack to Christmas"

dreamingofajewishchristmas.com

&

" from the Empire pioneered the Christmas-lights market a century ago—but nativism, & obscured this history"

washingtonpost.com/made-by-his

7/n

dreamingofajewishchristmas.comDreaming of a Jewish Christmas – A musical documentary about the amazing story of a group of Jewish songwriters who wrote the soundtrack to Christmas.