Why do Jews from the former FSU have Xmas trees in their homes

[ChabadKahanist]

A few years ago when I was still in America I had a Russian Jewish friend who had an Xmas tree in house when I asked him how could he has a Jews have a Xmas tree he replied in Russia as well as in the rest of the former Soviet Union everybody Jew & Gentle alike had an end of the tree which had no religious connotation in the FSU only symbolizing the end of the year much like Thanksgiving or the 4th of July in the US.
I said well Jews here in America unless they are self-hating do not have this as here it is a Xmas tree.
End of story I talked  him & his family out of the tree.
I even saw a picture of Tatiana Susskin with an Xmas tree.
Any thoughts on this?

[Super Mentalita]

A few years ago when I was still in America I had a Russian Jewish friend who had an Xmas tree in house when I asked him how could he has a Jews have a Xmas tree he replied in Russia as well as in the rest of the former Soviet Union everybody Jew & Gentle alike had an end of the tree which had no religious connotation in the FSU only symbolizing the end of the year much like Thanksgiving or the 4th of July in the US.
I said well Jews here in America unless they are self-hating do not have this as here it is a Xmas tree.
End of story I talked  him & his family out of the tree.
I even saw a picture of Tatiana Susskin with an Xmas tree.
Any thoughts on this?

My thoughts: When you live in a country like America, where they celebrate Christmas, people have a Christas tree in their homes. People who don't like this should go and pack their back to Israel or Iran or something. 

[ChabadKahanist]

My thoughts: When you live in a country like America, where they celebrate Christmas, people have a Christas tree in their homes. People who don't like this should go and pack their back to Israel or Iran or something. 

Fine if Gentiles have them & nobody is saying no but Jews should not have them.
Many Christian sects such as the Witnesses do not have them as well.

[Chaim Ben Pesach]

בס''ד

Jews are absolutely forbidden to have any symbols of any other religions. Especially symbols that are clear manifestations of avodah zara (idolatry).

[Israel Chai]

My thoughts: When you live in a country like America, where they celebrate Christmas, people have a Christas tree in their homes. People who don't like this should go and pack their back to Israel or Iran or something. 

... the parralel you're making with pisslam is deeply insulting. I don't care if you plant an xmas forest in your room. Jews don't celebrate other religions ceremonies, and we can like or not like whatever our fellow Jews do or don't do. They're also free to like that as much as they like. We're going to try to do what G-d says to do regardless.

A few years ago when I was still in America I had a Russian Jewish friend who had an Xmas tree in house when I asked him how could he has a Jews have a Xmas tree he replied in Russia as well as in the rest of the former Soviet Union everybody Jew & Gentle alike had an end of the tree which had no religious connotation in the FSU only symbolizing the end of the year much like Thanksgiving or the 4th of July in the US.
I said well Jews here in America unless they are self-hating do not have this as here it is a Xmas tree.
End of story I talked  him & his family out of the tree.
I even saw a picture of Tatiana Susskin with an Xmas tree.
Any thoughts on this?

The Orthodox church is one of the loudest influences in the current Russian corporatism, because it was kind of like Pauline Marois making proposals to make schools secular with a crucifix behind her in the Quebec assembly. I heard a story of a Rabbi whose name I forget who visited a group of Jews living a very primitive lifestyle whose name I also regrettably forget. They were Jews who were drafted into the Czar's army, where every possible effort was made to make them convert and until they did, they were destroyed physically and mentally in the most cruel ways, and could not live a normal life. The Rabbi found them after he asked in the village if there was any Jews nearby, so he could go for Yom Kippur. They let him lead the service, but they said they would do Ne'ilah. So one of them gets up, takes off his shirt, and his whole back is covered with scars, and begs for Moshiah, not for family, they had none, or anything other than that they were Jews. That's the boys, and then the cossaks would go raiding the villages and raping the women, and sometimes burning them down. After hundreds of years of that kind of benefit that they received, they'll never get yoske out of their hearts, and communism was an elitist educated group that eradicated other educated people, and there's no surprise that was one religion the communists found it in their hearts to give a little extra protection to.

[Tag-MehirTzedek]

It was a secular cultural type of thing. Most Jews and Christians had no idea.about it. People just had it. Movies.and songs had and were.made.about the tree so Jews like everyone else sometimes had them in their homes especially in white Russia.

[Israel Chai]

It was a secular cultural type of thing. Most Jews and Christians had no idea.about it. People just had it. Movies.and songs had and were.made.about the tree so Jews like everyone else sometimes had them in their homes especially in white Russia.

Regardless of what it looked like, the people didn't keep up the custom because they were environmentalists.

[Kahane-Was-Right BT]

My thoughts: When you live in a country like America, where they celebrate Christmas, people have a Christas tree in their homes. People who don't like this should go and pack their back to Israel or Iran or something. 

Just because many americans plop a tree in their living room does not mean that I or any other americans have to.  You sound like you'd fit right in in Iran beccause they siimiilarly feel justified imposing their religion on other people.  Only, you won't like what the gayatollahs impose on you.

[Super Mentalita]

... the parralel you're making with pisslam is deeply insulting. I don't care if you plant an xmas forest in your room. Jews don't celebrate other religions ceremonies, and we can like or not like whatever our fellow Jews do or don't do. They're also free to like that as much as they like. We're going to try to do what G-d says to do regardless.


The Orthodox church is one of the loudest influences in the current Russian corporatism, because it was kind of like Pauline Marois making proposals to make schools secular with a crucifix behind her in the Quebec assembly. I heard a story of a Rabbi whose name I forget who visited a group of Jews living a very primitive lifestyle whose name I also regrettably forget. They were Jews who were drafted into the Czar's army, where every possible effort was made to make them convert and until they did, they were destroyed physically and mentally in the most cruel ways, and could not live a normal life. The Rabbi found them after he asked in the village if there was any Jews nearby, so he could go for Yom Kippur. They let him lead the service, but they said they would do Ne'ilah. So one of them gets up, takes off his shirt, and his whole back is covered with scars, and begs for Moshiah, not for family, they had none, or anything other than that they were Jews. That's the boys, and then the cossaks would go raiding the villages and raping the women, and sometimes burning them down. After hundreds of years of that kind of benefit that they received, they'll never get yoske out of their hearts, and communism was an elitist educated group that eradicated other educated people, and there's no surprise that was one religion the communists found it in their hearts to give a little extra protection to.

I don't make anny paralel. Will you denie that Jews + muslims always cry year in year out over a Christmas tree somewhere in their capital city on a main square? I like to speak out the truth you know 

[muman613]

Jews should NEVER have any kind of tree used for religious celebrations.... I have no problem (except for issues involving disposal of the tree) with non-Jews having trees. But any Jew who has one should be informed of the Torah prohibition of having these trees.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asherah_pole

[Manch]

Here are the reasons:
1. in the FSU, fir tree had absolutely zero religious attribute.
2. In most households, the fir tree is setup after December 25th
3. Fir tree is called a New Year tree not a X-Mas tree, just as Santa Claus is called Grandpa Frost
4. New Year was, and still is, easily, the most joyous of all FSU holidays as it wasn't attached to any  communist state holiday
5. Orthodox XMas is in January, not it December. Orthodox Church has not used any association of XMas and th New Year tree.
6. Children love the New Year tree, it creates a very festive, magical ambiance in a home, celebrating the New Year. The presents are found under the tree on January 1st, not on December 25th.
7. For most Jews from the FSU, The New Year tree, devoid of any religious bearings, is much more innocuous than the much anticipated Haloween( widely celebrated by American Jewry).

[Israel Chai]

I don't make any parallel. Will you deny that Jews + muslims always cry year in year out over a Christmas tree somewhere in their capital city on a main square? I like to speak out the truth you know 

You did, and you just made another one. I have heard of a leftist group that cried about an xmas tree, and some were incidentally Jewish, but they also complain about Jewish things. In your country, you can have trees coming out of your ears, and no Jew has any right to tell you that you have no right to do so, just as we have every right to tell Jews not to.

The truth? Who exactly is the group doing this? You're not an activist making an exposé, you're saying "You Jews are fanatically religiously intolerant, and you should have no problem with other Jews having other religions or their symbols" and "you Jews are trying to attack xmas". If you put a xmas tree in Boropark, or some Hasidic neighborhood, I can understand them trying to say something like "there's only Jews here, put your tree in a neighborhood that will enjoy it", but that never happens, and it's, to my knowledge, not religious Jews that complain about trees, but seculars complaining about religion, and of course, you're not trying to get to the bottom of the issue and "speak the truth", as you poorly cover yourself with, you're just saying "waa Jews".

By the way, I've been biting my toungue for a while not asking you this, but it's gotta come out: if you're supposedly from England or America, how is it that you are mostly incapable of spelling in English?

[dimitry]

A few years ago when I was still in America I had a Russian Jewish friend who had an Xmas tree in house when I asked him how could he has a Jews have a Xmas tree he replied in Russia as well as in the rest of the former Soviet Union everybody Jew & Gentle alike had an end of the tree which had no religious connotation in the FSU only symbolizing the end of the year much like Thanksgiving or the 4th of July in the US.
I said well Jews here in America unless they are self-hating do not have this as here it is a Xmas tree.
End of story I talked  him & his family out of the tree.
I even saw a picture of Tatiana Susskin with an Xmas tree.
Any thoughts on this?

Every Russian Jew (and also all Russian Muslims) have a 'Christmas tree' (it's actually a New Year Tree) for New Year Day.

This is because it is not a Christian festival in Soviet Union.

Christmas was abolished in Soviet Union. The festival was de-Christianized by Lenin, and turned into a secular festival for celebrating the New Year.

It's like how US Jews celebrate 4th of July. Russian Jews celebrate with a New Year Tree.

[Rational Jew]

You did, and you just made another one. I have heard of a leftist group that cried about an xmas tree, and some were incidentally Jewish, but they also complain about Jewish things. In your country, you can have trees coming out of your ears, and no Jew has any right to tell you that you have no right to do so, just as we have every right to tell Jews not to.

The truth? Who exactly is the group doing this? You're not an activist making an exposé, you're saying "You Jews are fanatically religiously intolerant, and you should have no problem with other Jews having other religions or their symbols" and "you Jews are trying to attack xmas". If you put a xmas tree in Boropark, or some Hasidic neighborhood, I can understand them trying to say something like "there's only Jews here, put your tree in a neighborhood that will enjoy it", but that never happens, and it's, to my knowledge, not religious Jews that complain about trees, but seculars complaining about religion, and of course, you're not trying to get to the bottom of the issue and "speak the truth", as you poorly cover yourself with, you're just saying "waa Jews".

By the way, I've been biting my toungue for a while not asking you this, but it's gotta come out: if you're supposedly from England or America, how is it that you are mostly incapable of spelling in English?

He's from Holland but now lives in Northern Ireland. His posts are probably responses to your continuous anti-Christian rants. Seriously, LKZ, you need to back down sometimes.

[Israel Chai]

He's from Holland but now lives in Northern Ireland. His posts are probably responses to your continuous anti-Christian rants. Seriously, LKZ, you need to back down sometimes.

Yeah I have a tough time being diplomatic when it's personal.

Every Russian Jew (and also all Russian Muslims) have a 'Christmas tree' (it's actually a New Year Tree) for New Year Day.

This is because it is not a Christian festival in Soviet Union.

Christmas was abolished in Soviet Union. The festival was de-Christianized by Lenin, and turned into a secular festival for celebrating the New Year.

It's like how US Jews celebrate 4th of July. Russian Jews celebrate with a New Year Tree.

*turned into*

The Gallic tribes worshipped Esus with an oak tree, in which the villagers would gather around said tree, get the slaves, POWs, people they didn't like, and whoever was there, decapitate them and skewer their heads to poles, and then stick those poles into the tree, and proceed to dance about. The fact that it was taken from the people it was taken from and then turned into a "secular" tradition doesn't make it better, since by Torah, a heretic is worse than an idolater, so now it's both an idolatrous and heretical tree, which makes it worse.

No to the New Year fir. Any idolater can have any tree they want wherever they want, and Russians too, but Jews should stay far away.

[dimitry]

Yeah I have a tough time being diplomatic when it's personal.

*turned into*

The Gallic tribes worshipped Esus with an oak tree, in which the villagers would gather around said tree, get the slaves, POWs, people they didn't like, and whoever was there, decapitate them and skewer their heads to poles, and then stick those poles into the tree, and proceed to dance about. The fact that it was taken from the people it was taken from and then turned into a "secular" tradition doesn't make it better, since by Torah, a heretic is worse than an idolater, so now it's both an idolatrous and heretical tree, which makes it worse.

No to the New Year fir. Any idolater can have any tree they want wherever they want, and Russians too, but Jews should stay far away.

Well American Jews are celebrating Halloween and Thanksgiving - a lot of stranger Pagan festivals.

There's no reason to single out one group, when the American Jews are doing the same.

[Lisa]

Halloween originated from the Druid festival called Samhain.  If you want to know what that was about, Google it, since I won't go into it here.   It was later renamed by the church as All Saints Day or All Souls Eve, or something to that effect.  So if Christians want to celebrate it, then that's up to them.  It's not my business to tell them what they can or cannot celebrate.  We're talking about two different religions that have evolved differently. 

Jews on the other hand, have their own customs, religion and heritage.  So I don't understand this need to copy non-Jews. 

[Lewinsky Stinks, Dr. Brennan Rocks]

I agree that Jews should not celebrate the holidays of other religions, but the claim that Christians perform human sacrifices is completely off the wall.

[Lisa]

I agree that Jews should not celebrate the holidays of other religions, but the claim that Christians perform human sacrifices is completely off the wall.

I didn't see anyone here post that Christians ever did human sacrifice.

[muman613]

No religious Jew would ever have a tree in their home.... Only secular and non-practicing Jews would do it, and they are violating the covenant with G-d.... We must rebuke them...

[ChabadKahanist]

No religious Jew would ever have a tree in their home.... Only secular and non-practicing Jews would do it, and they are violating the covenant with G-d.... We must rebuke them...

In America the JINO's (Jews In Name Only) call it a Chanukah bush.