On her best days, New York Post columnist Andrea Peyser does a great job of putting cads, pols and celebrity prima donnas in their place with down-to-earth no-nonsense common-sense tongue lashings.
Monday wasn’t one of her best days.
Peyser, a Jewish mom, weighed in on the side of those fighting to keep the Christmas in the Christmas season. In particular, she sounded off against the decision to slap the politically correct title "The Tree at Rockefeller Center" on one of New York’s signature holiday tourist attractions:
Now, I doubt the stealth removal of the official title "Christmas" will do much to soften the impact of the ginormous shrub on folks who gather to marvel at the sight. Consider it the death of Christmas by a thousand small cuts.
One source deep within Rock Center is mighty steamed at what he sees as the "multiculturalization" of a Christian symbol that doesn’t bother this Jew one bit. Or anyone else — except, perhaps, the ACLU.
So far, so good.
But then out of nowhere, like, oh what the heck, Santa riding a pack of reindeers, Peyser came up with this doozy:
You can blame cheerless humbugs for snatching red and green napkins from classrooms in Plano, Texas. You can blame goblins for sucking "Dreidel Dreidel" and "Silent Night" from concerts at Maplewood, NJ, schools, drawing more legal action than flies to dung.
But during this season, you might want to blame the lawyers for spoiling the peace. Because the irrational fear of lawsuits has done more damage to holiday spirit than the Nazis did at Kristallnacht.
Oy.
Over in Israel, it’s the religious Jews who are battling to put the kibosh on Christmas symbols. Ynet reports:
The "Lobby for Jewish values" this week began operating against restaurants and hotels that plan to put up Christmas trees and other Christian symbols ahead of Christmas and the civil New Year.
According to the lobby’s Chairman, Ofer Cohen, they have received backing by the rabbis, "and we are even considering publishing the names of the businesses that put up Christian symbols ahead of the Christian holiday and call for a boycott against them."
Fliers and ads distributed among the public read, "The people of Israel have given their soul over the years in order to maintain the values of the Torah of Israel and the Jewish identity.
"You should also continue to follow this path of the Jewish people’s tradition and not give in to the clownish atmosphere of the end of the civil year. And certainly not help those businesses that sell or put up the foolish symbols of Christianity."
The Jerusalem Rabbinate also works each year to ensure restaurants and hotels receiving kosher certification from the Jerusalem Religious Council do not put up Christian symbols.
