Merry Christmas

Today is Christmas, and I, indeed, want to take the occasion to wish you all a merry Christmas. And happy Hanuka to my Jewish friends and readers.

But on this day, I want to say a word about Christmas. We must stop apologizing for our most sacred day. We don't need to be shy about celebrating our faith. At a time when our religion and our people are under attack from Islamists world-wide, at a time when Christians are being slaughtered in the Middle East, too many of us here at home are busy trying to sweep Christmas under the rug in order not to offend Muslims. What kind of insanity is that? What kind of cowardice is that?

The day is still starting here in America, and we may yet learn of some sort of ISIS-inspired attack at a church or nativity scene somewhere in the world. Just days ago, a Tunisian killer hijacked a truck in Berlin, murdered the driver, and plowed it through a crowd at a Christmas market killing 12 and injuring 50. Thankfully, this savage was put out of his misery by two alert cops in Milan days later making up for the laxity of European leaders in creating a system whereby this monster could ride from Germany to France and into Italy via train without so much as having to produce a passport to any customs officer. And the Italian interior minister had the chutzpah to claim that the system worked!

But I digress.

We need to return to a sane world where Christians are not afraid or ashamed to proclaim their faith and celebrate Christmas openly. We need to return to a Europe where Jews are not afraid to walk the streets wearing Jewish garb lest they be assaulted by Muslim immigrants. We need to return to a world where synagogues and Jewish schools don't need to be guarded by security and alarms.

Sadly, I don't expect to see such a world again during my lifetime, but at least we and can and must celebrate this day the way it was intended.  So merry Christmas to you all.