“At the school my son had gone to, they weren’t allowed to have a Christmas party so they had a ‘winter party’ with all these Christmas-themed things. So I was like, ‘Well, can I have a dreidel table?’ And they were like, ‘No, ‘cause that spinny thing, that’s religious.’ ‘Who decided that?’ ‘Well, if you do it, you’re going to convert people.’ I was like, ‘Have you met a Jew?’ Then they decided to bring in Christmas trees and they said, ‘Christmas trees aren’t religious.’ ‘Well, who decided that? You gotta be kidding me. By the way, the “spinny thing” is called a dreidel. And that tree’s called a “Christmas tree.”’ In the end, they were like, ‘We’ll let your son color in a dreidel.’ Like, what? If he doesn’t spin it, it’s not religious? He just wanted to be included. If you want to do Christmas, go ahead. But let him have his Chanukah section as well. I don’t want my son to be the lone Jew.

At his school, I used to teach his classmates about the dreidel and they loved it. They were like, ‘We’re gonna do this at Christmas!’ ‘Okay, you go!’ It was adorable and they were really sweet. And they were learning and it was cool. Then these adults came along and it was like, ‘You have reindeer. Where did that come from?’ And even in the places where we’re supposed to be Jewish, I was finding a lot of that kind of pushback too. It wasn’t very loving. It felt horrible, like, ‘Okay, I’m done.’ I’m one of those people who tries not to be mean, but I will call out what’s not right. And I remember saying at one point, ‘Jews don’t do this to other Jews.’

I enjoy people. I enjoy their cultures. And, as a Jew, we believe, ‘You go! You be you! Just don’t push your stuff on me.’ I’ve talked to many people about their religions because I like to understand them. I’ve even asked people of all different religions, ‘If there wasn’t a G-d, what would you do differently?’ Almost all of them would do something different. And I would do nothing different. Being Jewish is me. This is who I feel like I am. I’ve been raised Jewish and it’s in my soul. But even if I found out if there wasn’t a G-d, I wouldn’t change anything.”

📷| Lindy Drew