(2 of 2)
"Does Rabbi Witt intend to maintain that Christmas is just a pagan thing which needs syncretism with Judaism for pur poses of spiritualization? I think that Christianity will bitterly resent the gratuitous inference. . . . Dr. Witt pursues his blundering and ill-considered way by gratuitously unitarianizing most of Christendom [i.e., by remarking that Christians no longer believe Jesus divine]. As a Jew, I unqualifiedly condemn Rabbi Witt for this affront. . . . The truly devout Christian of whatever denomination has far more respect for the Jew who, conscientious to his own religious loyalties, does not observe Christmas, than for the Witt type of Jew who tries to crawl into Christmas observance, salving what remains of his Jewish conscience by endeavoring to water down and compromise sound Christian doctrine. . . What do these Christmas-observing Jews really want with Christmas? Witt and other Jews suffering spiritual hernia rationalize about 'good will.' The real reason is their inability to give their whining children a positive Jewish compensation for the superficially alluring trappings which have nothing really to do with the spiritual significance of Christmas. . . ."
Having furnished a battleground in which Jews could toss grenades at each other, the Christian Century last week dropped an editorial bomb of its own. On the touchiest subject in Christian-Jewish relations it said:
"The most obvious common possession of Jew and Christian is nothing less than Jesus himself. . . . The entire furnishing of his mind was the gift to him of his Jewish heritage. . . . Jesus was a Jew — in blood, in loyalty, in mental outlook, in his criticism of Jewry, in his positive message. . . . Why should not Judaism do much more than [celebrate Christmas]? Why should it not make a place for Jesus in its own faith ... a place fully consistent with the nobler ideals of the Jewish tradition. ... If the religion of Judaism is good for Jews it is also good for Gentiles. ... If it is not good for Gentiles, it is not the best religion for Jews. To cherish it in withdrawal from the rest of society may be defended in a hostile environment . . . but in the environment of American tolerance ... it is not fair to democracy to cherish a religious faith which provides a sanction for racial or cultural or any other form of separatism."
* Meaning: absorption of alien religious concepts.