Reply To: Do you Celebrate American Holidays?

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#1114306
charliehall
Participant

Yes.

“President’s Day” is actually the official celebration of George Washington’s birthday. President Washington was an unbelievable friend to the Jewish people. You should read his amazing letter to the Jewish congregation of Newport RI and remember that no Christian head of state had said anything like that ever before in history.

“Memorial Day” is the day that we honor those who gave their lives to preserve this medinah shel chesed in which we live.

“Independence Day” — July 4 — is the day we celebrate the creation of that medinah shel chesed. It is a day for thanksgiving. It was celebrated by Jews in America at least as early as 1788 and we have no power to alter a long established minhag such as that.

“Labor Day” is less important to us, but we should give thanks on that day for the organized labor movement because it was only due to their efforts that the US got a five day work week, allowing us to observe Shabat while keeping our jobs. Note that in most countries there is a similar-sounding holiday on May 1, but it was co-opted by socialists whose agenda is not consistent with ours; the US deliberately chose a different date in order to distance it from those interests.

“Thanksgiving Day” was not mentioned, but it was enthusiastically embraced by the small American Jewish community at the first official Thanksgiving Day in 1789 (proclaimed by George Washington, above). The very first religious writing related to Thanksgiving Day in America to be published was actually written by a Jew, Gershom Mendes Seixas. To this day, the congregation he led, which is still orthodox, skips tachanun and recites a half-hallel on Thanksgiving Day. (Whether one can eat turkey on Thanksgiving Day or any other day is a very different question!)

So while there is no heter to skip Torah learning, a few moments of appreciation for what we have here are certainly appropriate.