To those who don't yet know- I'm the maintainer of the shadow Unit LJ fan community. A couple of days back we had a meta about siblings and in the discussion there was an explosion which sparked this.
For many Jews, there is a strong trigger in Christians claiming to come from the same spiritual roots as Judaism, or even seeming to appropriate parts of it. This is especially true of Israeli Ashkenazi Jews, but I'm pretty sure it isn't limited to them, although it's probably more prevalent in Ashkenazi Jews in general. Why does it happen? Because of several things:
1)the first and foremost is that Christianity claims to be the Inheritor to Judaism, with the inbuilt "you guys are obsolete, get out of the way" assumption very much present, while the mythologies of the two religions are innately and very strongly different- Christianity tends to center on one of the Love/Guilt/Shame trio, depending on flavor, while Judaism is centered on Responsibility.
2)Jewish Ashkenazi culture was shaped to a large extent in a very hostile Christian environment(this has been true for about what... 1500 years or so?). Christianity has been, as![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hagar_972 once half jokingly termed it "the abusive little brother" to Judaism. And there is a collective memory of that. One of the tools of that abuse was Christians claiming the things they thought admirable in the Jewish scripture were theirs, and pretty much pissing on the rest.
3)Christianity is missionary almost by definition. The attempt to absorb other religions in is inbuilt into many of the flavors on a very basic level. And the traditional first step of that absorption is almost always claiming the holidays and as much of the myth cycle as possible. Ashkenazi Judaism had to live with these attempts for a very long time, and learned to resist and fear them- I suspect the prohibition against celebrating on other religions' holiday comes exactly from there. One of our best known tales is the 1492 "convert or be thrown out" thing, and the long nightmare of the inquisition.
Add the collective PTSD of the Holocaust into the mix and people from this background will react very badly anything they perceive as a Christian appropriation of Judaic ideas, because part of our identity is the fact that we're Not Christian, it is built into our poetry and stories on a very basic level. So even people who don't mean any harm, and aren't even aware of what they do, will trigger these fears- because we're not talking anything close to rational. In most of us it's a smallish fear, but with some of us it's a huge issue.
For many Jews, there is a strong trigger in Christians claiming to come from the same spiritual roots as Judaism, or even seeming to appropriate parts of it. This is especially true of Israeli Ashkenazi Jews, but I'm pretty sure it isn't limited to them, although it's probably more prevalent in Ashkenazi Jews in general. Why does it happen? Because of several things:
1)the first and foremost is that Christianity claims to be the Inheritor to Judaism, with the inbuilt "you guys are obsolete, get out of the way" assumption very much present, while the mythologies of the two religions are innately and very strongly different- Christianity tends to center on one of the Love/Guilt/Shame trio, depending on flavor, while Judaism is centered on Responsibility.
2)Jewish Ashkenazi culture was shaped to a large extent in a very hostile Christian environment(this has been true for about what... 1500 years or so?). Christianity has been, as
hagar_972 once half jokingly termed it "the abusive little brother" to Judaism. And there is a collective memory of that. One of the tools of that abuse was Christians claiming the things they thought admirable in the Jewish scripture were theirs, and pretty much pissing on the rest. 3)Christianity is missionary almost by definition. The attempt to absorb other religions in is inbuilt into many of the flavors on a very basic level. And the traditional first step of that absorption is almost always claiming the holidays and as much of the myth cycle as possible. Ashkenazi Judaism had to live with these attempts for a very long time, and learned to resist and fear them- I suspect the prohibition against celebrating on other religions' holiday comes exactly from there. One of our best known tales is the 1492 "convert or be thrown out" thing, and the long nightmare of the inquisition.
Add the collective PTSD of the Holocaust into the mix and people from this background will react very badly anything they perceive as a Christian appropriation of Judaic ideas, because part of our identity is the fact that we're Not Christian, it is built into our poetry and stories on a very basic level. So even people who don't mean any harm, and aren't even aware of what they do, will trigger these fears- because we're not talking anything close to rational. In most of us it's a smallish fear, but with some of us it's a huge issue.
