I went to Target a couple of days ago. It was as if the great American ideal of multiculturalism disappeared the moment I entered - suddenly we were all celebrating Christmas. Ugh. I mean, I should have known, expected it, whatever, but after 17 years in Israel, I forgot. I forgot why I left this country. Anyway, there I was in Target, looking for Hanukah things. And I'm here in Pittsburgh, where not a small part of a not so small Jewish community does shop there on a regular basis. But box store is box store, however much better its employees are treated than at the competition. Which is to say that some planner in Podunk (MOT, no doubt) is choosing how many shelf-feet of display is given to Chanukah. I asked a worker. I was told to look in the FARTHEST BACK CORNER of the store. Well, I know that Target sets all its seasonal stuff in the back left corner, and there were ten aisles or so in each direction full of red and green and electric lights and what have you Xmas galore. And Hanukah, well, it was all the way back on the last row of shelves, with about 6 feet of shelf space. I almost walked out. Honestly, 20 years ago, or in Philadelphia 20 years ago, I would have staged a protest, brought the house down. But I just bought my stuff, and left.
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When I first started reading this post I read your remark about "that's why I left this country" as mostly a joke. A painfully sarcastic one, but a joke. But by the end of the post, I realize you're talking about something serious.
ReplyDeleteSo many Jews have a complicated relationship with Christmas. (Some would say I'm sure that it's not complicated, it's just pure dislike.) I know my own is weird and complex. I can trace that back to growing up in the South, to the blended family of which I am now part, but I feel like there's something deep here. I've never been able to write prose about it well.
Anyway. I can't quite explain why this little vignette is so poignant to me, and makes me so sad.
Yeah, it makes me sad, too, mostly for that lost spark of fighting for justice.
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