jealously will get you no where

so if you are trying to bash christians, it isnt a good excuse I think a bible believing christian is a better citizen of any state, compared to a secular jew, like many of the self loathers I see get published here on ynet......the likes of oppenheimer are "good" peace now jews, and are acceptable? compared to a zionist christian? lmao beware zionist bible believing christians are the only people that support the jewish state of Israel. even the secular jews in hollywood dont I for one wouldnt bite the hand that defends you

What to do, what to do? Build your walls higher, retire into your self-made Jewish ghetto, wait until 'Jewish' becomes more important than 'democratic', and wait for the nation to shrivel like the last Jewish nation in the Land of Israel did.

He readily admits that he's not doing what he's suppose to be doing as a Jew, but he's quick to tell other Jews what they should not be doing. The Russian Jews have their own tradition concerning the New Year's Tree that Paritzky was obviously not aware of. If Jews are free in Israel, then they have the right to practice their former traditions as they see fit, whether Paritzky likes them or not.

i agree with the guy who wrote the article. and i think all of you who are defending christmas are morons. christ-mas. can you read? it's about christ. no matter what they call the tree in russian the point of the holiday is celebrating the birthday of jesus. and a holiday like that has no place in israel.

How we keep holidays is to be in line with our consciences, guided by Scripture (Romans 14:5) Romans 14:5, 6 state: ''One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord.'' If we celebrate or not, as long as we honor the Lord, it's acceptable. Happy Holidays

Please don't confuse the New Year tree many from FSU put up with xmas. This is purely for New Year's celebration and has no religious significance whatsoever. More importantly, this does not violate the boundaries of Judaism at all, as it's secular. Now, I have seen in North America a few Jewish (supposedly, I know think) households that have an actual xmas tree, replete with a nativity display under it and other trappings of that holiday and its xtian religious symbols. This I feel, DOES violate that bondary, and I do think it's something that should be respected. Yes, there IS a border between Judaism and the outside. Putting the other's religious symbols into your homes breaches that line. Here I think it a matter of respecting our own peoplehood, culture and ways.

arena. He is amember of the Peace Now Dead tomorrow league whose aim is the implosion of israel. He waxes poeteic about the sanctity of his "Israel" while denying Torah true Jews their right to be in his "LAND" Spare me the BS MR and get lost. You are full of it.

As usual, Paritsky the genius does not know anything about the subject. In Russia, the tree symbolises the New Year and is totally disconnected from any faith.

Use of a tree is a SYMPTOM of a larger problem - the rejection of Judaism and Israeli culture by a group PAID by the Jewish government to come and live as Jews. You can file it in the same bin as refusing to speak Hebrew and insistence on pork (even with ample substitute poultry products). Get it?

Come on now the Russian Orthodox Churches are filled to the rafters on Christmas and that began the day the second wave of Russians started coming to Israel around 1990, and since when is the New Year a jewish celebration or one requiring a "holiday tree".

I wonder, whether it would be too optimisitic to expect that somebody cauhght red-hot on indecent behaviour, would spare the readers of his opinions?

"Judaism is not a religion, or mostly not a religion, but rather, a culture and nationality." It was the religious Jews ,who followed the Torah, who walked the ends of the earth to spread Christianity. Thank God for the fulfillment of scripture!!! Someone send this guy a Christmas tree please!

If the 300,000 non-Halachic Jews who DO wish to throw their lot in with the Jewish Israelis would be able to do so, customs like Xmas trees would fizzle out. There needs to be a National referendum on whether a new Jew should be defined, that of an "Israeli Jew",i.e., someone eligible under the Law of Return to make aliyah, who is not halachically Jewish, to be considered "Israeli Jewish". Then they could marry like-minded individuals in a non-Orthodox ceremony.

I agree. When I lived in Tel Aviv in the 80's it was void of any Christmas decorations. It was the one place I felt comfortable at Christmas. It saddens me to see that the tinsel has taken over there as well.

Some people on tis board say that Russians from te Soviet Union just celebrate a "New Year". They are wrong. Totally wrong. They do celebrate Christmas. Not because they are devote Christians. They, like many other people, want some relligion/spirituality in their life, as well as a protest against Judaism. Tey hate religious Jews. They think that somewhere the life is much better where there are no relligious Jews, etc. They consider themselves progressive citizen of the world. jews in Russia did NOT celebrated the Christian New Year unless they were from communist or mixed Russian/Jewish families. Anyone who tells otherwise is probably under 30 y/o. People were risking their lives to leave Russia, do not want to see anything Russian, nothing related to Russian culture. My perents would NEVER bring a tree to the house. This people came to Israel to get a job, make money, and move to Canada/USA - In Canada/USA they will forget about the tree and other stupid stuff and go on with their lives like average atheists.

I agree that for an average russian, this is a New Year tree, not X-mas tree. Some of my Jewish secular friends use this is a justification to put it up-for them reasons are mainly nostalgis, not religious ones. New Year is a cultural secular family russian holiday. In my family, it is a tradition to celebrate it, and we have done so every year. As an observant Jew, I have asked the rabbi if it is a halachic problem to celebrate New Year, and the answer I was given seemed to indicate that as long as it is just a party, it is not a problem. However, what people forget is that the tree itself is understood as a christian symbol in most of the world. As such, putting up a tree makes an appearance of public christian religious observance, which for most russians it is not. The problem is that Jews who put New Year's trees do not seem to appreciate that, regardless of their own understanding of that this tree represents, putting it up violates Jewish law and is culturally insensitive, especially in Israel. Israel is a Jewish country and adopting on secular, yet clearly originally Christian or pagan symbols for secular consumption is offensive to Jewish culture and character of our people.

Everything you say in your post is pure lie, tingd with a large doze of paranoia. In fact, I am a Russian born Jew, well over 40, who has lived in the USA for 30 years, and I am certain that you have never lived in Russia. You do not know what you are talikng about! Everyone celebrated the New Year, don't tell me that you were the only one who did not, and it had nothing to do with spirituality, Christianity or hatred for the Jews (how ridiculous!)

Second Temple NOT to cut and decorate trees like the heathen do. That is a PAGAN custom.

it's a pointless debate... without russian immigration israel by now would have probably had a 30-35% arab minority ... israel could not afford to turn this immigration back ... also, when it's said that 300,000 russian israelis are not jewish it includes many people who are either married to jews or had jewish fathers .... most of these people are not hostile to israel or anything ... regardless of how jewish they are, russian israelis tend to be more right wing than ordinary israelis ... they are actually more nationalist than regular israelis are .... and this is true even for those of them who are not jewish by halacha ... as far as the israeli arab conflict is concerned most of these people are in the same boat as the jews, they support jewish immigration and they view the arab world as a danger ... as to their children they often forget russian completely and switch to hebrew ... in case mother is not jewish these children tend to identify themselves as israelis ... in fact they become more israeli than israelis because unlike israeli jews they have only one identity - the israeli one, which means hebrew, celebrating israeli (jewish) holidays and so on ... ironically this is what eventually becomes their nationality ... of course not all of them are like this .. and some sections of russian immigration have disintegrated for all sorts of reasons ... but what i am describing here is the general trend ... this is where the whole thing will end within the next 15-20 years ....

This article should not appear in Ynet. If such a letter appears in a foreign newspaper stating that Jews should not celibrate their holidays, it will be horrible. I am enjoying x-mas, no matter where I live.

Christmas has nothing to do with Christianity, it's a pagan festival of lights. Do you think all the billions of "Christians" who celebrate Christmas understand anything about Christianity? People who have no basic understanding of anything become journalists, that's a fact.

I'm not sure who is a moron in this case.Our Jewish boy is a God for millions.Show me any other rase that have one of ther own as a God.:-)))

After coming back from Christmas this year, I think that it has pretty much become completely secular. The trees etc. (except for the stars) are not Christian. Not that they don't make beautiful decorations, cause they do. It's just that they aren't in the bible. Also I think that the last ditch effort to keep Christ in Christmas didn't work. I would now like to have a separate holiday, perhaps a few days after the other one that could be celebrated in church with bible readings and have lots of music and singing. I think that this would be more of a true Christmas.

New Years is a xian holiday, and marks the circumcision of a child born on Dec 25. Go ahead use your fingers and figure out when the 8th day is danny

This is an interesting discussion, and some people even have there facts correct. First of all, Christmas is not a Christian Holiday. Just ask any Jehovah's Witness. You may have heard Christmas refered to by it's older name "Yuletide Season". I assume everyone knows Jesus wasn't born on December 25. Personally, I'll celebrate Christmas with the rest of my family, but I never put up any Christmas tree or any other decorations for that matter.