Local Rabbi Gifts Christmas Ornaments for Chanukah

At least 10,000 Christmas trees across America will have a new decoration hanging from their branches this holiday season — a small blue plastic menorah.

The ornaments are free gifts from the Jewish Christian Discovery Center, which has launched a national campaign to raise awareness by Christians of the Jewish roots of their faith. For Rabbi Albert Slomovitz, the Atlanta-based founder of the organization, the coincidental celebration this year of the start of Chanukah on Dec. 25, Christmas day, was a perfect time to remind Christians that Jesus, their Messiah, celebrated Chanukah, too.

He’s bought space on outdoor billboards in seven cities that features a Christmas tree wreathed in light and a menorah with its candles fully lit. Centered between them is the message, “To our Christian friends — On Christmas, do what Jesus did…Celebrate Hanukkah.” Those who respond to the website, Project Let There Be Light.com, receive their little blue menorah ornament with the words “Jewish Christian Discovery Center.”

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Billboards urging Christians to add Chanukah to their celebration are up in seven metropolitan areas.

“We’re spiritual siblings.” Rabbi Slomovitz points out. “It’s just that so many people don’t realize it.”

To help Christians understand their close relationship to Judaism, Slomovitz put together a holiday campaign that bought Clear Channel billboards in Atlanta, Jacksonville, Tucson, Philadelphia, Minneapolis-St Paul, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Houston. Clear Channel estimates the 16 billboards have the potential to generate 32 million impressions in the seven metropolitan areas.

Additionally, Rabbi Slomovitz, has taped a public service announcement that is running on CBS.com and a number of other streaming services. They represent a potential reach of another six million viewers. Finally, the organization has commissioned its own Chanukah song, “Let There Be Light.”

“The goal is education,” according to Rabbi Slomovitz. “We want people to realize this man, Jesus, was Jewish, and he celebrated the Jewish holidays. There was no Christmas then. There was only Chanukah. So, it fits historically. In fact, the Christian Bible mentions Chanukah, it mentions the Feast of Dedication, as it’s described. It’s a historical fact.”

Rabbi Slomovitz, who served as Jewish chaplain in the Navy for 20 years, earned a master’s degree, during his service, in interfaith understanding. He was immersed in a multi-faith environment during his long military career.

For a decade, he worked as the founding rabbi of Congregation Gesher L’Torah, the Conservative congregation in Alpharetta, and he has worked at Congregation Etz Chaim in East Cobb. He also earned a doctorate in American history, and he teaches at Kennesaw State University. But in recent years he says, his real job is to be someone who works to change attitudes.

“I’ve become more of an activist,” Rabbi Slomovitz says. “I’ve come to realize that change will occur but there needs to be a catalyst. A decade ago, I thought that people are generally good, they wouldn’t automatically be prejudiced. But now I’m not so sure. Just look at the antisemitic hatred on the Internet. I think we Jews need to become more active in reaching out to our Christian neighbors if we are to live together in America.”

The project had its origins almost a half dozen years ago at the Catholic Church of St. Ann in Marietta, where Rabbi Slomovitz, along with the church’s leadership, created a project to give away a Jewish star, the J-Star Christmas ornament it was called, with the purchase of each Christmas tree from the church.

Today the educational director of the church, Jenny Kielce, sits on the organization’s board and has collaborated on a workbook that is about to be published that will help Christian Sunday School teachers plan a curriculum around an understanding of how, as Rabbi Slomovitz points out, Jesus was a product of his Jewish upbringing.

“It’s called ‘The Jewish Life of Jesus’ and it starts with his birth, his circumcision, and his bar mitzvah. The question we are hoping Christians will ask is, what is their relationship with Judaism? That may help them to come up with an understanding that Judaism is their spiritual parent. Perhaps it will help to develop a new relationship. I mean, for Christians, worship as you will, but give Judaism that innate respect.”

To aid his activism, Rabbi Slomovitz has written a book that attempts to reconnect Jews and Christians. The illustrated cover presents a bearded Jesus not as a sacrificial figure on a wooden cross but as a Jew, with arms outstretched, covered in a blue and white tallit. It’s entitled, “A New Look At Rabbi Jesus.”

“Every synagogue and every Jew,” he emphasizes, “should ask themselves, are we doing enough to educate our Christian friends about our faith? I mean, it’s too bad we have to do that. But in the world in which we live, we need to do it.”