Israeli Ministry of Immigrant Absorption pulls "offensive" ads

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http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/12/netanyahu-cancels-anti-diaspora-ad-campaign/249404/

Talk about heavyhanded. "Not only do the goyim not understand, but the American Jews don't either!

Now, where's our money?"

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One of the ads shows a grandchild being asked what holiday they were celebrating? The child answers  "Christmas."

What's wrong with celebrating Christmas?

I saw that. It was Hanukkah.

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My family doesn't celebrate Christmas. Does that mean that we're attacking America?

If you don't celebrate Christmas, that's your business. If you can't appreciate the virtues of American society, including its holiday celebrating peace on earth and goodwill to men, then, I suggest the polite thing for you to do is to not offend those that do celebrate Christmas.

This is an ad by an Israeli ministry aimed at Israeli expatriates.

The ad was broadcasted publicly. As such, it is the legitimate subject of criticism.

True, but only if the criticism makes sense.

Well, I have offered my criticisms for why I believe that treating Christmas as a cultural contamination is offensive. I have received no substantive replies.

On the other hand, I have read defenses of the ad to the effect that Christmas is Christian holiday. These defenses are bogus. Christmas has been completely secularized by nonreligious Americans. Arbor Day isn't a Jewish holiday either, but, I doubt an ad would be made accusing American Jews of celebrating Arbor Day.

Find other outlets for your secularist silly-concern, dead0man. Most Americans celebrate the holiday. It's going to stay that way, God or not.

But that wasn't the point. The point was that the Hanukkah had gotten subsumed into Christmas, and the girl thought they were celebrating Christmas, which is more of a loss-of-culture issue rather than a religious concern. Same with the other ad, which dealt with the secular Israeli Memorial Day.

[Simfan34]

My family doesn't celebrate Christmas. Does that mean that we're attacking America?

If you don't celebrate Christmas, that's your business. If you can't appreciate the virtues of American society, including its holiday celebrating peace on earth and goodwill to men, then, I suggest the polite thing for you to do is to not offend those that do celebrate Christmas.

This is an ad by an Israeli ministry aimed at Israeli expatriates.

The ad was broadcasted publicly. As such, it is the legitimate subject of criticism.

True, but only if the criticism makes sense.

Well, I have offered my criticisms for why I believe that treating Christmas as a cultural contamination is offensive. I have received no substantive replies.

On the other hand, I have read defenses of the ad to the effect that Christmas is Christian holiday. These defenses are bogus. Christmas has been completely secularized by nonreligious Americans. Arbor Day isn't a Jewish holiday either, but, I doubt an ad would be made accusing American Jews of celebrating Arbor Day.

Find other outlets for your secularist silly-concern, dead0man. Most Americans celebrate the holiday. It's going to stay that way, God or not.

But that wasn't the point. The point was that the Hanukkah had gotten subsumed into Christmas, and the girl thought they were celebrating Christmas, which is more of a loss-of-culture issue rather than a religious concern. Same with the other ad, which dealt with the secular Israeli Memorial Day.

And, again, I submit that if the holiday were Halloween, or Arbor Day, I don't think the ad would have been made because it would have lacked the visceral appeal of the ad in question.

Perhaps, but I think if Hanukkah coincided with Halloween (who celebrates Arbor Day?) I think the ad could have a similar effect. But the effect of associating your holiday with a foreign culture's holiday for a foreign religion, indeed, is more powerful.

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How does one lock a thread of theirs?