Rabbi’s Update 1/2/2026

Dear Friends:

I did not teach our Thursday night Adult Education last night or the week before, which were January 1 and December 25, respectively. At some point during the past week I was asked if there would have been a halachic problem with holding our Adult Education class on December 25. I understood this to be a question asked out of curiosity and a sincere desire to learn and not as a challenge in any way.

To be sure there is no halachic issue of holding Torah study classes on December 25. (Some Orthodox authorities, particularly within the Chasidic community, do hold that it is forbidden to study Torah on the night of December 24, which they call “Nittel Nacht”, but that is beyond the scope of this note and I am not aware of any Conservative rabbi who shares this perspective.)

Jewish institutions in this country close their offices and cancel classes on December 25 as a recognition that we are fully immersed in America’s religiously pluralistic society. Not everyone who works for the Jewish community is Jewish, and they are entitled to the day off on their religious holiday. (As an aside this is also why some kosher restaurants are closed on December 25, often to the outrage of some of their patrons.) Almost all American Jews outside the Charedi community have Christian friends and/or business associates, and we might be invited to their celebrations as a guest on December 25.

American Jews today do not only have Christian friends and business associates, increasingly we have Christian relatives as well. Twenty years ago I was discussing with a colleague how the sociological conditions of the American Jewish community had changed since our own childhoods. Three of my four grandparents were immigrants and even though the only grandparent who survived beyond my eighth birthday was my Brooklyn-born maternal grandmother, I grew up with a lot of Eastern European-born aunts, uncles, and more distant relatives. Even twenty years ago I remarked that a student in a Jewish school today is far more likely to have Christian grandparents than Yiddish-speaking immigrant grandparents. In some cases the student has a non-Jewish parent but is being raised as a Jew; in other cases one of the student’s parents has converted to Judaism, but in either case the Christian grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, etc. are part of the student’s life.

Different rabbis may have different perspectives on this issue, but I personally have no problem with a Jewish person attending the Christmas celebration of close friends or relatives as long as it is clear that they are doing so as a guest who does not share their host’s religion. Indeed, as antisemitism rises in American society in both the far left and the far right, the social and familial integration of American Jews may increasingly serve as a bulwark against some very dangerous phenomena.

While the Federal government has reopened, if you or someone you know is in need because of having been laid off, or has lost benefits of some type and needs immediate help, please let me know. I can access limited funds through the Jewish Federation almost immediately. For longer-term help, the Hebrew Free Loan Society will loan up to $18,000 interest-free and the Jewish Federation has set up a hotline to access assistance at 703-JCARING.

As a reminder, I am having drop-in hours on Thursday afternoons from 2 to 4 at the shul. For my drop-in hours, you do not need to make an appointment -- that would negate the whole point of drop-in hours -- but I’d urge you to check and make sure I am there regardless as sometimes there are unavoidable pastoral or other emergencies which might take me away from the building. 

As always, if I can do anything for you or you need to talk, please contact me at rabbi@kehilatshalom.org rather than through the synagogue office. I am happy to meet you at the synagogue by appointment; if you want to speak with me it’s best to make an appointment rather than assuming I will be there when you stop by. 

Additionally, if you know of a Kehilat Shalom congregant or another member of our Jewish community who could use a phone call, please let me know.

L’shalom,

Rabbi Charles L. Arian