Israeli rabbis launch war on Christmas tree

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Jerusalem hotels receive warning letter noting that Jewish religious law forbids Christmas trees and new year's parties.

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Nazareth - As tens of thousands of Christian pilgrims converge on the Holy Land this week to celebrate the birth of Jesus, senior Israeli rabbis have announced a war on the Christmas tree. In Jerusalem, the rabbinate has issued a letter warning dozens of hotels in the city that it is "forbidden" by Jewish religious law to erect a tree or stage new year's parties. Many hotel owners have taken the warning to heart, fearful that the rabbis may carry out previous threats to damage their businesses by denying them certificates declaring their premises to be "kosher". In the coastal city of Haifa, in northern Israel, the rabbi of Israel's premier technology university has taken a similarly strict line. Elad Dokow, the Technion's rabbi, ordered that Jewish students boycott their students' union, after it installed for the first time a modest Christmas tree. He called the tree "idolatry", warning that it was a "pagan" symbol that violated the kosher status of the building, including its food hall.

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"This is not about freedom of worship," Dokow told the Technion's students. "This is the world's only Jewish state. And it has a role to be a 'light unto the nations' and not to uncritically embrace every idea."

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Nazareth, which claims to host the tallest Christmas tree in the Middle East, has recently become a magnet for many domestic tourists, including Jews, Christians and Muslims. They come to visit the Christmas market, hear carols and buy a Santa hat. Haifa and Jaffa, two largely Jewish cities with significant Palestinian Christian populations, have recently started competing. Jaffa, next to Tel Aviv, staged its first Christmas market last year.

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Meanwhile, hotels are keen to erect a tree in their lobbies as a way to boost tourism revenue from Christian pilgrims, who comprise the bulk of overseas visitors. But the growing popularity of Christmas has upset many Orthodox rabbis, who have significant powers over public space. Bogomolny said that some rabbis were driven by a desire to make the state "as Jewish as possible" to avert it losing its identity. Others may fear that the proliferation of Christmas trees could lure Israeli Jews towards Christianity.

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Most hotels wanted to ignore the prohibition on Christmas trees because it was bad for business, but feared being punished. "It is a problem throughout the country," he said. "The hotels are afraid to take a stand. If they try to fight it through the courts, it will be costly and could take years to get a ruling." One hotel manager in West Jerusalem to whom Al Jazeera spoke on condition of anonymity said he feared "retaliation" from the rabbis. "The letter was clearly intended to intimidate us," he said. "The Christian tourists are here to celebrate Christmas and we want to help them do it, but not if it costs us our certificate."

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