Are Jews clueless about Christmas?

Not only do Christians not know much about Hanukkah, but Jews are also ignorant about the basics of Christmas… or so some new Buzzfeed videos would like us to think.

The internet news media company would have us believe that young non-Jews think a dreidel is a giant spoon with which to scoop matzo balls out of soup, and that young liberal Jews think the only reason Christians go to midnight Mass is to avoid the temptation of opening presents too soon.

We find this conceit somewhat flawed in that it is kind of hard to believe that Jewish Americans, having grown up in a culture that is saturated with everything Christmas all autumn long (and year-round at those all- Christmas-all-the-time ornament stores), would call the thing that Santa travels in a “wagon” and not a “sleigh,” let alone think that mistletoe is for eating.

Also, we’d assume that even the most aesthetically challenged Jews, having seen something like a million Christmas trees in their lifetime, could figure out how to hang some tinsel on a blue spruce. But according to Buzzfeed, it’s perfectly reasonable for a couple of Jews to dress a Christmas tree as though it were a snowman (not to mention, a Jewish one wearing a yarmulke).

If you have the feeling that someone is trying to pull your leg (at least a little bit), then you wouldn’t be wrong.

According to filmmaker and comedic actress Jessie Kahnweiler, the people appearing in these videos are not your average young American Jews. They are actually all Jewish, but they are creative types—producers and comedians—who were invited to film the clips at the Buzzfeed studios in Los Angeles.

Kahnweiler told The Times of Israel by email that the videos are not scripted, and that the people appearing in them are improvising their answers to the various Christmas-related questions posed to them.

“I can only speak for myself. I was telling the complete truth of my knowledge on Jesus’s birthday,” Kahnweiler said about her announcing in the video, “The tree dies and then Christ was born.”

“If I wanted to come off as cute I would’ve just gotten a wax and giggled more,” she added.

Kahnweiler may be fuzzy on when Jesus was born, but she has actually been exposed to some Christian rituals. As she was growing up as a Reform Jew in Atlanta, she had the experience of going to Christmas Mass and eating the communion wafer (“yummy”), as well as praying before soccer matches in a church soccer league.

However, she said she could never really buy in to the Christmas cheer generated by excess commercialism.

‘Credit cards, excess, and fake sugar never seemed like things that hot carpenter dude would be into’

“I tended to put blinders on in terms of the whole Christmas thing. Credit cards, excess, and fake sugar never seemed like things that hot carpenter dude would be into,” she said, referring to the Christian savior.

Kahnweiler said she was happy to help make the videos, but when it came down to it, it was the Jewish aspects of the productions, rather than the Christmas-related ones, that convinced her to participate.

“The producers at Buzzfeed called and asked me to come in. I have some cool Jewy friends there and their videos are always a blast and come with free lunch — always kosher,” she said.