Should Christmas Trees Be Decorated With the Star of David?

A Norwegian church is under fire for using the Jewish symbol, but some are coming to its defense

By Israel Today Staff | | Topics: CHRISTIANS, Christmas
Photo: Flash90

A church in Norway is under fire by local authorities for using the Star of David as part of its public Christmas decorations, which raises the question, why use Jewish symbols in association with a Christian holiday?

Despite the fact that it is apparently common in Northern Europe to associate the Star of David (in Hebrew the Magen David) with Christmas, Irene Heng Lauvsnes, mayor of the Norwegian town of Strand, asked the same question of the Klippen Pentecostal Church, which uses the Jewish symbol prominently in its annual Christmas celebration held in a municipal park.

Lauvsnes insisted that the Star of David is a symbol of the Jews and of the State of Israel, and therefore has no place in a Christmas celebration.

Vebjorn Selbekk, editor-in-chief of the Norwegian daily Dagen and Israel Today’s partner in Norway, was bewildered by how grossly Lauvsnes, and modern liberal society as a whole, could mix up historical facts.

In an editorial appearing in his own newspaper, Selbekk sought to remind everyone that Christmas is a celebration of “a Jewish boy born to a Jewish mother in a Jewish stable in a Jewish city in a Jewish country.”

As such, Jewish symbolism is very much fitting with the true reason for the season.

Only in an ultra-secular society determined to water down religious commemorations to the point that they become mere cultural phenomena could the Jewish connection to Christmas be missed.

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