NIX ON NOEL

To the Editors of The Crimson:

I am writing to publicly object to House displays of Christmas trees and Christmas decorations. I live in Winthrop House, where we have a Christmas tree and a "Have a Joyous Christmas" sign in the dining hall. I find such decorations offensive and discriminatory.

I am Jewish, and I do not celebrate Christmas. All my life I have been surrounded by city-sponsored and commercially-sponsored Christmas displays. All the public schools I have attended have had Christmas trees and Christmas assemblies, and, although we have had a "winter break" and a "spring vacation," they always happened to include Christmas and Easter. For me and for many other people at this University, Christmas is not a joyous holiday--it is a time when we are reminded that the United States is a Christian nation and, as such, excludes us.

I hoped that Harvard would be different. There are a lot of non-Christian students here, and I thought that the student body as a whole would be sensitive to the needs of minority students. I am going home for Christmas next week. But, at my house, Christmas passes like any other day. I was here during Chanukah, when I would have liked to celebrate my holidays with my family. We non-Christians are not given vacation days to be with our families during the holidays that are important to us. This year Freshman registration was on Rosh Hashanah, one of the High Holy Days for the Jewish people.

And now there is a Christmas tree in my dining hall. This tree does not give me a feeling of happiness at an approaching holiday--it gives me the feeling that I am once again forgotten and excluded from a part of a University that has become my home. I do not want a paper menorah hanging next to the Christmas tree--I am not in favor of the commercialization of my holiday or of the tokenism this involves. I feel that there should not be any decorations connected specifically with any religious group in public sections of this University. I hope that in the future the people responsible for such displays will be more sensitive to the feelings of the non-Christians in this community. Hope Reisman '76