2004 Chrismukkah in the News Archives

Fox News TV - "Fox News Live" - 12/10

3 minute feature on Ron and Michelle's Chrismukkah party

Good Morning America - 11/25

The hosts talk about Chrismukkah and show cards

KULR-8 - 11/17

Ron and Michelle are interviewed for the NBC affiliate in Billings, Montana. The story went on the wire, and was picked up by affiliates nationwide.

Fox News TV - "Fox News Live" - 12/9

Ron is interviewed live from a studio in Butte, Montana, but just as the interview is commences, the satellite uplink is lost due to a storm in New York.

WABC-Radio - "Religion on the Line" - 12/21

Ron is a guest of NY Board of Rabbi's president Joseph Potasnik and Father Paul Keenan.

Fox News Radio - "The Alan Colmes Show" - 12/12

Alan and William Donahue give Ron a hard time on this syndicated radio call-in show

ABC-Radio - "Stephen Bey Show" 12/15

Ron is a Stephen's guest on this syndicated radio show.

Wall Street Journal Radio - 12/1

Ron is a guest on this syndicated radio show.

KOA - 12/13

Denver radio talk show syndicated to 45 markets.

The Don and Mike Show - 11/17

Ron and Michelle are guests on this nationally snyndicated radio show.

WBAL-Baltimore; WJND-West Palm Beach; WWRL-New York; WTIC- Springfield CT; KDKA-Pittsburgh; CFRB - Toronto, etc

Ron and Michelle were guests on about a dozen local radio shows in November and December

Print Media Highlights

Time Magazine - 12/23

Chrismukkah included in the "Buzzwords of the Year" list.

Rolling Stone - 12/20

"Personally, we have no particular issue with Christmas. Shrove Tuesday, on the other hand, really f#cking pisses us off...Which reminds us: Starbucks' Christmas Blend and Holiday Blend are in fact the same thing. Damn those secular humanists! First they got to Macy's, now this! Damn them straight to hell! We are, however, most concerned about the excessive commercialization of Chrismukka."

Pravda - Moscow, Russia - 12/17

"When Christmas was reinstated in Russia as an official winter holiday, it never regained its erstwhile festivity and popularity. The majority of Russians feel nostalgic about their Soviet past. Russian people still prefer to celebrate the New Year. Christmas is obviously the central of all holidays in the West. Europeans and Americans think about nothing but Christmas sales in December. However, Western Christmas traditions are changing nowadays for political reasons first and foremost. A curious incident has recently happened in the US city of Denver. Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper decided to decorate the City and County Building with "Happy Holidays" sign instead of the traditional "Merry Christmas" lighted phrase. The mayor believed that the neutral display of the Christmas wishes will be a token of respect to atheists, Jews and Muslims. Christian activists showered the mayor with protests and he had to reverse his decision.

Catholics and Jews are fighting over the Chrismukkah holiday in New York. The holiday unites Christian Christmas and the Jewish Chanukah. The idea to unite the two holidays sprang from businessman Ron Gompertz and his wife Michelle. They were inspired with the TV series "The Orange County," in which the family of the main character celebrated the fictitious Jewish-Christian holiday.

USA Today - 12/16

"Web entrepreneurs Ron and Michelle Gompertz, a Jewish/Protestant couple, left theri California beach house and moved to Montana to launch Chrismukkah.com. The site sells items that combine secular Christmas symbols with Hanukkah symbols inlcuding cards with reindeer that have menorah antlers, "Merry Mazel Tov" mugs and "Oy Joy" coasters, teddy bears and T-Shirts... We're not any more offensive thatn the averaage episode of South Park. We're being irreverent in a humourous way" says Ron Gompertz, a son of Holocaust survivors."

New York Times - 12/16

"an entrprenseur named Ron Gompertz, who inspired by "The O.C." sells holiday items on his Web site, Chrismukkah.com, maintains thatt the word dates back to at least 1998. What would a holiday be without a complex myth of origins?"

Scotsman - Edinburgh Scotland - 12/12

"Fancy a spot of shoulder surfing this Chrismukkah? But what would you do with your Yngling or Chelsea Tractor? These are some of the recently coined words and phrases that made it big during 2004, and are set to be rewarded with inclusion in that famous authority on the English language, the Chambers Dictionary. Researchers for the Edinburgh-based publication have been monitoring the lexical movers and shakers of the past 12 months and noted the emergence of exotic terms such as Chrismukkah - a combination of Christian and Jewish festivals used on some greeting cards."

ABC NEWS - 12/10

Move over, Festivus. Chrismahanukwanzakah is the alternative December holiday du jour. Or maybe you both light candles and decorate a tree, so you'd like to officially celebrate Chrismukkah this year.

This year, the 18-day-long Chrismukkah observance began Dec. 7, according to Ron Gompertz, owner of Chrismukkah.com, a Web site devoted to the celebration of the holiday. Gompertz, who is Jewish, and his wife, Michelle, who is the daughter of a Protestant minister, were inspired by an episode of Fox's "The OC" in which Seth Cohen coins the phrase describing his interfaith family's Christmas and Hanukkah traditions. "Chrismukkah is sort of the great umbrella name for describing the chaos and whimsy and excitement that goes on during the month of December," Gompertz said.

Chicago Sun Times - 12/10

I'd like to think it all started with Festivus.

Way back on Dec. 18, 1997, when "Seinfeld's" loony Costanza family introduced the rest of the world to the peculiar, nonreligious holiday they celebrate Dec. 23. The pole. The airing of grievances.

A few months back, I started hearing about another new holiday: Chrismukkah. I took this to mean Christmas-meets-Hanukkah. How clever, and what a cool, if small, victory for religiously mixed families. There are even Chrismukkah greeting cards, something I wish they'd had a number of years ago when I was rifling through the racks of my neighborhood stationery store looking for a card that would be appropriate for my Jewish friend and her Baptist husband. I found one with a cartoon of Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus on the front and the words, "It's a goy!" inside. My friend has a great sense of humor, so it was a safe bet she'd laugh. But for those who don't appreciate irreverence, I was stuck with the namby-pamby "Happy Holidays!" I usually opted for the simple, universal "Peace." Whence came Chrismukkah, I wondered.

NY Daily News - Lloyd Grove's The Lowdown - 12/10

In the spirit of Chrismukkah, can't we all get along? Apparently not quite yet. Warner Bros., which produces the hit series for Fox, is locked in a fierce competition with Montana businessman Ron Gompertz to market and profit from Chrismukkah holiday cards, T-shirts, coffee mugs and other paraphernalia.

"I have a bone to pick with Ron," Josh Schwartz, "The O.C.'s" creator, told me yesterday, tongue in cheek. "I don't know if we invented the word 'Chrismukkah,' but this guy is sure running with it."

The 51-year-old Gompertz, a native New Yorker who moved to Montana's Paradise Valley last year, has been selling his own cards, gift-wrapping paper and other products on his Web site, çhrismukkah.com, since September. Gompertz - who is Jewish and married to a gentile - beat Warner Bros. to the marketplace by at least two months. The AOL Time Warner subsidiary didn't even apply for a trademark on its Chrismukkah products until Oct. 13. "Their trademark hasn't been granted by the federal government, and I don't think it will be," Gompertz told me, though he conceded that "The O.C.'s" Chrismukkah episode gave him the idea to market Chrismukkah products. "I never applied for a trademark, but I was out with my products first, and my attorney tells me that's enough to give me the right to use the name. It should be treated as a generic name, and wasn't invented by 'The O.C.' It has been around at least since 1998. I expect to sell 50,000 Chrismukkah cards by the end of the season. The mugs are selling like hot cakes."

Schwartz retorted: "We have Chrismukkah cards and wrapping paper, too, and our stuff is the real deal. It was cool, though, that he acknowledges our show inspired him." Happily, I believe the dispute will eventually be resolved.

"In the spirit of Chrismukkah," Schwartz said, "I will try to make Ron feel guilt - and at the same time, I will turn the other cheek."

Livingston Enterprise - 12/10

"Nobody ever said interfaith marriages were easy. But Ron and Michelle Gompertz, of the Paradise Valley, found a way to tackle their cultural and religious differences by creating holiday greetings cards called Chrismukkah cards."

Oakland Tribune - 12/6

"But Christmas and Hanukkah no longer have to duke it out every December. There's a new slogan in town, and it even has cards to go along with it.... Former Half Moon Bay residents Ron and Michelle Gompertz, an interfaith couple, came up with a line of cards... "our Chrismukkah is very much a secular holiday" Gompertz says. "It's really more a card line that's an umbrella for the month-of-December dilemma. Out interntion was to be lighthearted about the absurdity on the inherent conflict in interfaith marriage. You have to see the humor in life."

The Jewish Press - 12/8

"The dirft toward a Chrismukkah winter wonderland for us to frolic in is merely a reflection of the low priority may people place on religious faith, notwithstandign answers to exit polls culled from the last election. So why would we expect pop culture to do anything other than combine the December holidays into one meaningless excuse for a party. In truth, melding disparate holiday celebrations at other times of the year is far from uncommon. The recommendation a few years ago by the Dovetail Institute, a group that provides resources for interfaith couples and their children, that families stuff their Easter ham with Passover charoset is one example that's rather hard to forget. Decrying any of this may be as futile as spitting in to the wind...."

The Arizona Daily Star - 12/8

"Chrismukkah - it's either a theological horror story or the best of both worlds, depending on whom you ask."

The NY Jewish Week - 12/7

"I don't want to send our Chistmas cards," said Ron Gompertz, 51 the Jewish creator of the new cards. Hes said his wife Michelle, 44, who is Protestant, didn't want to send out Chanukah cards. So they came up with this novel approach to the Chanukah-Christmas season, which they Chrismukkah. "Judaism is more than just religion," Gompertz said in a phone interview from his home in Montana. "It is a cultural thing and a lot of people who consider themselves just Jewish and cultural Jews are people who will respond positively to our cards.... This is not a real holiday but rather just a way to explain how coules are already dealing with the holidays."

The Oregonian - 12/7

"Chrismukkah has hit critical mass, with greeting cards, it's own plot point on a hot TV show and, of course, a theological backlash."

Jewish Telegraphic Agency - 12/6

Some have called intermarriage the silent killer of the Jewish people - but for Minna Friedel Klug and her family, it may have been a lifesaver. "She believes they were spared only because my grandmother in Germany had married the love of her life, her next-door neighbor, just as the Third Reich was taking over," says Klug's grandson, Ron Gompertz. "He was Lutheran."

Today Gompertz - himself married to the daughter of a minister in the United Church of Christ - has taken the spirit of his grandmother's belief and given it a lighthearted spin. Along with his wife, Michelle, Gompertz recently launched Chrismukkah.com. The site markets a line of greeting cards for interreligious families looking to harmonize the "December Dilemma," in which mixed couples struggle with how best to celebrate their faiths' divergent traditions - particularly when they have children.

"It's about tolerance. It's about understanding each other. It's about getting along," Gompertz says by phone, en route to the UPS drop-off site 20 miles from his rural Montana home to mail boxes of ordered cards. And although he acknowledges that it is "not a real holiday," Gompertz says Chrismukkah can introduce families to each other's traditions "without being threatening or offending."

Zycie - Warsaw - 12/6

As we are preparing to publish soon an essay (in the most laudatory tone, needless to say!) on the "new interfaith traditions" in United States, where the 'chrismukkah' postcards are mentioned and described, I was wondering whether I might ask you the following favour:
I would appreciate a lot if you could send the jpg's (or, for that case, tif\'s) of the postcard "Merry mazeltov!" in a slightly higher resolution than those posted on your Web page and give your approval for reproducing them (with all the due copyright information)? I would appreciate your answer and your help very much. Truly yours - Wojciech Stanislawski

The Dallas News - 12/3

Web site of the week - "What? You don't know what Chrismukkah is? Needless to say, the Gompertzes don't have a problem with Jewish interfmarriage: those who do won't like the site's philosophy. But in the spirit of a little melting-pot fun, it's worth a holiday visit.."

Toronto Globe and Mail - 12/2

"Chrismukkah may sound silly, but its arrival on the radar is a wonderfully appropriate seasonal reminder that the only road map to peace is one paved -- if not with kosher fruitcake -- then, at the very least, mutual tolerance, openness and understanding." - The Toronto Globe and Mail

Haaretz - Tel Aviv - 11/30

"Cards from Chrismukkah, based in Livingston, Montana, use humor to create a hybrid holiday. Greetings include images of a Christmas tree decorated with dreidels, a menorah filled with candy canes, and simpler varieties featuring messages such as "Merry Mazeltov" and OyJoy."

Feature Stories

ABC NEWS

New 'Holidays' Bring Tidings of Joy and Oy
By ADRIENNE MAND LEWIN

Dec. 10, 2004 - Move over, Festivus. Chrismahanukwanzakah is the alternative December holiday du jour. Or maybe you both light candles and decorate a tree, so you'd like to officially celebrate Chrismukkah this year.

This year, Chrismahanukwanzakah - devoted to "everything people love about the holidays" - will fall on Dec. 13, courtesy of Virgin Mobile and its new ad campaign. And the 18-day-long Chrismukkah observance began Dec. 7, according to Ron Gompertz, owner of Chrismukkah.com, a Web site devoted to the celebration of the holiday.

Gompertz, who is Jewish, and his wife, Michelle, who is the daughter of a Protestant minister, were inspired by an episode of Fox's "The OC" in which Seth Cohen coins the phrase describing his interfaith family's Christmas and Hanukkah traditions. "Chrismukkah is sort of the great umbrella name for describing the chaos and whimsy and excitement that goes on during the month of December," Gompertz said.

A Chrismukkah Boon

What started as a small online venture - selling Chrismukkah cards and other items commemorating both faiths - has blossomed into something of a Chrismukkah miracle. Gompertz said he and his wife anticipated selling a few thousand cards - featuring such images as a reindeer with menorah antlers or a snowman made out of matzoh balls - but within the first month of being in business they sold 25,000.

"We're sharing a point of view with many, many people who are in the same situation as we are," he said. "I don't think I realized how many."

Perhaps not, but the number of interfaith families is growing. According to a survey released last year by United Jewish Communities, there are 5.2 million Jewish people in America, and 31 percent of those who are married have spouses of other faiths. And of those married since 1996, 47 percent have intermarried.

While this raises serious issues of how religion is practiced in such households, the creators of Chrismukkah are promoting the purely secular aspects of Christianity and Judaism through the mingled symbols and traditions of holidays that happen to both involve gift-giving and occur in the same month.

Embracing Differences

Gompertz said most people have been very receptive to the idea of Chrismukkah. "Chrismukkah's a state of mind," he said. "It's not really literally a holiday. We're certainly not proposing mixing religion in a new cult here in Montana. It already exists for millions of people."

Still, there have been some negative responses from people of both faiths objecting to the mixture of traditions. But Gompertz said they are missing the point. "All I can say to these people is first, lighten up," he said. "This is the secular thing. Christmas works on several levels - a religious level and a secular, commercial level.... Is Frosty the Snowman Christian? Can Rudolph be enjoyed by Jewish children, too?"

Rather than diminish the importance of each holiday, Gompertz said he hopes Chrismukkah will encourage discussion and allow more children in interfaith families to understand the meanings behind both celebrations and religions. And he said many people are ready for some unity.

"A lot of us are anxious about issues like the rise of religious fundamentalism around the world, the separation of church and state," he said. "A lot of people are embracing what we do. They see it as a reaction to increasingly conservative viewpoints."

Chicago Sun Times

Throwing the holidays together
BY CATHLEEN FALSANI RELIGION WRITER - December 10, 2004

I'd like to think it all started with Festivus.

Way back on Dec. 18, 1997, when "Seinfeld's" loony Costanza family introduced the rest of the world to the peculiar, nonreligious holiday they celebrate Dec. 23.

The pole.

The airing of grievances.

The feats of strength.

Patriarch Frank Costanza explained the genesis of Festivus thusly: "Many Christmases ago, I went to buy a doll for my son. I reached for the last one they had, but so did another man. As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way.... [The doll] was destroyed. But out of that a new holiday was born -- a Festivus for the rest of us!"

Ah, can't you just picture the cold, tinsel-free pole standing proudly in the Costanza living room, a testament to anti-sectarianism and commercialized spirituality? Breathtaking.

A few months back, I started hearing about another new holiday: Chrismukkah.

I took this to mean Christmas-meets-Hanukkah. How clever, and what a cool, if small, victory for religiously mixed families.

There are even Chrismukkah greeting cards, something I wish they'd had a number of years ago when I was rifling through the racks of my neighborhood stationery store looking for a card that would be appropriate for my Jewish friend and her Baptist husband. I found one with a cartoon of Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus on the front and the words, "It's a goy!" inside.

My friend has a great sense of humor, so it was a safe bet she'd laugh. But for those who don't appreciate irreverence, I was stuck with the namby-pamby "Happy Holidays!" I usually opted for the simple, universal "Peace."

Whence came Chrismukkah, I wondered.

Fox's hybrid holiday

Were I a fan of Fox's show "The OC," I would have known without asking. But as I'm one of seven American adults under the age of 40 who don't watch the show that the guy next to me at the paper insists is a "guilty pleasure," I had to do some research to discover its provenance.

As I understand it, a character named "Seth Cohen" on "The OC," played by someone called Adam Brody -- he looks like a young Tom Hanks -- coined the term on an episode last year to describe the Jewish-Christian hybrid holiday he created for his family.

And they say Fox doesn't promote family values.

While terms that mix Christmas and Hannukah have been around for more than a decade -- I found references for the ever-popular "Hanumas" that date to 1986 and Chrismukkah (spelled variously) to 1997 -- it would seem Chrismukkah (as such) took its rightful place in the popular consciousness when it proceeded from the mouth of dreamy Mr. Brody.

Sing along

The latest entry in the pan-religious winter holiday meld-off is Chrismahanukwanzakah, brought to you by the cheeky monkeys of Virgin Mobile USA's advertising department.

They even have a jingle, "We're all Snowflakes," performed by the alt-rock band Ween in what one Virgin executive described to me as "a twisted spin on the Carpenters." In one ad, an animated reindeer with menorah-shaped antlers and a multi-armed, sitar-playing Santa holding a dreidel and seated on a large lotus blossom sing:

It's OK if you're a Muslim, a Christian or a Jew
It's OK if you're agnostic and you don't know what to do
An all-inclusive celebration, no contractual obligation
Happy Chrismahanukwanzakah to you (and pagans, too!)
In some way we're all monkeys, well maybe just a smidgeon
I'm a Scientologist, that's kind of a religion
Whose faith is the right one? It's anybody's guess
What matters most is cameraphones for $20 less....

"Most companies tiptoe around the holidays and ultimately default to something like a snowflake or other generic symbols and icons," said Bob Stohrer, the company's vice president of brand and communications. "I think people are really stuffy and caught up and fearful at the holidays, and we saw an opportunity to really celebrate not only the holidays but diversity in general."

Speaking of marketing, apparently the honchos at "The OC" are less than thrilled with a Montana businessman who is selling a line of interfaith greeting cards and other holiday accouterments under the name Chrismukkah.

Ron Gompertz, purveyor of Chrismukkah cards through his Web site www.chrismukkah.com, admits he was inspired by "The OC" to launch his interfaith venture, but insists the term "Chrismukkah" had long been in the public domain.

Apparently, "The OC's" creator Josh Schwartz disagrees. Earlier this week, Schwartz told Lloyd Grove of the New York Daily News that Gompertz was cashing in on the show's idea. "The OC" is now marketing its own Chrismukkah paraphernalia online at www.theocinsider.com, including greeting cards, wrapping paper, and yarmuclaus -- red beanie-like hats trimmed in white faux-fur.

Lawyers get involved

Gompertz, who is Jewish and married to the daughter of a Protestant minister, says he thinks some of "The OC's" Chrismukkah new merchandise looks a little too much like his own designs, such as the matzo ball snowman and a candy-cane menorah.

"It seemed to be kind of grinchly to try to own something that was out in the public domain," Gompertz told me, explaining why he didn't try to trademark his Chrismukkah designs. "Now we could be talking about the Fox that stole Chrismukkah."

Trademark attorneys have been summoned by both sides.

How festive!

In the spirit of Festivus, maybe they should just wrestle for it.

NY Daily News - Lloyd Grove's The Lowdown

'O.C.'s' mixed blessing
In the spirit of Chrismukkah, can't we all get along?

Apparently not quite yet.

Chrismukkah, as fans of Fox Television's "The O.C." know, was invented in an episode last December by main character Seth Cohen to celebrate his mixed identity as the son of a Christian mother and a Jewish father.

Now Warner Bros., which produces the hit series for Fox, is locked in a fierce competition with Montana businessman Ron Gompertz to market and profit from Chrismukkah holiday cards, T-shirts, coffee mugs and other paraphernalia.

"I have a bone to pick with Ron," Josh Schwartz, "The O.C.'s" creator, told me yesterday, tongue in cheek. "He's kind of using us to make money. I don't know if we invented the word 'Chrismukkah,' but this guy is sure running with it."

The Chrismukkah episode was written by Schwartz's co-executive producer, Stephanie Savage, who credits the word to "somebody in the room during the writer's meeting" last fall.

Warner Bros. has just begun marketing Chrismukkah items - notably bright red "Yamiclaus" headgear - through the show's Web site, theocinsider.com.

The 51-year-old Gompertz, a native New Yorker who moved to Montana's Paradise Valley last year, has been selling his own cards, gift-wrapping paper and other products on his Web site, çhrismukkah.com, since September.

Gompertz - who is Jewish and married to a gentile - beat Warner Bros. to the marketplace by at least two months. The AOL Time Warner subsidiary didn't even apply for a trademark on its Chrismukkah products until Oct. 13.

"Their trademark hasn't been granted by the federal government, and I don't think it will be," Gompertz told me, though he conceded that "The O.C.'s" Chrismukkah episode gave him the idea to market Chrismukkah products.

"I never applied for a trademark, but I was out with my products first, and my attorney tells me that's enough to give me the right to use the name. It should be treated as a generic name, and wasn't invented by 'The O.C.' It has been around at least since 1998. I expect to sell 50,000 Chrismukkah cards by the end of the season. The mugs are selling like hot cakes."

Schwartz retorted: "We have Chrismukkah cards and wrapping paper, too, and our stuff is the real deal. It was cool, though, that he acknowledges our show inspired him."

Happily, I believe the dispute will eventually be resolved.

"In the spirit of Chrismukkah," Schwartz said, "I will try to make Ron feel guilt - and at the same time, I will turn the other cheek."

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

For new greeting-card company, Chrismukkah time is here at last
By Chanan Tigay

NEW YORK, Dec. 6 (JTA) - Some have called intermarriage the silent killer of the Jewish people - but for Minna Friedel Klug and her family, it may have been a lifesaver.

"She believes they were spared only because my grandmother in Germany had married the love of her life, her next-door neighbor, just as the Third Reich was taking over," says Klug's grandson, Ron Gompertz. "He was Lutheran."

Today Gompertz - himself married to the daughter of a minister in the United Church of Christ - has taken the spirit of his grandmother's belief and given it a lighthearted spin.

Along with his wife, Michelle, Gompertz recently launched Chrismukkah.com. The site markets a line of greeting cards for interreligious families looking to harmonize the "December Dilemma," in which mixed couples struggle with how best to celebrate their faiths' divergent traditions - particularly when they have children.

"It's about tolerance. It's about understanding each other. It's about getting along," Gompertz says by phone, en route to the UPS drop-off site 20 miles from his rural Montana home to mail boxes of ordered cards.

And although he acknowledges that it is "not a real holiday," Gompertz says Chrismukkah can introduce families to each other's traditions "without being threatening or offending."

The Chrismukkah Web site, www.Chrismukkah.com, offers about a dozen holiday cards, including one depicting a reindeer with a menorah for antlers; another in which red and white candy canes replace candles in a menorah, and another showing "Chrismukkah Man," a rabbinic figure in a Santa Claus-like outfit.

While the Chrismukkah label is relatively new - the Gompertzes got the name from the Fox TV series "The O.C." in which a character has a Jewish father and Christian mother - Gompertz says it refers to "the way millions of people experience the holidays together each year."

Indeed, one-third of all Jews currently wed are intermarried, according to the 2000-01 National Jewish Population Survey. The study found that intermarriage is rising at a steady pace and stands at 47 percent.

A 2003 report by the Jewish Outreach Institute found that intermarried households may soon become a majority of homes with at least one Jewish member.

This fact is not lost on holiday card-makers, which were selling interfaith cards long before Gompertz got into the game.

"Cards are developed on consumer demand," says Deidre Parkes, a spokeswoman for Hallmark Cards Inc. "We started with one" interfaith card "in the late 1990s, and now we have eight."

Parkes says the company's interfaith Christmas-Chanukah cards are typically among its top 10 best sellers marking the festival of lights.

And although these cards make up less than 10 percent of the company's full line of some 100 Chanukah cards, melding the two religions' winter holidays is proving profitable for other companies as well.

American Greetings Corp. offers several such cards, including one depicting a Jewish Santa Claus urging on his reindeer: "On Isaac! On Izzy! On Eli! On Abe! On Levi! On Morty! On Shlomo! On Gabe!" Inside, the card wishes the recipient a "Merry Hanukkah."

For its part, the Chrismukkah site welcomes visitors to "the one place where you don't have to choose. Here you can have it all! Here we celebrate Chrismukkah!"

Rabbi Yitzchak Rosenbaum, program director at the National Jewish Outreach Program in New York, takes issue with this attitude.

"At least I would say to someone, Choose. Pick what you are," he says. "If I were Christian, I would be insulted by taking a Christian symbol and making it Jewish, and I am insulted by taking Jewish symbols and making them Christian."

But Nancy Berglass, a Jewish woman in Los Angeles who is married to an African American Christian man, finds such cards amusing. "I say more power to them," she says.

Berglass and her husband are not raising their two young children in either faith in particular - she speaks of "a blending of our two religious, cultural legacies" - and they light Chanukah candles and give gifts on both holidays.

"The only reason we do any of this is that it is commercially and culturally the norm in our country and we don't want our children to feel excluded," Berglass says. "What that means to our kids is a ton of presents: eight on Chanukah - and for Christmas they get whatever's on sale at Marshall's."

Over the course of the rest of the year, she says, "We tell our children that theyâ?(TM)re Jewish and we tell them that they're African American, and that theyâ?(TM)re so lucky that they get to be both of those things."

Not everyone's as supportive of interfaith holiday celebrations. One e-mail sent to Gompertz denounces Chrismukkah as "disgusting and insulting to both Jews and non-Jews alike."

Still, Gompertz says, positive e-mail responses have outnumbered negative ones by about a 10-1 ratio, and the site offers the following disclaimer: "We respect people's different faiths and do not suggest combining the religious observance of Christmas and Hanukkah."

In a recent survey by the InterfaithFamily.com Web site, more than two-thirds of respondents said they kept their holiday celebrations separate. About 80 percent, though, said they celebrated both Christmas and Chanukah.

Although the Gompertz's cards are selling well - 12-packs of the "Chrismukkah Bush" and "Oy Joy" varieties have already sold out - Gompertz insists he's not in it for the money.

"No matter how many Chrismukkah cards we sell this year, we're not going to make any money," says Gompertz. "It's about encouraging a dialogue. Interfaith marriage in America is one of the last cultural taboos. It doesn't get talked about much."

Season's greetings Blending Santa and menorahs too
By Nara Schoenberg - Tribune staff reporter - Published December 3, 2004

Yes, Virginia, there is a Chrismukkah.

Which is to say, there is a holiday, or a season, or, some would say, a state of mind, that combines Christmas and Hanukkah in roughly equal proportions, allowing us to have our potato latkes and watch "Frosty the Snowman" too.

We know this because we heard about it last year on "The O.C.," when Seth Cohen, a teenager from an interfaith background, told his new foster brother, Ryan, about holidays at his house.

"So what's it going to be? You want your menorah or a candy cane, hmm? Christmas or Hanukkah? . . . Ah, don't worry about it buddy, because in this house, you don't have to choose. Allow me to introduce you to a little something that I like to call -- Chrismukkah."

"The O.C." didn't invent Chrismukkah, but it did give a name to what many American Jews -- 47 percent of whom intermarry -- have been doing for decades.

Inspired by the show, Ron Gompertz, who is Jewish, and his wife, Michelle, a Protestant, started Chrismukkah.com, an online greeting card company that this year expects to sell 50,000 cards with images such as Santa Claus with a Star of David belt and a menorah with Christmas trees as flames.

"Chrismukkah is about tolerance," says Gompertz, who has found humor helpful in negotiating the details of his own daughter's cross-cultural upbringing.

He says the term has been used since at least 1998, when a mock press release, widely circulated on the Internet, announced the merger of Hanukkah and Christmas, citing high overhead costs.

Today a Google search for Chrismukkah turns up 36,000 hits, not counting alternate spellings.

So, yes, Virginia, as surely as there are greeting card companies and TV shows about rich kids living in California, as surely as there are people of different faiths who fall in love, there is a Chrismukkah.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Merry Mazeltov? Card companies combine mistletoes, menorahs
MATT SEDENSKY

KANSAS CITY, Mo. 11/27/04- Every December, Zack Rudman and his wife send out cards with winterscapes and generic holiday greetings.

Finally, though, the Kansas City lawyer found a variety that seemed to better suit a Jewish man and an Episcopal woman with two young children as familiar with the menorah as mistletoe. It screams "Merry Chrismukkah!"

Across the country, two holidays that once seemed to share little more than a calendar page are increasingly being melded on greeting cards aimed at the country's estimated 2.5 million families with both Jewish and Christian members.

"It's representative of the way people live and the way they spend the holidays," said Elise Okrend, an owner of Raleigh, N.C.-based MixedBlessing, a card company devoted to interfaith holiday greetings. "And it's an expression of people understanding the people around them." MixedBlessing, like other companies, has found such interfaith greeting cards have a stable market niche and a slowly growing customer base. The company was among the first to come out with holiday cards suitable for Jewish-Christian families about 15 years ago and is still perhaps the only company to focus entirely on that market segment. In its first year, it sold about 3,000 cards from nine different offerings. This year, Okrend projects sales of 200,000 cards off its 55-card line.

Kansas City-based Hallmark Cards Inc. says among its most popular categories of Hanukkah cards is the one that combines Jewish and Christian themes. The company tried the idea with just one card in the mid-90s; today they have four. "The essence of these cards is not about interfaith households as much as it is about friends and family members of different faiths acknowledging the different holidays that they all celebrate," said Shalanda Stanley, a product manager at Hallmark.

American Greetings Corp. has also increased its Hanukkah-Christmas line offerings since its introduction eight years ago. There are around 10 this year.

Kathy Krassner, editor of Greetings Inc., a trade magazine, said mixed-faith holiday cards are one of countless niche categories introduced by greeting card companies.

"It's an interesting market," she said. "But it's a limited market."

The newest player is Chrismukkah.com, which helped put a name on what many interreligious families have been celebrating for years.

Ron Gompertz founded the company this year with his wife, inspired by an episode of the popular Fox series "The O.C." in which Seth Cohen, a character whose mother is Protestant and father is Jewish, coins the term.

"It's a little bit of both," Gompertz explains. "Spin the dreidel under the mistletoe."

As with anything addressing religion, though, cardmakers are careful not to offend.

The Chrismukkah site even offers a disclaimer: "We respect people's different faiths and do not suggest combining the religious observance of Christmas and Hanukkah."

"Our intention wasn't to merge the religious aspects," Gompertz said, "but rather the secular aspects of the holidays."

Gompertz's explanation hasn't gone over well with everyone. He says the site has angered some conservative Jews who believe it promotes intermarriage.

Cards from the Livingston, Mont.-based Chrismukkah.com use humor to create a hybrid holiday. Gompertz is Jewish and from New York City. He married the daughter of a Protestant minister from the Midwest. His company offers greetings including images of a Christmas tree decorated with dreidels, a menorah filled with candy canes and simpler varieties featuring messages including "Merry Mazeltov" and "Oy Joy."

"It's whimsical. It's humorous," said Gompertz. "This is a way of diffusing the seriousness of it."

Most of American Greetings' Hanukkah-Christmas cards are humorous, too. One shows three snowmen - two dressed in traditional winter hats and scarves, the third wearing a yarmulke and prayer shawl. Another features a list of Hanukkah songs that never caught on, including "Shlepping Through a Winter Wonderland," "Bubbie Got Run Over by a Reindeer" and "Come On, Baby, Light My Menorah."

"We don't go over the line," said Pam Fink, who works on Jewish-themed cards for American Greetings. "We're careful to make sure it's lighthearted funny, but not too far."

More serious messages are offered, too. One Hallmark card begins "Hanukkah and Christmas - two different holidays, but each a celebration of peace and joy, of love and family and friends."

Cardmakers say similarities between the two holidays, and the strong secular side of each is what makes combining them possible, something not necessarily true of any other season. That hasn't stopped Gompertz from floating around an "Easterover" idea, featuring a "Rabbi Rabbit."

Still, Gompertz thinks he'll probably pass on that idea. "That threatens to push the levels of what's acceptable," he said.

The Wall Street Journal

They Call It Chrismukkah
By JONATHAN EIG - November, 19 2004

It was only a matter of time before a TV show inspired a religious movement.

The show is "The O.C.," which traces the lives of some hip teens in Orange County, Calif. One of them is Seth Cohen, the fictional son of a Protestant mother and a Jewish father. Seth's moment of religious inspiration occurred in an episode last December in which he explained his family's holiday-season philosophy to his new foster brother, Ryan.

Seth: "So what's it going to be? You want your menorah or a candy cane, hmm? Christmas or Hanukkah?"
Ryan: "Um, I'm not -- "
Seth: "Ah. Don't worry about it, buddy, because in this house, you don't have to choose. Allow me to introduce to you a little something that I like to call -- Chrismukkah."
Ryan: "Chrismukkah?"
Seth: "That's right. It's the new holiday, Ryan, and it's sweeping the nation."

In case we needed further proof that life imitates art, "The O.C." inspired Michelle (the daughter of a minister) and Ron Gompertz (a Reform Jew) of Livingston, Mont., to design their own Chrismukkah cards and register ownership of www.chrismukkah.com1. If Chrismukkah is not quite sweeping the nation, it's at least generating a little cash for the Gompertzes in the windup to this year's holidays.

"It was one of those moments when a spark goes off," says Mr. Gompertz, describing what happened when he heard Seth Cohen say "Chrismukkah." "It was so much more elegant that Hanumas or the other jokey names we'd come up with."

The Gompertzes made a few cards last year and sent them to family and friends. The response was positive. This year they hired an artist and designed more cards. Too late to get in on any of the industry's trade shows, for now they're selling them exclusively on the Web site. They hope to sell about 25,000 cards this season.....

...... Most of us, apparently, have grown accustomed to the watered-down religiosity associated with the season. That's why people of all faiths send out "Happy Holidays" cards, avoiding faith-based messages altogether. Some of the motivation is multicultural sensitivity and some is simply convenience. In either case, there is no use blaming the card makers.

If the Gompertzes have committed a sin, it's the same one committed by Hallmark: Their cards aren't all that funny. One reads "Merry Mazeltov." Another shows a box of kosher fruitcake. Yet another presents a reindeer with a menorah in place of antlers.

Mr. Gompertz says that he and his wife have tried to be low key so as not to offend those who take their holidays seriously. Their Web site even offers a disclaimer, noting that its hosts are in no way encouraging or endorsing intermarriage. "We deeply respect the religious observance of Christmas and Hanukkah as individual holidays," the site adds, "and Chrismukkah is not intended to replace either." Which should come as a relief to the pope.

Still, the couple may be on to something. If nothing else, sheer numbers are on their side. A recent study of America's 5.2 million Jews showed that nearly half of all Jewish newlyweds had married non-Jews. That's a huge concern to many Jewish leaders, but it's jingle-jingle to the ears of Chrismukkah merchants.

Interfaith couples have been blending their rituals for ages. The only thing new about Chrismukkah, really, is that it puts a name to something millions of families are already celebrating. So don't be surprised in the seasons ahead if we get some new holiday songs and a few tree ornaments that swing both ways.

In fact, the spirit of holiday inclusion doesn't have to stop there. Has anyone registered yet for www.chrismakwanzaaramadanukkah.com?

Mr. Eig is a Chicago-based Journal reporter.

URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110082255897878751,00.h

The London Times

A very merry Chrismukkah to families of mixed faiths
By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent - November 13, 2004

A BRITISH rabbi has endorsed the sending of "Chrismukkah" cards to celebrate the Jewish and Christian festivals of Hanukkah and Christmas.

A Jewish-Christian couple in the US are promoting a joint Chrismukkah celebration to resolve difficulties of religious etiquette for the thousands of people in interfaith marriages.

They are suggesting that the 12 days of Christmas and eight days of Hanukkah be combined into a 15-day festival with a theme of "Oy joy! Merry Mazeltov!" They are marketing Chrismukkah cards, featuring a white-bearded Chrismukkah Man in a red cap, a reindeer with an eight-branched menorah for antlers, a kosher fruitcake, a shalom dove and with the greeting "Merry Mazeltov". There is also an "Oy Joy!" collection of Chrismukkah souvenirs.

Intermarriage between Christians and Jews is of growing concern in the Jewish community in particular. Because the children of Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers are not recognised as Jewish, intermarriage is one of the chief causes of assimilation, threatening the viability of a community already down to fewer than 300,000 in Britain. Of the 5.2 million Jewish people in the US, nearly a third are married to non-Jews. Half of those who married since 1996 chose non-Jewish spouses.

In Britain, rabbis in the Reform and Liberal tradition are working to address the problem and in those communities, the children of Jewish fathers and Christian mothers can be recognised and brought up as Jewish if the parents wish. Hanukkah this year runs from December 8 to 15.

It is not one of the main Jewish holidays but has grown in prominence because of its proximity to Christmas. The 12 days of Christmas begin on December 25 and end just before Epiphany on January 6.

Ron and Michelle Gompertz, from Livingston, Montana, were spurred into action by the birth of their daughter, Minna. "Chrismukkah is a blend of favourite traditions from both Hanukkah and Christmas," said Mr Gompertz, who is Jewish and whose wife is Protestant. "Chrismukkah is celebrated by mixed-faith couples, interfaith families, half-Jews, and others. Chrismukkah is a new name for the way millions of people experience the holidays together each year."

The concept was welcomed by Britain's leading Reform rabbi, Dr Jonathan Romain, of Maidenhead Synagogue. Dr Romain, who is organising a seminar in January for mixed-faith couples entitled "I'm Jewish, my partner isn't", said: "It is a very useful way of getting round the delicate religious problem of what greeting card to send a Jewish-Christian couple without upsetting either. The only surprise is that such cards have not been on the market before in view of the high number of mixed-faith marriages in Britain today."

San Jose Mercury News - Lifestyle Section - 10/30/04

Holiday Cards for Blended Families

Sending out Christmas cards is one of the delightful--though sometimes laborious--traditions of the holidays. And if you're an interfaith family, you might as well buy that extra roll of stamps. But a Jewish-Christian couple who are among the country's 2.5 million such interfaith marriages has come up with a way to send out holiday greetings as a family-not as individuals. It's a series of "Happy Chrismukkah" cards that blend the joyful sentiments of both Christmas and Hanukkah.

One card wishes "Merry Mazeltov'" while another, for example, features a bowl of chicken soup with matzo balls stacked three high to resemble a snowman. Then there's the card picturing a kosher fruitcake -- complete with recipe -- and the menorah filled with candy canes. The card series was developed by a former San Francisco couple, Ron and Michelle Gompertz, now of Montana. It was inspired by a scene in Fox TV's "The O.C.," a popular evening soap that centers on an affluent family from Newport Beach, in which Seth Cohen, the son of a Jewish father and Protestant mother, uses the phrase "Chrismukkah'' to describe his family's holiday observances.

The cards, which sell for $15 a dozen, can be purchased on the couple's Web site, www.chrismukkah.com, a holiday site that contains information and resources of interest to interfaith families.

KULR-8 TV - NBC Billings, Montana

3 minute interview with Ron, Michelle and Minna was a lead story and aired numerous times on the morning and evening news.
Chrismukkah Cards
by Orlinda Worthington

NOV. 19, BILLINGS - A Montana couple has launched a line of greeting cards for people who celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah. Their "Chrismukkah" cards feature original designs mixing icons from both religions like a bowl of soup with a matzoh ball snowman, complete with a recipe for the soup. Another card includes a recipe for kosher fruitcake. Ron and Michelle Gompertz are a two-man band, operating their business out of a converted barn in the Paradise Valley of Montana. Along with offering humor, the Gompertz's hope the cards will encourage people of mixed faiths to celebrate and teach their children about both religions.

Bozeman Chronicle - Bozeman, Montana

Paradise Valley couple's cards salute Hanukkah and Christmas
by Scott McMillon-Chronicle Staff Writer

NOV. 24, LIVINGSTON - The snowman is made of matzo balls.

Rudolph the reindeer's antlers have become a menorah. Another menorah bears candy canes instead of candles.

Happy Chrismukkah.

For the increasing number of interfaith couples in the United States, partners of Christian and Jewish backgrounds, the holiday season can bring conflicts.

Jews have their own traditions. So do Christians.

Now an interfaith couple in Paradise Valley is creating holiday cards meant to salute both Hanukkah and Christmas. Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of light, begins its eight-day run on Dec. 8 this year. Christmas, as always, arrives on Dec. 25. Both holidays are religious in origin, and while both have been highly secularized, they retain an atmosphere of wishing peace and goodwill. Now interfaith couples, or friends of interfaith couples, can send cards that celebrate both holidays.

Chrismukkah is "a mythical holiday," said Ron Gompertz, who, with his wife, Michelle, has formed Chrismukkah.com. Ron is Jewish and originally from New York. Michelle is the daughter of a United Church of Christ minister and grew up mostly in Indiana. They hooked up in San Francisco and recently moved to their Paradise Valley property with their 18-month-old daughter. Michelle was a corporate art director in California and Ron recently sold a mosaic tile company. Now they've got a new business. "We've got a barn-based business that's going global," Ron Gompertz said. Orders are streaming in from around the country and Europe, many of them based on recent news stories about the unusual cards. One of their offerings features a snowman wearing a yarmulke. Another offers a "Merryshewitz" brand recipe for kosher fruitcake.

Newspapers and TV shows from both coasts and from England have been profiling the new business, but it's attracting some controversy as well. Gompertz said some Jewish organizations have refused his requests to buy advertising in their publications, although his products emphasize secular holiday symbols, like snowmen, or nondenominational themes, like peace. One card simply says "Oy Joy."

One prominent British Rabbi has endorsed the concept. "It's a very useful way of getting round the delicate religious problem of what greeting card to send a Jewish-Christian couple without upsetting either," Dr. Jonathan Romain, Britain's leading Reform rabbi, told the Times of London. Others aren't so sure about the idea. "A greeting card is pretty harmless," said Mike Comins, the Rabbi for the Congregation Beth Shalom in Bozeman. "But no responsible Jewish organization would support the creation of a new holiday." Some people like tennis, he said, while others prefer basketball. "If you take your tennis racket to a basketball court, it's just silly," he said. The new cards also illustrate the increasing commercialization of Hanukkah, which Comins said was not traditionally a holiday for giving gifts. It's not a major holiday, but it has become so because of (the proximity to) Christmas," he said.

There are hundreds of thousands of mixed Jewish-Christian families in the country, Gompertz said, and the number is growing. Although that worries some traditionalists, most people are just trying to get along, trying to figure out ways to honor two sets of traditions, he said. "It's about our little family and the families we were born into," he said. Or, in the words of one of his cards: "Merry Mazeltov."

The Daily Jews.com - UK - 13th November 2004

Have a happy and merry Chrismukkah

Rabbi Jonathan Romain, rabbi of Maindenhead Reform Synagogue has come out to express his support for a new line of cards aimed at interfaith couples, their friends and family for the Chanukah and Christmas festive season.

The cards which cost $15 for a dozen, were created by American mixed faith couple Ron and Michelle Gompertz from Livingston in Montana.

According to their site, the reason behind the cards was simple:

"Chismukkah is a hybrid holiday, a gumbo of favorite traditions from both Hanukkah and Christmas. Chrismukkah is celebrated by intermarried couples, interfaith families with both Jewish and Christian members, people with partial Jewish heritage… or anyone else who feels like it. Chrismukkah is a festive celebration of diversity - a fresh way to describe how millions of us already experience our Merry Mishmash of a holiday."

Rabbi Romain thinks it's a good idea too as he told The Times:

"It is a a very useful way of getting round the delicate religious problem of what greeting card to send a Jewish-Christian couple without upsetting either. The only surprise is that such cards have not been on the market before in view of the high number of mixed-faith marriages in Britain today."
Dailyjews.com

Naples Daily News

jOy to the world
By JENNIFER GRANT
November 27, 2004

Interfaith cards, designed to celebrate couples' differences, get mixed reactions

For interfaith families across the country, the eve of holiday confusion has arrived.

When the calendar quickly turns to December, thoughts of menorahs and Christmas trees, matzo balls and candy canes dance in the heads of parents, puzzling them and their broods.

What's a family that is split down the proverbial religious middle supposed to do?

How about celebrating the Chrismukkah way?

It's not a new holiday to replace Christmas or Hanukkah. It's just a way to blend favorite traditions from both celebrations without offending either side. It's about recognizing and appreciating the differences of two religions and having a little fun along the way.

Ron and Michelle Gompertz, who are heading up this trend of Chrismukkah from their home in Montana, are doing so with a new greeting card line that has people across the country laughing and grousing with each mention of "Merry Mazeltov" and "Oy to the World."

"It's a whimsical way of dealing with that push and pull," says Gompertz, a Reform Jew, who along with his Christian wife Michelle launched Chrismukkah.com to celebrate their differences during this holiday season.

No, they're not trying to water down his Judaism or her Christianity. And they aren't trying to start a religious movement. They just wanted to teach their child and others across the country about tolerance and respect by way of greeting cards. And it's taking off.

Maybe it's because the Gompertzes aren't alone. According to a 2000-2001 national Jewish population survey, 5.2 million adult Jews live in the U.S., and of the married ones, nearly a third have non-Jew spouses. Hence the holiday dilemma.

"It's all about breaking down barriers," Gompertz says.

"People who are religious, we didn't want to offend," he adds of his holiday card business. The couple just wanted to add a little bit of fun to a season that's sometimes full of confusion and discontent for interfaith families.

"We didn't want to do anything sacrilegious," he says. Not even close. But sometimes it's humorous what interfaith families deal with during the holidays.

"What we did was instinctive," he says. "It's the tip of the iceberg."

But to some, like Naples pastor Joseph Shaheen, it's going too far.

"Well, why not? If you can't solve the problem, why not make some money?" says the pastor of St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church.

Shaheen is being facetious. He thinks that these days people are just going too far trying to water down the reason for the season. Sticking with traditions of the past is the only way to go, he says.

"Merry Christmas and all this stuff is not acceptable in the Orthodox Church," he says. "Christ is born," with a response of "Glorify Him" is the preferred way to recognize the days before Christmas.

"What does Merry Christmas mean (anyway)?" Shaheen asks. "It's easy. The point is, say something that means something."

And "Merry Mazeltov" just doesn't cut it in his book.

It's constant changes in religious philosophies that confuse, Shaheen says, and then one day people wake up and "wonder who they are."

Ronald Patterson, pastor for Naples United Church of Christ sees it a little differently. "Part of the reality is interfaith couples exist," he says.

He says he thinks Chrismukkah cards are an interesting way of recognizing that not everyone believes the same thing.

"God is not threatened that people have a variety of opinions," he says. "We all glimpse it from a different direction, but it's the same light."

Every day Patterson says he meets someone and sees God in that person. Maybe he or she doesn't have Patterson's Christian beliefs, but they're still God's children.

"More power to them," he says of interfaith cards. "There are bridges between Judaism and Christianity," and he says it's great that this couple is trying to build them.

Rabbi Daniel Sherman with Temple Shalom sees the whole idea of Chrismukkah as more of a breakdown than a bridging of gaps.

"I'm not really giving it much of a second thought," he says, but adds he thought the idea was pretty ridiculous. "The whole concept is flawed and takes away from the integrity of both holidays."

A few comments like those from Rabbi Sherman and the Rev. Shaheen have been made to the Gompertzes via email on the Chrismukkah Web site. Mostly the couple says comments have been positive, though, saying their idea is "neutral and doesn't offend."

But Gompertz admits, "It's a slight, mild irreverence. It's good natured, though."

His wife Michelle agrees. "It adds a little bit of fun."

Like the kosher fruitcake that's pictured on the front of one of the popular Chrismukkah cards.

"There's a recipe inside, too," Gompertz says. And the couple both laugh.

It's laughter that keeps the Gompertz family from being too serious and reminds them of the love and respect they have for each other and others no matter what their faith.

After all, isn't that the reason for the season?

Chrismukkah Reference Links

Chrismukkah.com Press Release - PRWEB.com

The December Dilemma Survey Dispels Myths about Interfaith Families and Holiday Celebrations Interfaithfamily.com

Famous Half Jews in the News - HalfJew.com

Famous Jewish People - Yahoodi.com

John Kerry's Jewish Roots - Judaism.about.com

All in the family: Interfaith households on the rise - Religionwriters.com

2004 Election Recap - AJC.org

9/21/04 Poll 69% of Jewish voters support Kerry - AJC.org

New York Times Story: National Jewish Population Survey - NYTimes.com

My Yiddishe Madonna? - Somethingjewish.co.uk

Virtual Jewish Library: National Jewish Population Survey 2000-2001 - VirtualjewishLibrary.com

Growing up as one of the lonely half-Jews - CampusTimes.org

Rosenstrasse is a film with an award winning cast which tells the true story of a handful of women in Berlin in 1943 who secured the release of their Jewish husbands, saving them from death in the camps. RosenstrasseMovie.com

"Divided Lives: The Untold Stories of Jewish-Christian Women" - the stories of ten "Mischling" women during the holocaust. www.dividedlives.com

The OC Fall 2004 Season Premier - Fox.com/OC

"Have a Merry Chrismukkah - Mix 3" - The new soundtrack album from The O.C. MusicfromtheOC.com

"The O.C.'s Answer to the December Dliemma" - Not so hot review from Interfaithfamily.com