My blog this week comes to you via Aish.com
The company inadvertently reminds us the meaning of the holiday.
Hobby Lobby will now carry
Hanukkah items.
The giant craft-store chain announced this about-face after a blogger
accused it of anti-Semitism because it refused to carry Hanukah or
Jewish-themed craft products, a claim the company denies.
Claims that Hobby Lobby is somehow anti-Jewish have been filling the
blogosphere, ever since a Jewish shopper in New Jersey asked a Hobby
Lobby sales clerk why there were no Hanukkah items in their “holiday”
display, and was allegedly told because “we don’t cater to you people”.
The story quickly went viral.
When it landed in my in-box, I wondered if it was true. Why not call
up my own local Hobby Lobby, myself, I thought, and see what they had
to say?
“Um” I began, feeling very self-conscious, “I was just wondering – do you carry Hanukkah decorations?”
“No” the saleswoman said immediately.
“Really?” I asked, intrigued, all traces of embarrassment gone – “why ever not?”
“I don’t know” the woman replied, again a little too quick, I thought.
“Do you sell any Jewish-themed decorations” I pressed? “Like – um – stars or cards or stuff?”
“No,” came the brisk reply.
“Do you think you’ll be getting any in?” I groped.
“I don’t know” was her quick answer, and our conversation was done.
The publicity over Hobby Lobby’s refusal to carry Hanukkah items came
to light when a blogger in New Jersey, hearing about his friend’s
allegedly rude treatment in her local store, called the company
headquarters in Oklahoma and was told – bizarrely – that Hobby Lobby had
a policy of not carrying Jewish items due to the strong “values” of the
owner, Steve Green.
If that name is familiar, it’s because Hobby Lobby owner and
multimillionaire Mr. Green has been in the news a lot lately. A
committed Christian, he’s currently a litigant in a case that’s been
sent to the Supreme Court over the right of his private company not to
fund employee health plans that include contraception.
And in the midst of the Hobby Lobby Hanukkah decoration flap, Mr.
Green – who is an avid collector of religious works – unveiled a 1,200
year old Jewish prayer book he’d just bought from a private collector.
Wondering how he’d explain his refusal to stock Jewish items – and if
it is in fact a policy at all – I e-mailed Mr. Green, asking him if it
was really true he objected to Jewish objects being sold in his stores.
Steve Green didn’t reply, but someone named Joel Jackson of customer
service did. No, Hobby Lobby doesn’t carry Jewish items, he explained,
but my “request has been shared” with his product buyer: they also, he
added, appreciate my business.
“What business?” I huffed, as I pressed delete on his e-mail.
As soon as I did, though, I had to laugh at the irony. Here I was,
irate that Hobby Lobby won’t sell me Hanukkah supplies – when Hanukkah
itself is all about having the strength to be separate, to resist the
pull of being just like everyone else.
Perhaps Hobby Lobby’s refusal to stock Hanukkah supplies outraged me
so much because in so many other areas in the United States and other
countries today, it can feel effortless to be Jewish. In the US, where
we don’t have to risk our lives to worship freely, where Jews are
accepted as another ethnic group out of many, encountering a chain store
that refuses to cater to Jews comes as a rude shock: one of the few
reminders we have that in some senses, we still might be separate.
The most prominent symbol of Hanukkah is the menorah: the eight-branched candelabra that we light each night of the holiday.
It recalls the miracle of the oil, when a small band of Jewish
fighters – after defeating the mighty Syrian-Greek army – rededicated
the holy Temple in Jerusalem. Finding nearly everything defiled, they
were able to locate one remaining jar of oil, which they used to kindle
the Temple’s menorah: instead of burning for only one day, it lasted for
eight days.
It’s customary to light our menorahs in a window, to publicize this
miracle. And their miracle is ours too. When we light the Hanukkah
lights, the blessing we say is in the present tense: we thank God for
performing miracles of our ancestors, and equally today.
