By Moshe Burt

It blared all over KYW News throughout the morning of my first Monday back in Philadelphia in nearly six years.

I'm talking about the "Ch'rutzmaka Card." (We don't spell out the Gentile spelling.)

It is the veritable rage among the marginal, secular Jews who seem to feel more kinship with Gentiles than with their Jewish brethren.

The tragedy here is that many American secular Jews have lost sight of and touch with the true meaning of Chanukah.  They see the Menorah, the daily exchanges of gifts, the chocolate "gelt", etc. as a if it were a recent tradition plugged into the season, ergo the forerunner of the "ch'rutzmaka Card", the "Chanukah bush."   Many secular Jews fear being alone and being estranged from their
Gentile friends who celebrate the "birth" of their deity in this season.

These marginal, intermarried and/or assimilated Jews, for whom the "ch'rutzmaka Card" is envogue, chase a bogus sense of equality with those who worship a diety who, as one prominent Rabbi put a number of years ago, "...died over 100 years before he was born."

For these poor secular Jews who lack any pride in who or what they are, the modern-day King Antiochus seems to have won out.  For them, the Greek demand that the Jewish people forsake the Torah way in favor of the glorification of the physical and over-indulgence in temporal pleasures seems to have won out in America's "kill them with love" society.

I'll now contrast these "Ch'rutzmaka Card Jews" with those who risked death under the Greeks or those of us who in December, 2004 dared to light Chanukah candles at an ELAL gate at JFK Airport on the 3rd night of Chanukah. 

For us, in the aftermath of 9/11 and the resultant severe security crackdowns, holding to our Jewishness, our ideals and to the meaning of Chanukah -- "...the victory of spirit lead by the warriors of spirit, the Chasmonaim", meant risking possible arrest, possibly being profiled as terrorists, etc.   Baruch Hashem that HaKodosh Borchu saw our cleaving to our Jewishness, despite our fears and we were not bothered as we lit.  For it was only once the candles burned to their end and the Menorah was safely re-packed, that the announcement came over the JFK Airport P.A.
system that lighting Chanukah Menorahs was prohibited in the airport.

Were it not for the security requirement that international travellers be present at the airport not less than 3 hours before take-off, Chanukah lighting in the airport would probably not have been necessary in most cases.

But, as they say, "it ain't over 'til the fat lady sings."  Many of those "Ch'rutzmaka Card Jews" can yet be brought "...back to their souls."  It's a huge challenge for Jewish outreach, but one that they've been trained for and which is their raison d'entre for remaining in Galut.

IY'H, that when we come to light Chanukah lights next Chanukah, that our ranks are swelled by multitudes of former "Ch'rutzmaka Card Jews" who have found Emet -- the truth and unity of Hashem, Torah and pride in their Jewishness.  May it be that by next year at this time, all our Jewish brethren are, where we all belong, in Eretz Yisrael.

May we be zocha, in the merit of every increasing numbers of Jews returning to their Jewish roots and returning to Eretz Yisrael, to the Moshiach, the Ge'ula Shlaima, "Yom Hashem V'Kol HaGoyim", the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v'yameinu -- speedily, in our time, -- Immediately; Achshav, Chik Chuk, Meiyad, Etmol!!!

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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of the Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.