A Christmas Tree In A Torah Home

The editor of the Detroit Free Press related the following:

His grandmother Mary emigrated from Ireland as an 18 year old girl. She moved to Detriot and found work as a maid for a Jewish family. She had probably never met a Jew in her life until she met this family. The man of the house was a prominent personality and President of the local Orthodox shul.

One time the family went on vacation and were supposed to come back on December 24th. When they were away Mary noticed that they had no Christmas tree or decorations [!] so she innocently took some of the money they had left her to use in their absence to buy a tree and decorate the home.

When they returned they were quite shocked by what they saw. Especially given the fact that their tree was by the window in full view of anybody who passed by.

The man of the house called Mary into his study and told her that he was so touched by her gesture. He has never had anybody do something sooooo nice for him. He took out a hundred dollar bill [back when a hundred dollars was worth thousands of dollars today] and gave it to her as a show of his appreciation.

Then he gently told her that as Jews we don't celebrate Christmas so they don't really need to keep the tree and decorations.

Because of this story, said the editor of the Detroit Free Press, I have never let one bad word be written about the State of Israel [and I assume the Jews in general] in my newspaper.

We see how one little act of Kiddush Hashem can have such far reaching ramifications.

Amazing story.