Thanksgiving, a sham holiday based on trauma and genocide, is approaching, which means you've probably put up a Christmas tree/Christmas decorations/started Christmas-based programs at your public library.
I bet you have a lot of reasons why this is OK.

You know the truth, but you'd rather not confront it, so you've dappled your Christmas-loving brain with ways to justify your Christmas tree.
Let's be honest. You know better. You're just going to do what you're going to do anyway.

Because even though you say "Libraries are for everyone!" you actually just mean that libraries are for you and people like you.

The co-existing argument to "libraries are for everyone!" is "Christmas/Santa is for everyone!" which probably well-intentioned+maybe meant to be welcoming, but comments like this actual erase entire cultures+completely religions. Christmas is for you. It may not be for me.

Jewish people+Muslim people + others have their own distinct practices and traditions that are completely separate from Christianity. We are our own people. Don't assume we don't have anything of our own. It's hard to imagine that we live complex lives apart from yours but we do.

Slapping up a menorah in your library doesn't make things "equal". Christmas trees and Santas are secular. Menorahs are hard to secularize, as they are Jewish ceremonial art related to a holiday that discusses our survival as the Jewish people.

And when you slap a menorah on your library in the name of equality, you're telling on yourself. Christmas is a major Christian holiday. Hanukkah, is NOT a major Jewish holiday. It's not even a High Holy day.

If your library is going to flex that it cares abt Jewish people, try recognizing Yom Kippur or Rosh Hashanah. Be aware, these are not holidays that are easy to secularize. There's no fluffy bunny or colorful egg to trot out. Educate yrself before you embarrass your organization

Hanukkah is not Jewish Christmas. Its proximity to Christmas does not make it as vital to Jewish people as a whole as Christmas is to Christianity. Hanukkah predates Christmas. It was here before your holiday. We don't need your traditions, we have our own.

When I see a Christmas tree in a public space or in a library or a school, I am being given the message that this space is not for me and that I am not welcome there. No tokenized menorah or Kwanzaa display is going to change my mind.

I know you think Christmas trees are *for* everyone. However, if that were the case, they wouldn't be called Christmas trees. You may even get cute and try to educate me on the tree's pagan origins, as if that same tired, meaningless argument isn't trotted out every year.

You could opt for snowflake decorations, blue and white icicles and silver stars. You could choose to change your Christmas craft programs to winter-themed ones. You might wear a crown of snowballs at the reference desk instead of a Santa hat. You could make these choices.

You could, you can, but you won't. Because you can't imagine a world where Christmas isn't vitally important to every last person on earth. You can't understand why your traditions won't be mine. You love Christmas+everyone must love it with you at your library, or else.

Someone sold you the line that your library's community is completely homogenous, and you fell for that lie.
Someone told you a story about that one cool Jew who liked Christmas, and you've been basing your community outreach on that one anecdote.

You may even think that Jewish, Muslim, and otherwise non-Christian people need to be "educated" about Christmas, as if Christianity isn't the most prevalent, pervasive, and mainstream American narrative. I know your songs. I know your traditions. You need not lecture me.

I was taught your songs+traditions in public schools, after-school specials, books, and film. I am aware of your religion. As a public librarian, it is not your job to offer your religion to me as an educational experience. If I care to learn, I'll borrow a book.

You know this all already, but you persevere, making sure everyone in your community experiences Christmas no matter where they go or what they believe. You could opt out of that Christmas tree.
The Santa hat.
That Christmas-themed craft program.
You won't.
And you never will.

Ask your local libraries (in my case @NYPL, @QPLNYC, and @BKLYNlibrary) how their libraries recognize Christmas in their branches. Ask them if they make efforts during Jewish High Holy days, or only when it's convenient+near a Christian holiday.

Ask them how they intend to make non-Christian patrons feel welcome, despite the Christmas themed decorations and programs and costumes.
Tag them and ask them. Hold them accountable. Are libraries really for everyone?

Schools, you're not blameless. My friend's son, 6 years old, staged a protest during an assembly where he was made to sing a Christmas song. And he just stood there, on stage, not singing. Adults shouldn't put Jewish children in this scenario. It's our job to take care of them!

Everyone was proud of him but he knows that he's not as important as the other kids in his class. Instead of participating, he had to make a statement. It's not right. He's only 6. An adult should've been watching out for him, but all she told him was, "It's not a religious song"

I cry writing this thread every year. As a white Jewish person, I benefit from so much privilege. I acknowledge this. I try to use my privilege for good. Sometimes I fall short. Every year around late November, I feel that tug of insignificance aimed for me+my people.

It's hurts, deep down, every year.

Happy to be tweeting this outside of the Storytime Underground page, full of blonde Erins and Coreys calling you a grinch and saying that they know what it's like to be Jewish because they sometimes do witch shit.

I dare one of you to post this in ALATT

I will not help librarians do research on non-Christian religions. Imagine you have a patron asking you about Jewish holidays at your ref desk. What do you do? Find a Jewish stranger on Twitter?

What about, instead of asking me how to do a program on Yom Kippur, a holiday you know nothing about, you simply move away from holiday-themed programs and decorations?

If a library tells you they're inclusive, ask some clarifying questions. This is not an answer. It's a soundbite.

Final note: Rather than attempt a clumsy Passover themed program as your tone deaf nod to inclusion, why don't you leave religion to churches and temples and instead focus on non-religious decorations and programs? Stop asking me, a Jewish person, how to research Judaism.

No one is interested in your goyishe stab at a Purim program. Achieve equity in your public library by de-centering Christmas and Christianity. Period. I've given you this thread every November for free. I'm not doing free labor for librarians who lack basic research skills.

ALATT is essentially just book tree posts