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November 25, 2008 | 3:33 pm

How Jewish is Thanksgiving?

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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There were no Jews on the Mayflower, but Edmon J. Rodman says Turkey Day is very Jewy. Thanksgiving celebrates a persecuted religious group that fled their homeland for freedom, and, like all Jewish holidays, it includes family gatherings around food. I guess you could call it an honorary MOT holiday.

Rodman writes:

Thanksgiving is one of the few days in America where interfaith cooperation reigns,  with many synagogues and churches holding combined services. Rabbis, ministers, priests and pastors try valiantly to craft services that will be meaningful yet not offensive to their combined congregations.

As a child at such a service, the first time I went to a church, the service ended with the congregation singing a song of thanks that began, “We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing …” From a hymn book I sang along, reassured to discover that other people sang about God, too.

Jews have their own prayers and psalms of thanks. Modim, a prayer included morning, noon and night in the daily liturgy, includes the words, “We thank you and praise you for our lives that are in your hand.”

This year at my Thanksgiving dinner I plan to break bread with the motzi and end with the Birkat Hamazon, the grace after meal that begins, “Let us thank the One whose food we have eaten.”

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This Day ... In Jewish History

1492: After sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sights a Bahamian island, believing he has reached East Asia. His expedition, including Hebrew speaker Luis de Torres (the translator) went ashore the same day and claimed the land for Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain, who sponsored his attempt to find a western ocean route to China, India, and the fabled gold and Spice Islands of Asia. Louis de Torres, a Marrano, was the first member of Columbus’ expedition to set foot in the Western Hemisphere. He discovered and introduced tobacco into Europe. He saw a bird he thought to be a peacock [check out the tail feather configuration - BP] and called it a “tuki” (Hebrew for peacock - I Kings X22). Today that bird is known as a turkey.

http://www.jewishaz.com/jewishnews/041112/sukkot.shtml

Thanksgiving: the American Sukkot?
LINDA MOREL
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Did you know that Thanksgiving is really a Jewish holiday?

Although Thanksgiving is not on the Jewish calendar, historians believe Sukkot may have inspired America’s favorite farewell to fall, often nicknamed “Turkey Day.”

“The pilgrims based their customs on the Bible,” says Gloria Kaufer Greene, author of the “New Jewish Holiday Cookbook” (Times Books, $29.95 hardcover). “They knew that Sukkot was an autumn harvest festival, and there is evidence that they fashioned the first Thanksgiving after the Jewish custom of celebrating the success of the year’s crops.”

Linda Burghardt, author of “Jewish Holiday Traditions” (Citadel Press, $24.95 hardcover), says, “Sukkot is considered a model for Thanksgiving. Both holidays revolve around showing gratitude for a bountiful harvest.”

Comment by Ben Plonie on 11/26/08 at 2:44 am

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