America’s Top Jewish Santa Defies Judaic Law

THERE’S a Jewish law – Chillul Hashem – that prohibits the desecration of God’s name. It covers a whole bunch of stuff … including dressing up as Santa Claus. Go figure.

But there’s a get-out clause. A Jew can legitimately wear an incomplete Santa’s outfit without invoking God’s wrath. The Almighty would be OK with him wearing a something like a big furry Jewish hat or a MAGA cap of any colour except green instead of traditional Santa headgear.

This I learned from Israeli Rabbi David Samson, who writes an “Ask the Rabbi” column for Yeshiva:

If you were to wear the Santa Claus suit with a shtreimmel and not Santa’s funny red hat, that might be a way of taking the job and still remain within the parameters of Jewish law. Furthermore, it is forbidden for a Jew to say that he is a gentile, even if one’s life is endangered.

To save one’s life, a Jew is allowed to wear the clothes of a gentile. However, to dress up as Santa for monetary reward, there doesn’t seem to be any permission for this. In a similar vein, it is forbidden to wear a green hat, the type that the followers of Mohammed wear.

Does Rick Rosenthal – aka Santa Rick, above – look bothered by the prohibition? Nope, because he’s not. To critics who cry Chillul Hashem, he maintains it’s no different from a Jew selling toys for Christmas.

Rosenthal, 68 – according a captivating festive season report in Forward –began his career as Santa Claus as a teen in Atlanta. In the 1960s, he’d stop by the homes of his cheerleader friends and garland their trees with miniature bagels. It started as a joke but, decades later, became a calling.

A full-time “Modern Orthodox Jew” for over 30 years, Rosenthal said:

To me Christmas is about Santa. For a non-Jew it may be about Jesus, but for me it was about Santa and getting a free candy cane — I was into the candy canes.

On being Santa and Jewish he said:

If you just keep it simple it’s really easy to be Santa — you’re not Jesus and you’re not Saint Nicholas.

Rosenthal had a lot of gigs before he became the kosher dean of his own Santa school and entertainment agency. Before that he worked for decades as an arbitrator for the Georgia State Bar and was once a national distributor for … tasers!

After attending a few “Santa schools,” which teach men in red how to improvise and handle unpredictable tots, he decided the industry needed training that was more well-rounded and committed to the craft.

In 2016, he and his wife, Tracy, opened the Northern Lights Santa Academy, the subject of the film Santa School, now streaming on Amazon.

A yearly professional development programme, Rick’s academy hosts guest instructors like lawyers to advise on Santa contracts and costumers to speak about Santa’s sartorial choices. One year, it even hosted a German-Jewish rocket scientist to explain how Santa could make all his trips in one day.

So seriously does he take his role that has a $4,000,000 Santa liability insurance policy.

He may be America’s premier Jewish Santa, but there are others.

It’s amazing how many Jews I get to teach in my school.

He noted that his Jewish acolytes are mostly of the Reform variety.

When people learn Rosenthal is Jewish, he says they often get “Zionistic”, whatever that means. Only once did he experience an awkward moment that left him tongue-tied. A small child leapt on his lap and said “Happy birthday, Jesus.”

In nod towards the season – and because all places on entertainment in my neck of the woods are operating under heavy, joyless restrictions because of you-know-what – I sat down on Wednesday to watch Fatman, an utterly bonkers dark comedy about a spoiled little brat who hires a hit man to assassinate Santa, who’d gifted him a lump of coal.

When I mentioned this on my Facebook page – and that Santa is played by a grumpy Mel Gibson – ardent Freethinker follower Stephen Harvie responded by saying: