The following year, Coolidge signed legislation that barred Jews and non-Europeans from immigrating to the U.S.
In the following decades, Americans became more open to those who had once been outsiders, said Naar. The Christmas carols written by Jews helped make that happen. Yet American Jews remain ambivalent about holiday traditions such as Christmas trees.
After all, there’s no way to take Christianity out of the holiday. “At the end of the day, the name of the holiday is still Christmas,” said Naar.
If Torba’s defense of Christmas is neither particularly American nor particularly religious, his antisemitism is in keeping with the ideology he espouses, Christian nationalism.
Data from a 2020 national survey found a relationship between Christian nationalism — the idea that America belongs to Christians and that Christians should run the country — and antisemitism. The more that Americans believed in Christian nationalism, the more they supported antisemitic claims that Jews have too much power in America and around the world.
“It’s a function of what psychologists call a social dominance orientation,” said Paul Djupe, associate professor of political science at Denison University. “They think that there’s a rightful order of things and that Christians should be on top.”
Despite the anger of Christian nationalism, Sarna doubted that many people know the religion of Christmas carol writers. Or care what they believe.
Most people who sing Christmas carols, he said, just want to sing their favorites.
“‘White Christmas’ remains one of the most popular Christmas carols,” he said. “People think it comes from the time of Jesus — not from Irving Berlin.”
This article originally appeared here.