Deck the halls with boughs of challah: When Santa Claus… is Jewish

Benny Cukier owns Goldberg’s Famous Deli in Factoria, a Jewish deli owned by a Jewish man. But for three years, he played Santa Claus at Seattle’s flagship Nordstrom store downtown.

“You know, it was kind of a whim thing, it was before I bought the restaurant,” Benny said, while customers sitting around us dined on pastrami sandwiches and chopped chicken liver. “One day I went to my wife and just said, ‘You know, I think I want to do something in December, I have nothing to do.’ She asked me what, and I said, ‘You’ll find this unbelievable, but I think I want to be Santa Claus.’ And she said, ‘Santa Claus? I mean, you’re Jewish!”

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Really Jewish. Until his second marriage to a non-Jew, he had never even celebrated Christmas.

“I’m very proud to be a Jew. I went to Hebrew school all my life, never went to public school, even through to theological college. I was three to four months away from being a rabbi, and here I wound end up being a Santa Claus.”

He was very popular with his fellow Santas.

“Being that I was the Jewish guy I always got the Christmas Eve session because, of course, all of them wanted to be home. I had no initiative to be home at all, so I went in and did it.”

New York City trial lawyer Dana Friedman has been donning the fuzzy red and white Santa suit since 2001. After 9/11, Dana was inspired to personally give back to first responders, police officers and firefighters, so he started playing Santa at police precincts and firehouses, and eventually expanded to hospitals and orphanages.

“It’s funny because my Jewish friends never batted an eye,” said Dana. “In Jewish culture there’s something called tzedakah, and tzedakah means charity. One of the highest forms of charity is to give without the person knowing who the benefactor is. So as far as anybody knows, that was Santa and Dana Friedman does not exist. Just Santa Claus.”

And Dana goes all in for the role.

“My beard is real and it’s all natural and takes six months to grow. I start six months out and I shave it off on Christmas day.”

Despite 13 years of shlepping around the city as Santa, Dana says he has experienced a little criticism.

“Every once in a while I get somebody who complains that Santa is Jewish. I very nicely remind them that so was Jesus.

Meanwhile, Benny’s parents are silently guilting him from the grave.

“My father, he should rest in peace, probably rolled in his grave 15 times,” said Benny. “And my mother probably too, but especially my father because my father was closer to the orthodox level. They were the old fashioned type parents. I had the utmost respect for my mom and dad. I think, from a respectful point of view, I would have never gone this road if they were alive. It wasn’t taking advantage that they weren’t alive, but I knew it would hurt them in a certain way.”

Three years ago Benny hung up his 26 piece Santa suit, belly included, for good, saying the job was just too physically tolling.

“You know, with having all those people sitting on your lap, the kids kicking you.”

But he still loved the experience, and what it taught him.

“It’s like I told my children,” Benny said. “They celebrate Christmas now too. You’re Jewish, you should be proud of being Jewish, but you gotta respect everybody, no matter who they are, what they are and what they believe in. That’s the way I’ve always been. Treat everybody equally.”

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Meanwhile, on the east coast, Dana is still in the Santa business, but he only did one year on mall duty.

“I don’t think I would ever be a mall Santa again,” he said. “It was abysmal. It became more work than fun. It’s much easier being a trial lawyer than a mall Santa, that I can tell you.”