How to be sensitive to Jewish friends concerning holidays?

Question

I play D&D with a group of friends. One of them is Jewish and at least a little religious--he goes to temple for holidays at least. I am the GM and I did a fun little Winter+Yule themed adventure. This was before I knew he is Jewish. He seems happy to hear about Christmas stuff, and even asked all of us what we got for Christmas when we met up in January, then told us what he got for Hanukkah. That's when I learned he is Jewish. So it's not a big deal.

However, I still would like to be more inclusive next time. What I did this time was have an adventure that included skiing, a reindeer, mistletoe, and ice-gnomes. There was no Santa, Christmas tree, presents, or mention of any holiday or religion within the game. But the reindeer and mistletoe are very obviously Yule-themed, aren't they? I think it is ok to have holiday themes in our D&D games, but I would like to be more inclusive and not just make them all Christian holidays or European Pagan holidays. Like, it could be ok if winter has a Yule theme, as long as we do a different theme at a different part of the year?

Any suggestions?

Innocent Victim · Accepted Answer

I suggest that you ask your Jewish friends. They're the only ones who can give you a correct answer as to how observant they are.

JP · Answer

That's great that you want to be sensitive to your Jewish friend.

However, given that D&D is pretty much make-believe, I don't think he'll be offended by the more, shall we say, pagan elements of Christmas traditions. In fact, it seems he hasn't been.

But if you want to prepare a more Jewish-flavored adventure at another time of the year, you can ask him, unless you're trying to surprise him. If the latter, maybe something about the exodus from Egypt, around Passover time, would be something he would like.

kaganate · Answer

Don;'t worry about it.

One of my good friends, who happens to be an Orthodox Jewish woman, her favorite comic of all time was the Lobo Christmass story.

Speaking as an Orthodox Jew and a one time RPG geek -- do what is right by the storytelling.

If you're not a biggot -- we're just fine with you telling the stories you know.
They come out much better that way.

? · Answer

Maybe you can tie in Hanukkah by adding a themed quest, i.e. retrieve a missing ancient lamp for an NPC group. You could get really creative with the idea.

Mark S, JPAA · Answer

Add in a magic dreidel and some gold-covered chocolate coins and you should be good to go.  <sigh>  I used to play D&D when I was younger--I had a 12th level wizard, as I recall, and a 9th level troll.

Yaakov · Answer

Put in a dreidel and stuff. Btw what's "D&D" ? Just wondering

Anonymous · Answer

You could scrap the D&D and play with a dradle.

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How to be sensitive to Jewish friends concerning holidays?

7 Answers