Jews and Thanksgiving

An American Jewish holiday

Thanksgiving is not a Jewish holiday and never was. Its roots lie in a harvest feast held by Christian settlers in North America in 1621. Even so, it has become one of the most commonly kept occasions in Jewish households in the United States. The reason usually given is that it carries no clear Christian content. Christmas, Easter and Halloween do, which is why those days raise harder questions for Jews. Because the occasion is civic rather than religious, families who would never put up a Christmas tree will still gather for a meal. The pattern is old: Jewish communities in America have marked the day since the country's first national proclamation of it.

Pilgrim roots and Sukkot

No Jews were present at the 1621 harvest feast held by the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony, who were mostly Puritans. The Pilgrims, though, read themselves into the Hebrew Bible. They likened their voyage from England to the Israelites leaving Egypt, casting the king as pharaoh and the Atlantic as the Red Sea. In their theology they were entering a new covenant, with North America as a fresh Promised Land. Hebrew names were common among them, and some proposed that the colony adopt Hebrew outright. This sympathy had limits: many held anti-Jewish views and expected Jews to become Christians. Because Sukkot is itself a harvest festival, some writers have asked whether the Puritans took their model from it.

Debate over Jewish law

Jewish legal opinion on Thanksgiving falls into three camps: allowed, allowed with reservations, or forbidden. Most Jews, including most Orthodox Jews, see no religious problem. The relevant concern is avodah zarah, the ban on imitating other religions' customs, which could rule the day out because of its Christian beginnings. Against that, Orthodox rabbis such as Moshe Feinstein wrote responsa calling Thanksgiving a secular national occasion rather than a Christian one. He held that a meal, turkey included, was no violation, though he did not treat celebrating it as a mitzvah. Joseph B. Soloveitchik allowed the meal provided the food, turkey included, was kosher. The Haredi rabbi Yitzchak Hutner disagreed, ruling celebration out because the day sits on the Christian calendar.

Guidance from liberal movements

Conservative Judaism permits the holiday, and its Rabbinical Assembly supplies readings and prayers for it. Reconstructionist Judaism goes further, naming Thanksgiving among the most widely observed American public holidays; the day appears in its prayer books because that movement teaches that Jews live inside several civilisations at once, secular ones included. Reform Judaism also permits it and offers material for it: the Religious Action Center suggests ways to bring Jewish values into the celebration, and Manhattan's Central Synagogue has published guidance on preparing a Thanksgiving seder. The same Center has said the day is a sensitive one for Native Americans, for whom it recalls a long history of atrocities rather than a celebration, and a chance to strengthen ties between them and American Jews.

Food on the table

Turkey is the dish most often tied to the day in Jewish discussion, because the rabbis who permitted the meal usually mentioned it by name. Feinstein noted that eating turkey on the day breaks no law, and Soloveitchik's permission rested on all the food being kosher. Among American Jews who mark the holiday, kugel is frequently served along with the rest of the Thanksgiving dinner. The sources say little else about the menu, and households vary. What the religious literature stresses is the shared meal itself, and the question of what makes it a Jewish dinner rather than simply an American one.

How Jews and Thanksgiving is kept

Families gather at home rather than at synagogue for this one. The day belongs to the national calendar, so no Hebrew date is involved and no special liturgy is required. Those who keep it sit down to a large meal, turkey at the centre where the household eats meat, and kugel often among the side dishes. Some congregations add readings or prayers; Reform and Conservative bodies publish such material, and Reconstructionist prayer books include the day. Others mark it not at all. Haredi families who follow the ruling against it treat it as an ordinary weekday, and a minority of Orthodox households keep the meal strictly kosher.

When and where

The holiday belongs to the American civic calendar, not the Hebrew one, so its date is set by the United States rather than by the Jewish year. George Washington issued the first national proclamation in 1789, and Jewish communities in America have marked the occasion every year since then. No Hebrew month or festival date applies.

The practice belongs to the United States, where the holiday is national and where Jewish communities have observed it since 1789. It is strongest among non-Haredi households and congregations. The longest continuous record belongs to the Shearith Israel congregation in Manhattan, which has kept the day every year from 1789 onward. Other communities across the country do the same.

What Jews and Thanksgiving means

For those who keep it, the day carries two meanings at once. It is American: a civic occasion of gratitude, shared with neighbours of every faith, which is exactly why many families feel free to take part. And it is, for some, an uncomfortable reminder. The Reform movement's Religious Action Center has said the holiday is a difficult one for Native Americans, whose ancestors suffered atrocities, and has called it a moment for better relations between them and Jewish Americans.

Questions people ask about Jews and Thanksgiving

See also

Papel picadoA Mexican folk art of cutting intricate designs into tissue paper for festive and spiritual displays.NalukataqA spring whaling festival of the Iñupiat in Northern Alaska, featuring a blanket toss and communal feast.KwanzaaA seven-day African American celebration of heritage, family and community valuesTanabataA Japanese summer star festival of written wishes hung on leafy bamboo.

Good reading and sources

• Jewish Rituals & Practices: Do Jews Celebrate Thanksgiving?Jewish Virtual Library, Article
• Jewish Rituals & Practices: Do Jews Celebrate Thanksgiving?Jewish Virtual Library, Article

• Jews and Thanksgiving on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-10.