the country, its massive congregationsrnon Sabbaths, its pleasure in pubhc witnessrnto the faith in countless ways, itsrnunashamed love of God. And 1 am inclinedrnto think that when Jews beginrndecorating their homes for Hanukkah,rnthe Lubovitch Hasidim will lead the wa}.rnThen people will think it is very Jewishrnand forget where it came from, the wayrnthcv think that the strange clothes of thernLubovitchers are quintessentially Jewish,rnnot remembering that the Polish nobilit’rnwore them 300 years ago.rnOne of the glories of Judaic lifernthroughout the ages has been its capacityrnto adopt the great, and accessible, giftsrnof the Gentiles. If we gave the worldrnOne God and the Torah, we got a goodrnreward. Otlier peoples gave us what wernmade distinctively our own, from myrngrandmother’s special dishes, which turnrnout to be pure Polish, to our own, specialrnformulation of classical Greek philosophyrnin the Mishnah, the first Judaic holyrnbook after Scripture (“the Old Testament”rnJust now, someone very smart daydreamedrnin my presence, “Why can’t wernsing ‘Adon Olam’ (the hymn that eontainsrnthe principles of the faith, sung atrnsnagogue worship on the Sabbath), tornthe tune of ‘Amazing Grace’?” So I wentrnand I tried it, and it works. The hymnrnfor Hanukkah, “Mooz tsur” (“Rock ofrnAges”) is sung to the tunc of an oldrnGerman drinking song, but when wernsing it. it is made holy.rnSo why not add to the light of the winterrnsolstice not only a Hanukkah Menorahrnin the window, but Judah Maceabeernin front, facing my neighbor’s SantarnGlaus and reindeer—facing them and,rnwith all due respect, facing them down?rnWe rcalh’ do have a religion of our own,rnand m this country, which has transcendedrntolerance and accorded authenticrnfreedom, we can enjov it and even sharernits pleasures vyith our Ghristian neighbors.rnJacob Neusmr is Distinguished ResearchrnProfessor ofReUgious Studies at thernUniversity of South Florida in Tamparnand Visiting Professor ofReUgion at BardrnCollege. His most recent book is Price ofrnE.xcellenee (Continuum).rnLetter FromrnEnglandrnby Derrick TurnerrnMulticulturalism inrnMetrolandrnAs recently as 1882, Neasden in northrnLondon was an obscure hamlet of severalrnlarge houses, a few cottages, and arnsmithy. Then the Metropolitan Railwayrnand, later, the North Gireular Road wentrnthrough and thousands of often jerrybuiltrnhouses sprang up along theirrnlengths, as London bit ravenously intornMiddlesex. Although Neasden rapidlyrnbecame a location for railway depots andrnfactories, it also gained a reputation forrnbeing synonymous with featureless,rnsmug suburbia. “Neasden, the boroughrneverybody’s pleased in,” went a comicrnsong in John Betjeman’s eocativcrndocumentary about the MetropolitanrnRailway, Metroland, and the humorousrnconceit has been raised into commonrnparlance by the satirical magazine PrivaternEye.rnFew events, then, could have so pointedlyrnexemplified the eclipse of old Londonrnand the possibly terminal decline ofrnAnglicanism as the recent opening ofrna ast, phantasmogorical Hindu templernin the middle of Neasden, at the end ofrnan unremarkable residential street. Feyrnwould have been able to envision thernornate, impressive structure that hasrnsprung up over the last two and a halfrnyears (although it does slightly resemblernnearby Wembley Stadium), which isrnnow the largest Hindu temple in thernWestern world.rnWhen Pramukh Swami Maharaj, thernleader of the Swaminarayan movementrnwhich has built the temple, had a visionrnof a Hindu edifice in Britain that wouldrn”last a thousand years,” the monev andrnlabor were speedily forthcoming fromrnHindus around the world, in a selflessrncorporate gesture that should make mostrnBritons and Ghristians blush. Thousandsrnof tons of specially imported Italianrnmarble, Bulgarian limestone, andrnwood were handearved by 1,500 volunteersrnin India, and assembled under thernsupervision of an English architect, into arnsumptuous shrine, deified in its ownrnright, where every part of the temple relatesrnto a part of the human body, andrnthe I? idols—including the trinity ofrnBrahma, Vishnu and Siva, Siva’s wifernKali, Kama (god of sexual love), andrnGouri/Isani (goddess of abundance)—rnmay be appropriately idolized. Some ofrnthe carved designs have not been usedrnfor six centuries, and no steel was used inrnthe construction, so as not to attractrnmagnetic fields which might “disturbrnmeditation.”rnAll of the newsreaders and reportersrnwho covered the temple story seemed tornhave been told to smile as w idely as theyrncould when they introduced the item, sornas to avert possible complaints of subconsciousrnracial discrimination. Therncoverage focused on the understandablernhappiness of the Hindus and the architecturernof what one reporter called “thernTaj Mahal of the West.” One of the Hindurncoordinators said that this will “putrnNeasden on the map,” implying thatrntourists would come from all over thernworld to marvel, and one reporter withrnan Asian name showed her Hindu sliprnwhen she said how it “promised sanctuary.”rnIt is interesting to consider whatrnwould have been the media reaction, orrnthe reaction of local Labour councillors,rnif any Ghristian sect which had a heritagernof belief in a caste system, ophiolatry,rnsuttee, and incarcerating menstruatingrngirls had begun building a cathedralrnin Neasden. Undoubtedly the commentaryrnwould, at best, have been sneeringrnand, at worst, there would haye beenrndark whispers of sexist, elitist, vaguelyrn”racist” conspiracies.rnWhite, and presumably nominallyrnGhristian, locals showed confusion whenrnquizzed by reporters about how they felt.rnThey tried very hard not to appear negative,rnalthough it was obvious they did notrnlike it. One local commented that therntemple “will cause lots of problems—rnparking and suchlike,” but you could notrnhelp suspecting that he was really thinkingrnof more elemental “problems”—rnsuch as the permanent symbol of hisrnown territorial, social, and spiritual displacementrnthat will now confront himrnevery time he walks down his street.rnThis was the onlv dark note east in thernfulsome reportage, except when one reporterrnmentioned, in passing, that HarernKrishnas were having problems withrntheir too-small temple a few miles away.rnOne was left with the disquieting impressionrnthat soon there would be anrnJANUARY 1996/37rnrnrn