For a Jew to celebrate Thanksgiving, he insisted, is no different from a Jew celebrating any other non-Jewish festival. It is a sin.

Historically speaking, my fervently Orthodox critic had a point. Thanksgiving did have its origins in Christendom – specifically, the Pilgrims’ gratitude for having survived the harsh winter of 1622-23. Moreover, even in the 19th century, Thanksgiving Day proclamations were sometimes addressed to Christian Americans alone. In 1844, for example, South Carolina’s Governor James H. Hammond issued the following Thanksgiving Proclamation:

Whereas, it becomes all Christian nations to acknowledge at stated periods, their dependence on Almighty God, to express their gratitude for His past mercies, and humbly and devoutly to implore His blessing for the future:

Now, therefore, I, James H. Hammond, Governor of the State of South Carolina, do, in conformity with the established usage of this State, appoint the first Thursday in October next, to be observed as a day of Thanksgiving, Humiliation and Prayer, and invite and exhort our citizens of all denominations to assemble at their respective places of worship, to offer up their devotions to God their Creator, and his Son Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world.

The Jews of South Carolina did not celebrate that Thanksgiving, and for many years Jews in other states protested whenever Thanksgiving proclamations excluded them. Some recalled that Thomas Jefferson, as President, opposed government-proclaimed days of thanksgiving altogether, lest he “indirectly assume to the United States an authority over religious exercises.”

But once Thanksgiving became a national holiday, in 1863, the terms of the holiday changed. President Lincoln, for example, set aside the last Thursday of November of that year “as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.” Subsequent Presidents echoed this language, thereby including people of all faiths – but not atheists -- in the national holiday. President Truman, in 1950, went out of his way to explicitly include Jews in his Thanksgiving proclamation: "I call upon every citizen to offer thanks to God for His gracious guidance and help,” he wrote, “I entreat them, in church, chapel, and synagogue, in their homes and in the busy walks of life, every day and everywhere, to pray for peace." No Presidential proclamation has ever restricted Thanksgiving the way Governor Hammond tried to do.

Thanksgiving has thus become part of American civil religion.The holiday’s Christian origins are largely forgotten–so much so, that some Jews, quite erroneously, consider Thanksgiving to have been a Puritan version of their own fall festival of Sukkot (Tabernacles). Like America itself, Thanksgiving has come to speak the language of religious pluralism. It belongs to people of all faiths.

That is why, as a Jew, I do happily celebrate Thanksgiving.In doing so, I focus not on the parochial holiday that Thanksgiving once was, but on the broadly inclusive holiday that it has over time become.

For that, and for the fact that I was born in America after so many other Jews were murdered in Europe, I once again this year prepare to give thanks.