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Obama Leaves ‘Our Lord’ Out of It

Stays squarely in the Common Era

by
Marc Tracy
May 04, 2010
Jesus.(Wikipedia)
Jesus.(Wikipedia)

This is actually awesome. You would be hard-pressed to find a young Jewish boy or girl who didn’t at some point look at a parent’s diploma and wonder why it had to use the words, “In the Year of Our Lord,” given that Hhe really isn’t everyone’s Llord. (A.D. has the same problem, standing for “Anno Domini,” the Latin original of ITYOOL.)

Which is why, in this blogger’s opinion, it was super-cool of the Obama administration to omit any reference to the Christian divine in its announcement of Jewish Heritage Month. Instead, it merely said “in the year two thousand ten.” In addition to being more sensitive, it’s also more accurate: As pedantic Jews like me never tire of pointing out, Jesus Christ was actually born in 5 B.C.—that is, Before Christ. Which, come to think of it, would constitute something of a miracle.

White House Drops Christian Dating for Jewish Proclamation [Ben Smith]
Earlier: Happy Jewish Heritage Month!

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.