Celebrating our unique diversity

Re "The real lesson of the Hanukkah story," Opinion Voices, Dec. 21

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DREW ANGERER Getty Images A VIEW of the National Menorah near the White House in 2023.

I RARELY agree with contributing writer Josh Hammer's op-eds. That said, I agree with him about cultural assimilation.

The United States is a culture of immigrants bringing vestiges of their cultural origins with them as they reinvent themselves. Nobody already in the U.S. should try to make them stop celebrating those origins, using their first languages or waving their homeland flags. They have a perfect right to maintain their culture.

Of course, living in their new homes will require that they learn about the traditions, language and flag that were created by those who came before. And they will learn, to greater and lesser degrees, as they feel the need. Those attempting to bleach the culture out of immigrants today are the contemporary version of the Seleucid Empire Hammer speaks of, which attempted to force the Jews to assimilate in the Hanukkah story.

This holiday, as the op-ed points out, is a perfect reminder for us all to celebrate the special diversity of the U.S. and to observe how all of our differences make us stronger together.

DAVID GENE ECHT Torrance