Like many contemporaries, Copland regarded Judaism alternately in terms of religion, culture, and race; but he showed relatively little involvement in any aspect of his Jewish heritage... At the same time, he had ties to Christianity, identifying with such profoundly Christian writers as Gerard Manley Hopkins and often spending Christmas Day at home with a special dinner with close friends... In general, his music seemed to evoke Protestant hymns as often as it did Jewish chant...Copland characteristically found connections among various religious traditions... But if Copland was discreet about his Jewish background, he never hid it, either.