Latke making. Check. Dreidel spinning. Check. Standing next to a nine foot menorah in the middle of campus (I am in the white scarf with my rabbi and family). Check.
Yes, it has been a good Chanukah indeed.
I loved Chanukah when I was little for the obvious reason: yummy food and presents. Sure the story of Judah and the Maccabees defending Jews from Hellenization by force was cool, but mostly I just wanted another jelly donut please. As I got older, I started to become a bit disillusioned. My family stopped doing hard core gift-giving and I started to realize that the holiday is mostly popular because it happens to coincide with Christmas and it has gotten caught up in multiculturalism of the past few decades.
Without Christmas propping up Chanukah, it just would’ve been a minor celebration forgotten by most Jews, and completely unknown to non-Jews.
According to the 2001 Nation Jewish Population Survey, Chanukah candle lighting is one of the most observed Jewish practice in America with 72% of all Jews lighting and 53% of intermarried Jews doing so (it the most observed ritual in that group). It is listed in the trifecta of winter holidays along with Christmas and Kwanzaa. It has its own postage stamp. It even had its own Rugrats special. Ask any American to list Jewish holiday, and odds are good that Chanukah will be number one or two.
In the past few years, I would eat a latke and light candles maybe the first night, but that was it. It seemed like the holiday was just an attempt to make Jewish kids feel good about themselves because they had no Santa. I was pretty much over Chanukah.
This year, though, I realized that in a way it’s sort of a blessing that Chanukah has gotten caught up in the seasonal festivities. I was chatting with my rabbi last week about Chanukah and we discussed the requirement to advertise Chanukah to the world. Jews traditionally have done so by placing Chanukah menorahs in their windows so that people walking by at night could see them. Is it larger than this though? I think it is.
All during Chanukah this year, BU Hillel lit a nine-foot menorah in the center of campus every night. People showed up, guests came to light the menorah (including the Dean of Students and Professor Elie Wiesel) and everyone prayed, sang and ate latkes outside as busy students bustled by on their way to the library to study for finals. Many non-Jews were included in the crowd and some stopped to join us.
Being there opened me up to the possibilities of Chanukah and made me realize something seemingly paradoxical: Christmas is possibly the best advertisement that Chanukah has ever had.
Comments (29)
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VOTE:
'NO' to News-Papers Company's owning {your Kids minds future & yours too] against them owning T.V Stations & Satellite Station!
'NO' to News Paper Company's! No Broad Casting! No!
Take Back your almost Hijacked Nation! Take back Sweet sweet America! Now!
Posted December 16, 2007 8:50 AM
Posted on December 16, 2007 08:50
Growing up in a smallish, midwestern community I didn't know many Jews (not that you take surveys when you're a kid, anyway).
Chanukah's publicity gave me a small peek into another world that I would not have otherwise known.
Of course, that was then and this is now. All grown-up, I understand that Chanukah isn't the most major holiday in the Jewish calendar...but, (for me at least) it retaines an essence of connection since we're all celebrating at the same time.
Kinda simple some might say - but, really, I agree that "lights are pretty" and that "Santa loves Shari".
I'd really like clarification from DARIAN on what exactly he's "sick of"? Is all the happiness, celebrating, and family time upsetting you? Why?
Posted December 14, 2007 12:34 PM
Posted on December 14, 2007 12:34
It's very interesting that Chanukah, as celebrated in the USA, is more commercialized - just as with Christmas. So before heaping scorn on others, perhaps we all should look at ourselves - how many people who profess to Christianity only show up for Christmas Eve service and Easter morning service? How many people have a Christmas tree and celebrate Christmas without ever going to church? How many people sit down for Christmas dinner and do not say grace? How many of us prefer to be Christians of the Word rather than of works?
Posted December 13, 2007 9:39 PM
Posted on December 13, 2007 21:39
Every post by the defenders is either
1.snotty (ass")
2. calls others posters liar ("specify the midwestern university, so much is made up")
or whines (poor little kids cry because they're different...how about blacks, muslims, IRANIANS we shold be resettling in this country.
It's so typical...and why so many really are, increasingly,
SICK OF IT.
Posted December 13, 2007 11:51 AM
Posted on December 13, 2007 11:51
Every post by the defenders is either
1.snotty (ass")
2. calls others posters liar ("specify the midwestern university, so much is made up")
or whines (poor little kids cry because they're different...how about blacks, muslims, IRANIANS we shold be resettling in this country.
It's so typical...and why so many really are, increasingly,
SICK OF IT.
Posted December 13, 2007 11:51 AM
Posted on December 13, 2007 11:51
Re: Double standards
Maybe because so many places don't have a menorah - they just have a tree? I see no problem with having a Christmas tree if you're going to have everything else too, but if you're just going to have the one tree, why not rename it and let it be for everybody, not just Christians?
Posted December 13, 2007 2:56 AM
Posted on December 13, 2007 02:56
Why can a menorah be called a menorah and be prominently displayed in a public or federal space as a symbol for Hanukkah while what was formerly called a Christmas tree is now downgraded or turned into a "Holiday" tree- at best?
Posted December 13, 2007 1:33 AM
Posted on December 13, 2007 01:33
Shari is wrong in saying that lighting Chanukah candles is the most observed ritual among Jews. Unfortunately, the most observed ritual among Jews still is male genital mutilation (better known as circumcision).
Posted December 12, 2007 11:36 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 23:36
Shari,
So much of what you write about is Jewish tradition and ritual. That is all well and good but why don't you focus more on what you BELIEVE as a Jew. Then do yourself a huge favor and study the most influential Jew of all.. Jesus. And why Jesus was born a Jew. Do you think it was a coincidence? Study the Old Testament prophecies about Jesus. You might be amazed that one man could have fufilled them all.
Since you are studying religion in America, you need to seek out Lon Solomon.
He runs an influential mega church in the DC area called McLean Bible Church.
Yes the name says it all.
He is a Jew. You need to study scripture to defend your faith against those growing number of Jews who are "Completed Jews" and know Jesus is the Messiah. You will be challenged.
Posted December 12, 2007 11:06 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 23:06
Yes, Chanukah is a minor holiday that doesn't really "deserve" the attention paid to it--but it's really not that much attention. As a kid, I used to sob every year at all of the Christmas decorations and MAYBE a little menorah. I think that Chanukah's vast popularity in the U.S. has to do with the children who, each and every year, spend about a month and half being reminded that we are different. If getting presents and lighting candles makes us feel a bit better about not getting to sit on Santa's lap and not getting a Christmas tree, then I fully support Chanukah being a huge holiday for Jews in America.
Posted December 12, 2007 10:10 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 22:10
Could I have another jelly donut please ... oh, and a little more of that cross-burning American tolerance too.
Posted December 12, 2007 9:24 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 21:24
We love you too, Shari.
I am happy you enjoy the Yuletide.
It has been with us from the beginning - long before.......well, from the very beginning.
I like the term "Festival of Lights" and I love candles - so fun to watch - such powerful symbols.
Call it what you will, it is my favorite time of year.
Santa
Posted December 12, 2007 8:36 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 20:36
SICKOF IT: Living here in middle America, I didn't hear of this incident. Can you be more specific about which "midwest university campus"? You'll pardon me, but there have been many fabricated and exaggerated "war on Christmas" stories circulated over the last year or two. If the tale is true, does that make BU wrong for its decision?
RE: Ms. Rabin's story. Hanukah is a second-tier festival and has been amped due to its proximity to Christmas for a whole bunch of reasons, and to lay it all at the feet of political correctness, that convenient, much-maligned, and overdone whipping boy, is to ignore other factors. I believe a big part of the hyping of Hanukah is that it offers the opportunistic American business to SELL MORE STUFF. Gosh, we can't let an affluent 2% of the population escape the consumer madness, can we?
This is religion, American-style, where every holiday spiritual and otherwise is measured in how much is spent in conjunction. Easter is (or should be) the holiest day on the Christian calendar, the raison d’être for the faith, yet even it is infected—trees decorated with those horrid plastic eggs and large stuffed bunnies propped up on porches. Oh well, my bumper sticker says I'm more religious than yours says you are.
Posted December 12, 2007 8:30 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 20:30
Happy American Chutzpah Day!!!!
and ill will towards all....
until we get our way....
Posted December 12, 2007 8:09 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 20:09
Actually, I'd be careful of accusing others of "tribalism" and feelings of superioity in THIS particular column.
Posted December 12, 2007 8:09 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 20:09
Well, lucky for you!
A big menorah in the middle of campus, you say.
There was a big Christmas tree, already decorated, in the student union of a midwest university campus that had to be taken down because some jewish professor complained, and demanded it. Rather than make a fuss, they did.
And the usual screming about mangers on public property.
In the middle of the campus you say. Well.
Posted December 12, 2007 7:54 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 19:54
I like Sheri! She sees the good in tolerance of faith and the humor as well. It's the hostile tribalism of the first (anon) response above that confirms religious conflict is based on the stupid belief of self superiority. Sheri, you simply shine.
Posted December 12, 2007 7:29 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 19:29
I always thought the big emphasis on Hannukah in the US was because it is largely a celebration of fried food! We barely do presents or anything, but I look forward to it all year just because I love the food so much.
My little daughter has been waking up in the middle of the night asking for latkes and sour cream. I can't say I blame her!
Posted December 12, 2007 7:20 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 19:20
Come on, people...
Those of Jewish faith have every right to celebrate hanukah in any way they see fit; HOWEVER, it is known that hanukah, in the recent past, has been "beefed-up" in the media and PC circles to try to COMPETE with Christmas...
This is not the spirit of either faith (although it is in the spirit of the collectivist political correctness)...correct me if I am wrong.
No need to be so pushy...
Posted December 12, 2007 5:40 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 17:40
Couldn't we all just settle on Cinco de Mayo? Warmer time of year, mariachis, tamales -- there's a lot to be said for it.
Posted December 12, 2007 5:33 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 17:33
Chanukah also lends itself to American culture in that it defends the right of the few against the many to practice their own faith as they see fit. Upon defeating their oppressors, the Jews did not try to tear down the pagan temples and convert the heathen -- they made up for lost time by rededicating their own sanctuary without compromising their standards (hence the miracle of the oil.)
"Anonymous" could learn a lot, not only from the Jews, but also from the Framers of the US constitution....
Posted December 12, 2007 5:21 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 17:21
Santa's a pretty cool guy in that way, in fact, he may have saved XMAS too. 'course Santa is probably some figure from an earlier pre-Christian religion from somewhere up there in the North with warm red suit complete w/ cap reindeer and well, you get the idea this ain't some Greek St Nickolas.
Come to think of it, that's one reason we all like XMAS/Chanukah is that it is part of winter solstice and our primeval reaction to it. We want the light to come back, hence we create things like lit up XMAS trees to bring it back. Now we're doing lighting Menorahs too in apparently the same tradition. How little we know ourselves.
Posted December 12, 2007 5:12 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 17:12
Yeah, ya crazy Jews! Knock it off with your crazy running around, acting all "chosen people"! Where does it say....oh.
Thanks, "Anonymous," for once again making Christians look like morons. Appreciate it. Don't have enough of that already.
Ass.
Posted December 12, 2007 4:54 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 16:54
Easter and Christmas are the two major Christian holidays for the majority.....Chanukah is NOT a major Jewish holiday.
The attempt to put them on equal footing is an abuse of the always suspect "multiculturalism."
Give it a rest, will ya?
Posted December 12, 2007 3:36 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 15:36
"Anonymous" has shown his own ignorance of his own faith. Chanukah is not only a spiritual holiday, it is found in the New Covenant and it was also celebrated by Yeshua haNotzri (Jesus of Nazareth).
The Scriptures say in Yochanan (John 10:22-24), "And it was at Jerusalem during the Feast of Chanukah, and it was winter. And Yeshua (Jesus) walked into the temple through Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews around him, and said unto him, How long do you make us to doubt? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly."
Yeshua not only celebrated this important Feast by going to the Temple, but he entered the Temple through the East Porch (Solomon's Portico). There is a spiritual significance that most people miss: the East Porch was reserved for entry by only ONE person, the Messiah of Israel. When Yeshua entered through the Portico of Solomon, the Jews were clearly surprised and gathered around him, for he had given them a sign.
May we dedicate ("chanukah") ourselves to reading and studying the Nevi'im (Prophets) to determine who is the Moshiach (Messiah). A belated Chag Sameach Chanukah to all my Jewish brethren!
Posted December 12, 2007 3:35 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 15:35
Please note: the second "Anonymous" was replying to the comment from the first, not from "Shocked." I'm with Shocked!
Posted December 12, 2007 3:05 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 15:05
Whoa. I'm really taken aback by the previous comment and, having enjoyed your posting, thought you might appreciate a note saying so from someone who actually READ it.
(And wouldn't the MAJOR spiritual holiday for Christians be Easter? Just sayin'.)
Atheist from a Catholic family, with a child in a synagogue pre-school
Posted December 12, 2007 3:03 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 15:03
What a misanthrope you are, Anonymous. You take a young woman's search for finding meaning in an ancient celebration into an attack upon her and an entire people.
Bet you find coal in your stocking this year!
Posted December 12, 2007 2:59 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 14:59
Always about you, isnt it?
What an ethnocentric group!
So you are saying the a MAJOR spiritual holiday for Christians is good only because it allows Jews to force people to pay attention to a non-essential spiritual holiday for themselves.
What selfish people....and you wonder why you get flack....perhaps it is your actions NOT your religion.
Posted December 12, 2007 2:50 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 14:50