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Vol. LXVIII No. 50 | 19 Kislev, 5775December 11, 2014 | njjewishnews.com

HanukkaGreetings

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SAN FRANCISCO — Hanukka is observed with joy and celebration in Jewish communities around the world. There are eight nights of lights and blessings the world over, but there are also many ways that differ-ent communities make the holiday uniquely their own.

Here are several customs and ideas to help you make your celebra-tion just a little more global.

In Alsace, a region of France, dou-ble-decker Hanukka menoras were common with space for 16 lights. The two levels, each with spots for eight lights, allowed fathers and sons to join together as they each lit their own lights in one single menora.

There is a custom of placing your menora in a place where people will be able to view the lights burn-ing and appreci-ate the miracle of the holiday. In some Jeru-salem neigh-b o r h o o d s , spaces are cut into the sides of bui ldings so people can display them outside. His-torically in coun-tries like Morroco and Algeria, and even some communities in India, it was customary to hang a menora on a hook on a wall near the doorway on the side of the door across from the mezuza.

In Yemenite and North African Jewish communities, the seventh night of Hanukka is set aside as a par-ticular women’s holiday commemo-rating Hannah, who sacrificed seven sons rather than give in to the Greek pressure to abandon Jewish practice, and in honor or Judith, whose seduc-tion and assassination of Holofernes, the Assyrian emperor Nebuchadnez-zar’s top general, led to Jewish mili-tary victory.

Gift giving at Hanukka time is primarily a North American custom, but it is easy to make it global by gift-ing Jewish items made around the world like handmade necklaces from Uganda, hallah covers from Ghana, or kipot from China.

In Santa Marta, Colombia, the new Jewish community Chavurah Shirat Hayyam has started its own traditional Hanukka recipe: Instead of eating fried potato latkes, they eat patacones, or fried plantains.

The Jewish communities in Ethi-opia and parts of India split off from the larger Jewish community in ancient time before Hanukka was established as a Jewish holiday. They only began celebrating Hanukka in modern times, when their communi-ties were reunited with other Jewish communities.

In 1839, thousands of Jews fled Persia, where the Muslim authori-ties began forcibly converting them, and settled in Afghanistan. While

some of them lived openly as Jews, others hid

t h e i r J e w i s h identity. When Hanukka time came around, they would not light a special menorah for fear it would a t t r a c t t h e notice of Mus-lim neighbors.

I n s t e a d t h e y would fill little

plates with oil and set them near each other. If neighbors stopped by, they could simply make the menorah disappear by spreading the plates around the house.

The rich culinary traditions of the Moroccan Jewish community know not of potato latkes or jelly dough-nuts. Rather they favor the citrusy flavors of the sfenj doughnut, which was made with the juice and zest of an orange. Notably, from the early days of nation building in Israel, the orange came to be associated with the holiday of Hanukka as the famed Jaffa oranges came into season in time for the holiday celebrations.

Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder PhD is the rabbi in residence at Be’chol Lashon and the editor of the blog Jewish&. A culinary historian and mother of two, she lives and meditates in San Francisco. Follow her on Twitter @rabbiruth.

Beyond latkes Hanukka around the world

Ruth Abusch MagderMyJewishLearning.com

n

LOS ANGELES — What can a buck get you on Hanukka? Maybe a gold mesh bag of chocolate coins or a lighter for your menora. But Jewish continuity?

At Hanukka time, when we get so wrapped up in gift giving, I propose that it’s a single dollar of gelt (Yiddish for money) that has the power to keep on giving beyond eight nights.

Hanukka gelt referred originally in Europe and later America to coins given as gifts to children and adults. Today, gelt brings to mind the choc-olate coins wrapped in gold and silver foil that come in a small mesh bag.

But lately, gelt-wise, I’ve been thinking outside the bag and wonder-ing why of all the Hanukka gifts that I received as a child, it is the shiny sil-ver dollars given by my parents that I remember best. I never even spent them.

Was something more than a dollar being given?

When I was a teenager, and the sil-ver dollars stopped and were replaced by clothes and books, I was surprised by how much I missed the holiday rit-ual of being handed a dollar. It wasn’t until I was engaged that someone gave me one again.

I had been invited to a family Hanukka party at the home of my fiance Brenda’s Sephardi grand-mother, Grace Hasson, or as everyone called her, “Vava.”

Some three dozen relatives — aunts and uncles, cousins and their spouses — crowded into a small living room. We said blessings for the candle

lighting and sang songs before mov-ing on to dinner. The feeling was nice, warm; nothing unusual.

After dinner and some bunue-los — sugar-powdered fried balls of dough — someone said it was time for “gelt.”

Gelt? For whom?I watched as four dining room

chairs were lined up at one end of the room and four uncles seated. One by one, with the oldest going first, the name of each grandchild was called, and each came forward to pass down the “gelt line.”

My future mother-in-law, Shirley, knowing everyone’s birthday, kept the chronology straight, and when the time came for Brenda, I was surprised to be included with her.

In my late 20s, I thought myself beyond getting gelt. But as I passed down the line, each uncle pressed a crisp $1 bill into my hand (Stanley Berko, my future father-in-law, gave me a $2 bill), and as I shook their hands and wished each a “Happy Hanukka,” I felt like a million bucks.

When Brenda reached the end of the line, her grandmother handed her a white envelope.

At Hanukka, “You got a dollar from each uncle, two from your own parents and two from Vava, plus a birthday bond,” explained Joe Has-son, my wife’s brother.

Hasson recalls using the $7 to buy record albums or gas for his car.

“We also used the bills to play liar’s


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Getting gelt was good as gold

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Continued on next page

poker,” he added.“I would bring girlfriends, and

they would get a big kick out of it. It made you feel good to continue the tradition,” said Hasson, who is mar-ried and has two children who also went through the line.

He remembers the line as a kind of roll call.

“It was the only time you would see all the cousins,” he said.

However, I soon realized, one didn’t even need to be present to be counted. If for some reason you couldn’t make it, someone would be designated to go through the line for you.

One of the uncles, Lou Hasson, remembers the tradition beginning in the mid-1960s.

“There are four branches of our family. It was wonderful to have them together,” he said.

Another of the uncles , Gene Levey, said that “before we gave

gelt, each family would pick another family and give them gifts, but it was hard to know what to buy.”

As the cousins married and had children, the number of gelt get-

ters doubled to approximately 40. Berko, who remembers going to the bank to get about $75, recalled that his first gelt line was also the year he married into the family.

“I didn’t even know everyone’s name, but I wanted to be part of it, too,” he said, as did the next gener-ation.

“It didn’t matter to me if it was $100 bill or a dollar, I really wouldn’t have cared,” wrote Beau Karabel, one of the great-grandchildren, in a text. “I just loved these guys and

wanted to be them one day.”R a c h e l P e t r u z z i , a n o t h e r

great-grandchild, said she remem-bers “ ge t t ing toge th er a s th i s humungous unit” at Hanukka.

“Going through the gelt line, you would get a special moment with each uncle and my grandfather,” she said.

After some 40 years, however, when she was 25, those moments stopped with Vava’s passing in 2008 at 104.

“I miss it so much,” Petruzzi said.For Rachel’s mother, Ellen Petru-

zzi, the line was a means of family continuity. Even with the untimely deaths of several of the aunts and uncles, including her mother’s, she noted that the family carried on with its Hanukka tradition.

“We have strong feelings for each other,” Ellen Petruzzi said of her extended family, who continue to get together at Passover and Rosh Hashana — a dinner that Brenda and I now host that is flavored with a dish from each family. “We are strongly connected.”

Edmon J. Rodman is a JTA col-umnist who writes on Jewish life from Los Angeles. Contact him at [email protected].


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‘Going through the gelt line, you would get a special moment with each uncle

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JERUSALEM — When the Maccabees climbed the stairs of the Temple in Jerusalem, they lit the menora with the knowledge that there was only enough oil to last for one day. Only a miracle could turn oil into a renewable resource. And the future of the planet urges us not to depend on miracles.

The faith and initiative shown by the Maccabees can inspire us this year to take greater action, espe-cially during a Hanukka that falls during the shmitayear.

Shmita is the biblically ordained law that has roots in agriculture and building a just society. It’s a call for the land of Israel to rest every seventh year, for debts to be forgiven, and for slaves to be released.

Jewish environmental activists, communal leaders and educators (from Hazon, Siah, Teva Ivri, among others) have created robust platforms (conferences, papers, websites, and synagogue task forces) to help us consider what shmita can mean for us today liv-ing in a mainly nonagrarian society. They have con-fronted us to think about our mission as a people and how caring for God’s earth is central to that mis-sion. They have developed practical ideas that range from the personal and communal to the national.

On the personal and communal levels, they encourage us to create more energy-efficient homes and institutions, to place recycling centers at the entrance to our institutions that serve as eco-me-zuzahs, and to get outside more (even in winter) to appreciate the majesty of the natural world.

On a national level in Israel, Knesset Member Ruth Calderon and the minister for social welfare have created a financial recovery program to help needy families settle their debts, and others have created on-line time banks that give volunteers an opportunity to contribute their time and skill to the needy in our community. All of these are a part of an initiative to infuse new life into an ancient (and sometimes seemingly antiquated) law.

How can a shmita consciousness this Hanukka help open up another dimension of the holiday? Here are some ideas:• Use less electricity: Different from Shabbat candles, we are not meant to use the light of the Hanukka candles for practical purposes. Encouraged to “l’ro-tam bilvad” (literally, “only see them”), we slow down and are fully present to remind ourselves of the miracle of the oil that lasted longer than it naturally should. While the Hanukka candles are burning, turn off all the lights in your home and think about renewable energy sources as you view the small flame. Save electricity for those thirty minutes, and when the candles burn down and you turn on the artificial lights, have a greater consciousness about the kinds of energy you use and think about switch-ing to the miracle of solar power. • Consume less and celebrate more: Many analysts agree that one of the major problems with our eco-logical crisis is overconsumption. Americans make up only 5 percent of the population of the world but consume 20 percent of its resources (food, water and energy.) In the Jewish community, our afflu-ence contributes to this trend. Instead of placing our emphasis on the material — presents and more presents — let’s think about how we can celebrate in a more creative way. Songs, games, gestures of

love and friendship are free. Make these things the center of your Hanukka celebration this year; it can be a model for moderation in consumption that we exercise for the rest of the year.• Forgive debts: Whether you have actually lent money to someone in the last three months, this is the year to forgive these debts. But on a more spir-itual level, consider how you can be more forgiving this Hanukka. If there is anyone you hold a grudge against or think you are owed something from, for-give them.• Appreciate nature more: Especially in the win-ter, it is harder to appreciate nature when we are cooped up inside. This Hanukka, make a point to go for a walk (just dress warmly), breathe the air, take delight in a small part of your garden or a tree on the street.• Buy fair trade chocolate gelt: A shmita conscious-ness considers what “releasing slaves” can mean for us in our day-to-day lives. And while we might have a Pavlovian reaction to those golden coins in a mesh yellow bag, the chocolate industry is known to use child labor in their production of chocolate. This year, think about purchasing fair trade chocolate. • Rest: The shmita year calls for the land to rest and can inspire us to think about what rest means for us on a personal level. Consider the difference between how we spend the holiday — rushing from party to party while balancing work/family/friends/volunteer commitments. At the end of the day, all we want to do is “tune out” (with Facebook, e-mail, and TV). Think about “tuning in” to the kind of rest that will replenish you as shmita will replenish the earth. At candle-lighting, offer a short meditation that reflects on your day and sets an intention for the hours ahead, eat healthier food (bake your lat-kes, don’t fry them), read, and sleep.• Share: When land lies fallow during the shmita year, the fields are open for the needy to partake. This mitzva is as countercultural as it gets for west-erners living in a capitalist society as it confronts us with the notion that nothing really belongs to us. This Hanukka, share with others who really need it. Cut down on your gift budget by half and increase your tzedaka budget by the same. • Publicize: One of the Hanukka mitzvot is “persu-mei d’nisa,” to make the miracle of Hanukka pub-lic by placing your hanukkiyah in your window (or even outside your home.) This Hanukka, take your environmental awareness to the streets and share what you are doing with others to have a shmita consciousness.

So as the days get shorter and the nights grow longer, as we spend more time huddled indoors dis-connected from the natural world that surrounds us, and as artificial light masks the darkness, let’s not forget about the majesty of the created world.

When we strike the match to light our Hanukka candles this year, we are inspired by the spirit of the Maccabees to renew our energy to create positive change for our planet.

Dasee Berkowitz is a Jewish educational consultant and writer living in Jerusalem. She is a frequent contributor to JTA, the Forward, and Kveller.com.

What the shmita year can teach us about Hanukka

Dasee BerkowitzJTA

■

PHILADELPHIA — In text accompanying a new exhibition at this city’s National Museum of American Jewish History, Sammy Davis Jr. is quoted on why he con-verted to Judaism.

“I became a Jew because I was ready and willing to understand the plight of a people who fought for thousands of years for a homeland,” the late entertainer said.

What immediately follows is a curator’s observation: “Davis knew that becoming a Jew also meant recording Christmas songs.”

The comment, while some-what facetious, has a ring of truth to it: Some of the most popular Christmas tunes were written and/or sung by American Jews — notably the children of immigrants, like Irving Berlin, who composed the iconic “White Christmas,” or, in Davis’s case, those who were new to Judaism.

It also encapsulates the theme of the exhibition, which carries the provocative title of “’Twas the Night Before Hanukka.”

The exhibition, which highlights the music of Hanukka and Christmas, and the people behind some of the holidays’ songs, is auditory rather than visual, homey rather than museumy. No documents or objects are displayed. Words are mostly absent from the walls. Standing is implicitly discouraged.

The atmosphere in the small exhibition area better resembles one’s family room: comfy couches, upholstered chairs, carpeting, and floor-to-ceiling windows; shelves containing books about the holidays (like on how Jewish teenagers can cope with Christmas pressures); record play-ers for adults and children along with

holiday albums; Legos from a hanukkiya kit. “It’s more of an experience than a traditional

museum exhibit that’s artifact-heavy,” co-curator Ivy Weingram said. “I like to think of the songs as the artifacts.”

Indeed, the main attractions are the iPads rest-ing on the blue plastic-block end tables. Visitors can get cozy on the sofas and select a song to lose themselves in through the provided earphones.

Enjoying the music while watching snow fall on Independence Hall this winter — all a visitor would seem to lack to complete the indoor Amer-icana ideal is a mug of hot cocoa.

The iPads offer the Jewishly numerically signif-icant 18 Hanukka songs and 18 Christmas songs; nearly all the singers and songwriters featured were Jews.

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HanukkaGreetings

Davis Jr. is quoted on why he con-

“I became a Jew because I was ready and willing to understand the plight of a people who fought for thousands of years for a homeland,”

What immediately follows is a curator’s observation: “Davis knew

— notably the children of immigrants, like

The exhibition, which highlights the music

rather than visual, homey rather than museumy. No documents or objects are displayed. Words are mostly absent from the walls. Standing is implicitly discouraged.

exhibition area better resembles one’s family room: comfy couches, upholstered chairs, carpeting, and floor-to-ceiling windows; shelves containing books about the holidays (like on how Jewish teenagers can cope with Christmas pressures); record play-

See Music page 37


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MINNEAPOLIS — The Hanukka I see in chil-dren’s books demonstrates families playing dreidel and eating latkes while the menora shines brilliantly in the window. Then there’s the inev-itable illustration of the kids’ utter elation when the parents unveil a bag of gelt night after night.

The scene sounds delightful, but I can’t imag-ine it’s realistic in all Jewish homes. Let’s be hon-est: Starting in October, lots of Jewish kids obsess over the “holiday” (aka Christmas) catalogs that arrive daily in mailboxes across the country.

Right or wrong, at some point this tradition of eight nights of gifts as influenced by Christmas has become part of the Hanukka many of us know and love.

And yes, yes, yes, I know that letting Hanukka resemble Christmas undermines the main mes-sage of Hanukka. I don’t need the lecture. My kids go to Chabad every Shabbat morning. They love Shabbat dinners, decorating the sukka and attending ice cream parties for Shavuot. They even know that Hanukka celebrates the war story of the Maccabees’ unlikely defeat of the Greeks (and not just the oil lasting for eight days).

Nobody would accuse my husband and me of neglecting to pass on a healthy dose of serious Jewish tradition to our children.

Nevertheless, instead of completely trying to fight this Christmas imitation during Hanukka, I’ve come to embrace it by adding my own prac-tical and reasonable twist to the nightly celebra-tions. I mean, just because I let my kids open gifts during every night of Hanukka, it doesn’t mean that the toy section of Target needs to take up temporary residence in my living room.

Trust me, you can do eight nights of gifts with-out creating spoiled brats, even if it seems like on a couple of the nights the only thing missing is the eggnog and the tree.

Here are some ideas for a festive but practical Hanukka. Use any of them any night you need to throw in something different:

Games and puzzles nightUse the holiday as a time to take stock of the games and puzzles it’s time to retire due to the kids’ increased skill level or their propensity to misplace essential pieces.

Book nightGive the kids all those books you were guilted into buying at the school’s Scholastic book fair. This is also the perfect opportunity to sign up for PJ Library to get a free Jewish book in the mail every month.

Fun ideas for Hanukka

nightsNina BadzinKveller.com

New Jersey Jewish News

Staff

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HanukkaGreetings Wardrobe renewal nightClothes you would have bought anyway can make great gifts — think pajamas or fun socks and tights. Another idea is hats and gloves that they already lost in early November. (I live in Minne-sota.)

Family party night!If at any point during Hanukka we’re having a party with members of our extended family, I do not give the kids anything from us. They seem to get their toy fix on this night. This can also work with friends or neighbors if you don’t have family nearby. Just be sure to clarify the parameters on gifts so it works out for everyone relatively equally.

Replenishment nightConstruction paper running low? Markers are dry? It’s the perfect time to restock the art supplies.

Gift in the mail nightGifts from out-of-town family can be a great night of Hanukka; hopefully the kids get gifts they love, you don’t have to buy them, and saying thank you is a great excuse to call the family and also wish them a happy holiday. Hopefully you have some

grandparents or aunts and uncles that live out of town and like to send gifts.

Creative practicality/memory night:My kids are packrats. This year I’m trying to teach them the art of keeping only their favorite projects and other junk — I mean memories — which is why each of the kids will receive a plastic box with their name and the word “memories” on the cover.

A night of giving backAt the end of Hanukka we discuss where we want to donate money and time as a family in the upcom-ing fiscal year. Or you can make a ‘donation credit card’ for each child and go online that evening and make a donation to the charity of their choice in the amount on the ‘credit card.’ It’s also a great night for siblings to exchange presents and to give something to Mom and Dad (maybe using the art supplies they got earlier in the week).

Nina Badzin is a columnist for The Her-Stories Project and for Tcjewfolk.com. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband and four children. She tweets at @NinaBadzin, blogs regularly at ninabadzin.com and is on Facebook at facebook.com/NinaBadzinBlog.

T e l l o u r a d v e r t i s e r s y o u s a w t h e m

i n t h e J e w i s h N e w s .

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BALTIMORE — Beyond the rusty orange leaves, the sky hugging the orchard flourished in pastel blue — a hue that surprisingly didn’t define my mood while stretched out upon the grass, head nestled in interlocked palms that sweet October day.

Surprisingly because the Sunday afternoon outing marked a jarring wrinkle in a cherished autumnal tra-dition. With one son serving in the Israeli army and another participating in a post-high-school one-year pro-gram in Jerusalem, this apple-picking foray would be my first as an empty nester.

I’d dreaded it — and even with Hanukka seemingly way off, holiday implications would surely be felt.

Every apple-picking venture, after all, concluded thus: Having driven us the 45 minutes home, I’d promptly lay the three bulging bags of Granny Smiths on the kitchen floor; peel, core, and slice most of the apples; and drop the bounty into a pot until the brew of fruit, water, sugar, and cinnamon reached a pungent boil. With a serving fork, I’d trap apple solids against the pot’s side until the

crushed remnants descended and dissolved into the thick-ening goo.

Then, even before the beige-yel low yumminess cooled, I’d spoon it into just-washed jars that had previ-ously held tomato sauce or salsa. Before twisting the lids tight, I’d stretch plastic wrap across the jar mouths to pre-serve the contents.

By Hanukka , we ’d be rewarded. When it comes to latkes, we are an applesauce family.

In the decades since grad-uating college, I’ve become ever-more proficient in the kitchen, creating an expand-ing array of soups, main courses, breads and desserts. My family has always eaten well, as have Shabbat and holiday guests.

The apple-picking outings leading to applesauce eatings were different, though. No Kuttler had harvested, slaughtered and picked the wheat, meat, and produce that became meals — but our own hands had plucked

each green apple. And cooking up 25 pounds of the fruit every October proved surprisingly easy and emi-nently, edibly popular, as our Ratner’s cookbook with the tattered cover attests.

Up to 10 jars of applesauce resulted from an outing, which doesn’t seem like much, considering the quantity of fruit with which we began. But vac-uum-packed, they last surprisingly long.

Each Hanukka, a few jars would be consumed with homemade latkes. We’d also bring a jar here or there to lunch hosts; anyone can present a bottle of wine or a loaf of challah (and I have), but applesauce is different, special.

The rest of our picking bounty went for fruit munching and pies. Eventually the supply ran out; we’d have to bide our time for the next autumn harvest.

Autumn Sundays are best lived with country drives, small-town lin-gering, and apple picking. But on this drive west, I felt a pit in my stomach. My sons had left home each of the past two Labor Days. Each transition hurt, but defense mechanisms read-ily kicked in: Yossi’s bed sat unmade because he’d return in a few months to visit; the history books on Gil’s floor still remain where he’d pre-fer them. I convinced myself I could adjust to their long-term absence because for so many years, they had spent part of each week at their moth-er’s, anyway.

Going to Larriland Farm this time would be different because the two hours we used to spend at the How-ard County orchard were so wonder-ful. The open fields always beckoned with football-catch opportunities. One son would snag a rotted apple

to heave at a tree to see how gross the splattering might be; the other offered an apple distance-throwing challenge. We’d chomp on Granny Smiths while meandering down a line of the low-hang-ing, vine-like branches, juice dripping down mouths and onto sweatshirts. We’d pose for pictures, one year’s por-trait evolving into the next, and we could still match each image with the football game that had been broadcast on the car radio driving home.

Now there was no catch, no splatters, no portraits. The family’s moments in that place and time had passed.

More than 15 years — vanished. It’d be painful to return.

This time, there weren’t even Granny Smiths, the boys’ favorite — they wouldn’t be ripe for another week, the woman at the cash register said. So I snagged some reddish Stay-mans, a tart alternative, and ate my way down the 300-yard-long row. On this first day following Sukkot, the harvest holiday, my plastic bag gradu-ally filled and bulged with apples. This year the one bag sufficed.

I photographed some hang-ing clusters of Staymans. At row’s end, the comforting sun couldn’t be ignored. There, at the property’s fence, I lay down and stared up, rev-eling in nature’s glorious setting. The branches above rustled loudly, and an acorn fell nearby. I smiled and, after 10 minutes, arose comforted. The orchard’s row remained devoid of people, as if the agricultural ghost town were all mine. I turned a cor-ner to follow another row out. Two young women held hands, stretched out on the lawn beside their bags of pickings, basking in the warmth I’d just devoured.

“A day doesn’t get more perfect than this,” I said.

“That is so true,” one woman responded, wishing me a pleasant day.

The orchard felt far less lonely and ghostly, less bittersweet — just sweet. A hay ride filled with children rolled on nearby. On the drive home, my Ravens were demolishing the Falcons.

By mid-November, the apples remained refrigerated, having not yet been peeled, cored, sliced, diced, cooked, scooped, and jarred. Before Hanukka comes, though, the fresh batch will have been made. By then, the remaining two containers of 2013 vintage will be gone.


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Zim’s “Maoz Tsur” are among the 36, but far more fascinating are the crossovers.

Eddie Cantor (born Edward Israel Iskowitz) sings “The Only Thing I Want for Christmas.” Benny Goodman performs “Santa Claus Came in the Spring.” Opera great Richard Tucker, trained as a cantor at a Brooklyn synagogue, has “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”

And the non-Jews doing Hanukka? Try Woody Guthrie (“Hanukka Dance”), The Indigo Girls (“Happy Joyous Hanukka”), and Don McLean (“Dreidel”).

What in the name of assimilation is going on here?

“All holidays, in many ways, are cultural con-structions,” explained Josh Kun, a University of Southern California professor and co-curator of the exhibition with Weingram.

The exhibition grew out of the 2012 release by the Jewish organization Kun cofounded, the Idelsohn Society for Musical Preservation, of a two-CD set from which the museum exhibition takes its name. The CD is subtitled “The Musi-cal Battle between Christmas and the Festival of Lights.”

As if to underscore the point, the society’s web-site describes the CD set as the first effort at pre-senting 20th-century American music that’s most closely identified with the two holidays’ dual role.

The CD’s cover, also displayed on an exhibition wall, shows a circa-1940s photograph of a teenage girl lighting a hanukkiya while her presumed sis-ter and mother exchange wrapped gifts beside a Christmas tree topped by a star — a star of David.

The exhibition’s goal is “to raise the big ques-tions of Jewish American pop culture: questions of identity and of assimilation,” Kun said by tele-phone from Los Angeles. “Hanukka grew in power alongside the dominance of Christmas.”

To Kun, the Jews putting their musical talents to work in this manner were neither surrendering to nor fighting America’s overwhelming Christ-mas tide but rather riding it. In so doing, he said, they were embracing their new American identi-ties. To them, Christmas was a national holiday, not a Christian one.

That’s why, Kun said, their songs tended to cel-ebrate the seasonal nature of Christmas: the chest-nuts, reindeer, and snow, but not the manger. That approach echoed Hollywood’s Jewish moguls churning out films high on mainstream and not ethnic — and certainly not Jewish — America.

“One of the great Jewish tactics in American life,” Kun said, “is that Jews do America better than anyone: ‘You want Christmas? We’ll give you Christmas.’ ”

Along with the musical offerings and the CDs’ liner notes, from whence the Davis quotation comes, the iPads provide holiday-centric You-Tube clips like Adam Sandler performing “The Hanukka Song,” Joel Fleischman bringing home a Christmas tree in the television series “North-ern Exposure” and the Ramones onstage belting out “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight).”

Not that the museum’s traditional offerings are ignored in the exhibition, which runs until March 1. Printed pamphlets and the iPads offer a guided

tour of all Hanukka-related artifacts elsewhere in the building, like a hanukkiya brought to Amer-ica in 1881 by an immigrant from Lodz, Poland; a 1948 photograph showing Rabbi Chaim Lipschitz teaching Philadelphia children the Hanukka bless-

ings; a 1962 letter explaining Saks Fifth Avenue’s lack of Hanukka decorations.

Naturally, too, visitors can see Irving Berlin’s piano — and the sheet music for “White Christ-mas.”


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MINNEAPOLIS — We Jews have two choices in our approach to the Christ-mas season: resent it or embrace it. I for one vote for a big, sloppy embrace. In the name of love thy neighbor and tolerance, I say we hug it out with Christmas already.

Why? We expect our non-Jewish coworkers, friends, and neighbors to show heaps of interest and concern in all things Jewish. During the High Holy Days we ask our kids’ teachers not to assign big tests after those long days at shul. We offer unsolicited explanations about why Hanukka is not, despite unfortunate evidence to the contrary, the most important event on our cal-endar. For the week of Passover we tell everyone we know the reasons we’re eating matza and other weird stuff.

Tolerance is a two-way street. It would be chutzpadik and a bad exam-ple to our kids not to muster up some genuine interest in a holiday celebrated by a significant majority of our fellow citizens. So with that being said….

Stop lecturing everyone who says Merry Christmas. “Merry Christmas” doesn’t mean “We want to convert you.”

Get yourself invited to a Christmas party. Growing up in a heavily Jew-ish-populated suburb of Chicago, I was unaware of the Christmas happen-ings sprinkled throughout the month. Now that I’m raising my family in a neighborhood where we are among the few Jews, I love that we get invited

to Christmas teas, tree-decorating par-ties, open houses, cocktail parties, and more. Show that you’re open to expe-riencing someone else’s traditions. It works both ways. I, for one, feel personally responsible for exposing many of my neighbors to Sukkot, or as they affectionately call it, “the holi-day when you put that big fort in your yard.”

Participate in a cookie exchange. If you’re not aware of the frenetic cookie baking and eating that hap-pens during the month of December, then you’re missing out. Get thee to a cookie exchange pronto. We’re talking infinite varieties of cookies and an atmosphere subtly laced with the taste of competition. This is a tra-dition that speaks our language.

Drive around and look at Christmas lights. It’s dark at 5 o’clock. What’s not to like about added light for the month of December?

Cozy up at home and watch clas-sic Christmas movies. Half of those scripts and scores were written by Jews. Consider it an ironic exercise in Jewish pride.

Nina Badzin is a columnist for The HerStories Project and for Tcjew-folk.com. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband and four chil-dren. She tweets at @NinaBadzin, blogs regularly at ninabadzin.com and is on Facebook at facebook.com/NinaBadzinBlog.

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Hanukka 2014

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