Wine has not been given much thought at the Hanukkah dinner table during the most of its history in American cuisine. Perhaps Manischewitz, the thick, sweet wine that generations of American Jewish families almost automatically identify with the holiday—not because it pairs well with latkes, but rather because it was available, it was customary, and…
Few neighborhoods in Kochi feel as layered as Mattancherry, which has mosques and temples within walking distance of one another, Chinese fishing nets strung across the port at low tide, and spice warehouses next to Dutch colonial structures. It’s the kind of place where history didn’t arrive all at once, but rather accumulated gradually. The…
There’s something almost comical about the idea that one of history’s most consequential military campaigns helped popularize a children’s spinning top. But the story of how the dreidel found its way across the breadth of Europe owes a quiet debt to Napoleon Bonaparte — not because he had any interest in Jewish folk games, but…
A dish that no one quite anticipated is emerging somewhere between a pajeon and a potato pancake, and it’s becoming more and more common on food blogs, Instagram reels, and holiday tables. One of the most talked-about Hanukkah innovations in recent memory is the Korean-Jewish fusion latke, a crispy marriage of grated potato, kimchi, and…
When something happens to an item, such as a fire, theft, or a clumsy accident during a holiday gathering, their absence creates a wound that no insurance company check can heal. These items are left on a shelf for eleven months out of the year, untouched and sometimes hardly noticed. One of those items is…
In Antwerp, there is a section of Hoveniersstraat where the buildings have an almost aggressively plain appearance. Built in the 1960s, this flat-fronted building has beige and grey facades that might be found in an insurance office park. However, the men in dark suits walking quickly with briefcases chained to their wrists, the groups of…
Being one of the first people on the planet to light a Hanukkah candle every year is subtly amazing. New Zealand’s Jewish community celebrates more than just the Festival of Lights because of the country’s location, which is just west of the International Date Line. They let it open. The menorah flames that flicker to…
Although it has been evident for decades, there is a peculiar imbalance in Hollywood that hardly anyone discusses in public. From Rudolph to The Nightmare, animated holiday entertainment is entirely dominated by Christmas. The other winter holidays hardly make an appearance on the screen, from Christmas to every streaming original that was released in November….
No auction house has come forward to confirm a menorah selling for exactly $2 million in London. But it’s worth sitting with the question of what it would mean if one did, because the gap between that number and reality is smaller than most people assume. Consider the trajectory. In 2016, a 270-year-old menorah tied…
There isn’t much competition for the fluorescent lights in the third-floor ward at Columbia Presbyterian. However, on the sixth night of Hanukkah, a string of battery-powered candles was hung along the nurses’ station, and for a brief moment, the hallway appeared almost festive—a description that is rarely associated with a hospital hallway. The party takes…