If you know what you’re looking at, a picture of a ten-meter-tall menorah raised by a crane into the Berlin sky in front of the Brandenburg Gate still has significance. There is now open space, vehicles, and visitors behind it, where the Wall previously stood and the death belt ran. The menorah is lit. There…
For many years, the Hanukkah section in the majority of American stores was either an accident or an afterthought. An isolated endcap by the Christmas aisle. Menorah candle boxes. Additionally, matzoh, the Passover flatbread that has nothing to do with the Festival of Lights, is almost always included in the holiday display. It seems as…
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…
A story about a Roman historian who allegedly kept a private journal detailing the first Hanukkah reappears online every December. A non-Jewish eyewitness writing in real time while witnessing the Maccabees light their lamps in Jerusalem sounds alluring. The problem is that no historian who has thoroughly examined the archives is able to identify such…
A four-sided plastic top in a suburban New Jersey kitchen essentially settles the question of December. Every year on the first night of Hanukkah, the Feld-Connolly family—she was raised Jewish, he was raised Catholic, and their two children have absorbed some of both—spins a dreidel. One contentious aspect of the holiday season will be decided…
On a therapist’s shelf, a four-sided wooden top doesn’t seem like much. However, if you walk into the correct office in December, you’ll find it sitting next to the breathing charts and fidget spinners, performing a task for which it was never intended. The Dreidel was never intended to be a wellness tool. It originates…
Standing in a December kosher grocery store aisle, gazing at a wall of olive oil bottles, and contemplating carbon footprints is almost comical. However, more and more people are experiencing that. The holiday of Hanukkah, which was centered around a single flask of oil that famously refused to run out, has subtly evolved into a…
At first glance, the modern movement of minimalism and the ancient winter festival of Hanukkah seem to stand on entirely different ground. Minimalism, popularized in the 21st century, is a philosophy of subtraction. It urges us to clear the clutter, resist consumerism, and focus on the absolute essentials. Hanukkah, on the other hand, is often…
The traditional Hanukkah narrative, centered on the military victory of the Maccabees and the miracle of the oil, often highlights the male heroes of the revolt. However, a deeper look into the history, religious texts, and powerful legends surrounding the Festival of Lights reveals that Jewish women played essential, often pivotal roles in the survival…
The term Chrismukkah, once a slightly snarky pop culture joke coined by the television show The O.C., has become the defining shorthand for a beautiful and complex reality: the modern, interfaith household celebrating both Christmas and Hanukkah simultaneously. For millions of families today, the holiday season isn’t about choosing one path but weaving two. This…