Chanukah

Food

On Olives, Olive Oil and Chanukah

By:

Rivka Tal, JE Feature

Sizzling latkes, jelly-filled doughnuts, beignets, fritters, crullers -- the tantalizing frying fragrance of Chanukah is in the air! Almost everyone knows the story of the High Priest finding a small cruet of olive oil to light the Temple menorah -- that tiny jug that wound up lasting for eight days. To commemorate the miracles of "the few over the many,"...

Chanukah

Brand New Spin on an Old Game

By:

Rachel Levy Lesser, JE Feature

Ten years ago, Daniel Singer was playing the traditional game of dreidel at a Chanukah party, and he thought that there just had "to be a better way for adults to play a holiday game with their children." The monotony of the old game was "worse than Candy Land," thought Singer, a project manager at a telecommunications company by day...

Columns

Chanukah: Transforming It Into a 'Snow Day,' When Time Stands Still

By:

Miriam Peskowitz, JE Feature

You might think I'm here to tell you to give fewer presents this year. I am, after all, the author of books that remind us of the simple pleasures, and suggest what to do with baking soda from the pantry and white paper from the closet. Add that to the current economic climate, with nearly everyone still reeling from the...

Columns

Chanukah: It's About Light, in All Its Forms

By:

Judd Levingston, JE Feature

This year, Chanukah will feel different for our family because there will be much more light than before. Our middle daughter knows all about light, having just celebrated her Bat Mitzvah two months ago on the week when we read the story of creation in the Torah. For nearly a year, she practiced chanting the Hebrew verses announcing the creation...

Food

Time-Honored Tradition of the Big Deep-Fry

By:

Linda Morel, JE Feature

So, how did fried foods become entwined with Chanukah's culinary history? It all started some 2,100 years ago, when the Greek king of Syria, Antiochus, occupied Israel. During his reign, the Jews and their customs faired poorly. When one of his officers arrived in a town outside of Jerusalem, he demanded that the Jews take part in a Greek ceremony...