Dateline Jerusalem — On Saturday night, Jews throughout the world will be celebrating the first of eight nights of Chanukah, the perfect holiday to represent the age-old Jewish saying “We were persecuted, we won, let’s eat!”
Chanukah commemorates the re-dedication and re-capture of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem from its Greek-Syrian oppressors. The Hebrew word Chanukah means dedication. Chanukah is also called the Festival of Lights and Festival of Miracles. The miracle of Chanukah is that although there was only enough pure olive oil to burn for one night to ritually cleanse and purify the Temple, the olive oil in the menorah (candelabra) actually burned for eight days and nights. That was the time needed to prepare non-polluted olive oil and to make new holy vessels. The Jewish heroine Yehudit (Judith) played a major role in winning a victory for the Jews by entering the enemy camp, feeding cheese to Gen. Holofernes to make him thirsty, getting him drunk with wine to quench his thirst, and then taking his sword to cut off his head. This scared his soldiers into a retreat.
Therefore, the holiday is universally observed by lighting a menorah, called a chanukiah, with eight holders for oil or candles. They represent each night the oil in the Temple burned, with a ninth holder, called a shamash candle, that is set apart from the other eight holders or branches of the menorah. Other symbolic customs are to eat foods cooked in oil and eat cheese dishes.
Depends on Where You Are
Chanukah customs and traditions vary throughout the world. For example, there are several differences between observing Chanukah in the States as compared to Israel. Symbolic foods include latkes (fried potato pancakes) and Israeli sufganiyot (deep fried jelly doughnuts). Originally latkes contained cheese in honor of Yehudit. But because potatoes were abundant in Eastern European countries, it became a tradition to have oil-fried potato pancakes. This tradition was brought to North America by European Jews. In Israel, we also eat latkes, but we consume more than 24 million jelly doughnuts every Chanukah! These doughnuts are not like the ones Americans buy in local stores and doughnut shops.
The Opposite of Hiding
There is a custom of putting the Chanukiah menorah where people can view the burning lights to appreciate the miracle of Chanukah.
Most people place it in front of their windows. In Jerusalem, there often are spaces cut into the sides of buildings to make it easier to display them outdoors. Most Israelis light wicks that sit in olive oil as opposed to the colorful candles lit in the States.
Parents giving gifts to their children for each night of Chanukah tends to be an American tradition, probably so Jewish children will not feel uncomfortable when their non-Jewish friends celebrate Xmas. However, in Israel, children receive coin money called gelt. They are encouraged to give it away as charity to others. Another difference between Israel and the States during Chanukah is with the spinning top game of dreidel. In Israel, on the dreidel a Hebrew letter stands for “a miracle happened here” while in the Diaspora a different Hebrew letter is on the dreidel that stands for “a miracle happened there,” meaning Jerusalem.
Chanukah is significant in Italy because the first Jews began arriving in Rome in 160 BC, having been exiled from Jerusalem. The Arch of Titus on Rome’s Via Sacra has a relief that shows a procession following the raid on the Holy Temple with a menorah carried above the heads of the Romans. In Venice, once the world’s oldest Jewish ghetto, there is music and dancing after lighting the menorah. In Italy, Chanukah is celebrated by singing, dancing and eating fried foods such as deep fried chicken marinated in olive oil, lemon and nutmeg, and dredged in flour. Other Chanukah foods include fried eggplant, mashed potato pancakes, and sweet fried bread dough stuffed with raisins and flavored by aniseeds and drizzled with hot honey.
In France, in Alsace, the menorahs were comprised of two levels, each with holders for eight lights, to enable fathers and sons together to light the same menorah with the shamash. There is an age-old tradition of lighting the Chanukah menorah at the base of the Eiffel Tower. In Germany, a menorah is lit on the first night of Chanukah in front of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate. There is a German custom of taking the leftover candle wicks and oil to build bonfires. London has the largest menorah in Europe. It is usually lit in Trafalgar Square by the Mayor of London on the first night of Chanukah. Free doughnuts are given out, and there is live music.
In Mariupol, Ukraine, Chanukah is celebrated by eating what looks like doughnut holes and drinking vodka and Coca Cola to keep warm. In the background above a giant menorah are fireworks displays. In Russia, Jews are now able to celebrate Chanukah without persecutions or fear from pogroms. The Chief Rabbi of Moscow lights a giant menorah close to the Kremlin and public menorahs are lit all over the country. It was not the case years ago.
In Istanbul, Turkey the oil fried fritters are known as burmelos. The eight menorah candles are Ocho Candelas.
In Greece they are called bunuelos and are honey fried doughnuts. Why the Spanish names? When the Spanish Inquisition banished the Jews from Spain and Portugal, Spanish Sephardi Jews settled in the Ottoman Empire which included Turkey and Greece. Thus, the Spanish names for the fried fritters, doughnuts, and candles. A Sephardic tradition is celebrated on the seventh night of Chanukah. Called Chag Habanot, Festival of the Daughters, women come to the synagogue and pray for their daughters’ health. Then they give inheritances and gifts to their daughters and to brides.
The First Conversos
Sephardi influences are throughout Mexico, Central, and South America as many Jews also traveled there to avoid the Spanish Inquisition. The first Jews in Mexico came in 1521. They were called Conversos Jews after converting to Catholicism to avoid persecution. Then there were Crypto Jews, Jews who outwardly converted but who secretly practiced Judaism, came to Mexico. In Mexico, the bunuelos are drenched in a sugar syrup instead of honey. Balls of corn dough filled with marmalade form a popular Mexican Januca treat. They call the dreidel a pirinola and play toma todo, which is actually the dreidel game. Chanukah festivities in Mexico include a Mexican piñata in the shape of a dreidel which is filled with chocolate coins and little gifts. In Santa Marta, Colombia, on the Caribbean Sea, converts to Judaism serve patacones, a Colombian dish of fried plantains in oil instead of latkes, doughnuts, or fritters. In South America, Chanukah is celebrated during summer as opposed to winter in the rest of the Jewish world.
North African countries such as Algeria and Morocco had their own way of celebrating Chanukah. Menorahs were hung on a hook on a wall near the doorway on the side of the door across from the mezuzah. In Morocco, instead of potato latkes or jelly doughnuts, there is Sfenj, a fritter-like doughnut made with the zest and juice of an orange. This is because Jaffa oranges were in season around Chanukah and were one of Israel’s greatest exports in the early days of the State. Sfenj is also made with chocolate and halvah, a Middle Eastern sesame candy.
Yemenite Jews and other Jews of North Africa celebrate the seventh night of Chanukah as a women’s holiday. This commemorates the heroines Yehudit and Hannah, who, with her seven sons, refused to give up their beliefs and died as martyrs.
Feeling Blue, and That Is Good
Another tradition of Yemenite Jews is to wear blue every day of Chanukah. Also, Yemenite children would go house to house to collect wicks for Chanukah menorahs and receive coins, and candy and fruit along with the wicks.
Iran formerly was Persia. In Persia in the 19th century, Jews were forcibly converted by Muslims. Many fled to Afghanistan where some lived openly as Jews, but more hid their Jewish heritage. For fear of bringing up their Jewish identity to their Muslim neighbors, during Chanukah they did not light menorahs. Instead they would fill little plates with oil and set them next to each other, like the branches of a menorah, and light the oil.
If neighbors came by, they would take the plates and spread them around their homes to appear as though they were lighting various rooms. Persian and Afghan Jews would eat an egg fritter called a Kuku Savri, and eat foods like a dairy sambusak in honor of the heroine Yehudit. Usually sambusak is a savory meat pie.
In some parts of India and in Ethiopia, Jews were unaware of the existence of Chanukah as a Jewish holiday because they had split off from large Jewish communities in ancient times, long before the miracle of Chanukah occurred. Other Jews from India who were aware of Chanukah, however, lit their menorahs with wicks dipped in coconut oil rather than candles. They also eat burfi, a dessert made with condensed milk and sugar, instead of eating latkes.
One of the great things about living in Israel is that it is a melting pot for Jews from all over the world. That is why many of the customs and traditions mentioned above are prevalent in Israel, passed down from generation to generation.
Although it seems like Chanukah is a culinary holiday with candles, it really has significance. It is a holiday about fighting for the right of religious observance and Torah Laws, and about anti-assimilation.
The Jews were forbidden by the Greek-Syrians to circumcise their newborn sons, keep kosher, and observe Shabbat. They were forced to accept idol worship, eat pork, and assimilate into a secular and anti-religious Hellenistic lifestyle.
Yet most Jews today are secular and non-religious, want to assimilate into other cultures and religions. They commonly adopt non-Jewish traditions and rituals. That is why it is so baffling to me that those same Jews who believe Torah laws are obsolete are the same individuals who make the minor holiday of Chanukah a major holiday! Yet everything they believe in is just the opposite of why we celebrate Chanukah.
L’hitraot. Shachar