Miriam Borden

When Did Jews Start Giving One Another Hanukkah Gelt?

Gift-giving on Hanukkah is one of those interesting modern conundrums, something that’s always fallen somewhere between bothering me and delighting me. Aside from inescapable disingenuousness of the Hanukkah Harry exchanges we staged in my yeshiva day school years and the slippery slope of Hanukkah gifts that seem to lead inevitably to Hanukkah bushes, Hanukkah stockings…