How Do You Spell Hanukkah / Chanukah?
Image by iStock
By The Scribe November 28, 2018
8 crazy nights of candles, fried food, and celebrating miracles.
It’s the Jewish festival of lights, Hanukkah.
Or is it Chanukah?
In Hebrew, there’s no room for debate: The word, חנוכה, pronounced with the same first guttural sound as “challah,” is always spelled the same way. But in English, there’s more wiggle room.
The Associated Press (as well as the Forward, the Jerusalem Post, Tablet Magazine and the Jewish Telegraphic Association) opts for “Hanukkah,” while Chabad uses “Chanukah,” and a 2017 Manischewitz poll found that most Jewish Americans surveyed use this spelling, too.
So what do you think? How do you spell the holiday in English?
✡️??️?️?️?️?️?️?️?️?✡️
It’s that time of year again.
How do you spell the Jewish festival of lights?
— Laura E. Adkins (@Laura_E_Adkins) November 28, 2018
Have more to say or your own Hanukkah story to submit? Email us.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism so that we can be prepared for whatever news 2025 brings.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
