Eighth Night Yid Vid: What Is This Hanukkah Thing All About?
So we’ve had seven nights of Hanukkah videos. We’ve watched singing cowboys, rapping Jewesses, will.i.am impersonators, melodious philosemitism, a comic spilling the beans on George Clooney, Adam Sandler dropping names, and Lipa Schmeltzer doing his thing. But, a viewer might fairly complain, we still don’t have any better sense of what this holiday is all about than when we began. Fair enough.
Fortunately, Rabbi Laura Baum can explain what Hanukkah is all about — and in only three minutes:
The rest of her video series is pretty good, too. Rabbi Baum also examines the Hanukkah blessings, takes a deeper look at the “myth” of the miraculously long-lasting oil, makes some edible Hanukkah art, explains that “real women eat cheese, or at least they feed it to their men before they kill them,” teaches us that there are many ways of lighting Hanukkah candles, and offers a little bit of historical perspective on the Festival of Lights.
Of course, this may raise hackles from those who look to Eight Nights of Yid Vid not for educational content but rather for a little lighthearted diversion. For those who feel this way, I found this video of a woman performing a very nice dreidel dance.
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
- Alyssa Katz, Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
