The Santa Claus Dreidel: Peaceful Compromise Or Assimilation Nightmare?

The Santa Dreidel will either bring fun or all-out family warfare Image by Archie McPhee

By Jenny Singer December 6, 2017

I had a little dreidel, I made it out of the fusing of two diametrically opposed religious traditions!

It doesn’t quite roll off the tongue. But with the intermarriage debate continuing to spin Jews of every denomination into a tizzy, can spinning a wooden top hurt? Could a great miracle happen here, in America, where consuming material goods has so often had the capacity to smooth over our greatest cultural anguish?

According to Archie McPhee, the Seattle-based oddities company, the answer is “maybe!” The “charmingly misguided” (according to the company’s own description) dreidel is “sure to confound and confuse both Jews and Gentiles alike.”

And in case the Santa Dreidel doesn’t amuse you, I humbly offer you a deluxe dreidel stadium: Spinagogue.

Jenny Singer is a writer for the Forward. You can reach her at Singer@forward.com or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

Jenny Singer is a freelance writer with pieces in Vox, the Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Teen Vogue, and more. She was previously a staff writer at Glamour and the Forward, and she’s currently getting an MFA in nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa.

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