JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
When Maulana Karenga created Kwanzaa in 1966, he borrowed the concept of a menorah — and according to some accounts, he physically altered one — to invent the seven-candle kinara. A generation later, he gave something back to Judaism. An uncompromising 1960s revolutionary turned university professor, Karenga was already a cultural icon, and his holiday…
It’s a holiday tradition in Baltimore: Visiting the Miracle on 34th Street, a city block where houses go all out with candy canes, rooftop Santas and life-size plastic elves and snowmen — except for one row house, where a seven-foot-tall inflatable polar bear spins a dreidel, and a silver LED menorah “burns” from Thanksgiving to…
America in the midst of our holiday season — a time for family, rest and hotly contested litigation over religious displays on government property. For this year’s installment, we have a “tree lighting event” hosted by the Parent Teacher Association of the Carmel River Elementary School, a public school in Northern California. The event is…
As told to Nora Berman; edited for length and clarity The phone lit up with an unexpected text message: it was from a staff member at my daughter’s preschool. I was confused as to why they would be texting now, when the entire class was supposed to be in the middle of their holiday party….
I have a confession to make: I just enjoyed a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie. Or, all right; I’ll qualify that: It was “Eight Gifts of Hanukkah” — the one outlier in Hallmark’s “Countdown to Christmas” series (re-airing Dec. 12, 10 a.m. Eastern). And one reason I liked it is I view the channel in a…
For Carol Valoris, the holiday season used to evoke mixed feelings. As a white Jewish mother of two Black Jewish daughters, she described seeing her family zigzagging between Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. No matter which holiday the family was observing, she said, someone was always left out. “It always felt a little bittersweet,” said Valoris, 75,…
If you are a Jew living in the United States, you’re likely aware of Hanukkah’s slow creep toward becoming Jewish Christmas. There is Shmelf the Hanukkah Elf, ugly sweater sugar cookies, and Wayfair Santas wrapped in prayer shawls. This year, however, the latest Chrismukkah riff is … a Hanukkah gnome. Hanukkah gnomes are cute, and…
In the past few weeks, I’ve written about everything wrong with Hanukkah today — kitschy merchandise, Christmasification, the Maccabees. So as we approach the end of the eight nights, I wanted to finish on a sweeter note: a pop anthem made for the holiday that, in my humble opinion, does everything right. “Hanukkah” comes from…
