Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.
Hanukkah
The Latest
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Community Helping God bring light, unity, and compassion back into our fractured world and nation
There is a deep human need to bring light into darkness. Traditions across the globe have light festivals in the darkest days to remind us that the light will return. Perhaps even in their origins they are sympathetic magic, that by lighting candles we can compel the light to return to our universe. Every tradition…
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Community This Hanukkah, we have to embrace both darkness and light
It has been one of most traumatic weeks in the history of our country. Celebrating and singing Hanukkah songs seems somewhat of a farce when ICUs are nearly full; mental health clinics overrun from those suffering with anxiety and suicidal ideation. This is the first time in which embracing the light has been difficult and…
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News Tiffany Haddish lends her voice to LA’s socially-distanced Hanukkah celebration
Los Angeles is getting a special gift for Hanukkah this year. Emmy-award winning actress Tiffany Haddish, along with Tom Kenny (“Spongebob Squarepants”), Mark Feuerstein (“Royal Pains”) and more, have brought to life a new Hanukkah-themed animated short, “The Broken Candle.” The film follows a Hanukkah candle box (voiced by Eugenio Derbez) that comes with a…
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Community The Hanukkah miracle of a UAE-Israel menorah lighting
Do miracles still happen? If you ask me, yes. But as the story of Hanukkah exemplifies, they are often lived out by human beings doing holy work. This week, we might have borne witness to another one. Never did I imagine that I would be standing on a 31st floor balcony in Manhattan with the…
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Community Without Jewish family, converts usually celebrate Jewish holidays; in quarantine, she found a way
My husband and I celebrated our first Hanukkah together before we were formally Jewish. It was a month before our conversion classes at Anshe Emet Synagogue in Chicago had even begun, but I didn’t want to wait. We had just suffered our second consecutive pregnancy loss and I was desperate to be embraced by the…
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Culture The dinosaur menorah started as a hobby. Here’s how it became the internet’s weirdest Judaica trend.
Eleven months out of the year, Benjamin Packard is a pretty normal guy. Packard, 37, lives in Oakland, California. He enjoys a rewarding career as a “mild-mannered financial advisor who helps millennials prepare for retirement.” He’s an enthusiastic dad to two young kids. But as Hanukkah approaches, everything changes. “Every holiday season, for about thirty…
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Culture Smokey Robinson stumped about how to say ‘Hanukkah’
Some say the Jews control the entertainment industry. If that’s the case, riddle me this: How could Motown legend Smokey Robinson, a six-decade veteran of major record labels, not know how to pronounce Hanukkah — or even have any idea what it is? We can thank Twitter user Jeff Jacobson for an unforgettable record of…
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Community Hanukkah’s lesson about antisemitism on the Left
There’s a popular joke that every Jewish holiday can be summed up as “They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat.” It’s an aphorism that’s especially apt for the two rabbinic holidays on the Jewish calendar, Purim and Hanukkah, which we’re currently celebrating. In the Purim story, Haman wished to kill all the Jews…
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