This is the Forward’s coverage of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.
Hanukkah
The Latest
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Food Climate Change Is Affecting Olive Oil Production. Will There Be Another Hanukkah Miracle?
According to tradition, a small olive oil jar was used to light the menorah in the Second Temple in Jerusalem for eight whole days, after the Jews had successfully risen against their Greek-Syrian oppressors. Even today, many people still light their Hanukkah menorahs with olive oil candles. It is no coincidence that the tradition of…
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Life Stop Spoiling Your Kids On Hanukkah
Most parents want to give their children the world. But it’s sometimes difficult to know when to draw the line between giving our kids the world and ensuring they don’t grow up spoiled, having everything handed to them. This line becomes especially hard to navigate around Hanukkah, as our children are bombarded with the overt…
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The Schmooze Rachel Bloom Unveils Vagina Menorah — Just In Time For Hanukkah
Marc Chagall. Max Weber. Lucian Freud. Rachel Bloom is not the first Jewish artist to create work that shocks and provokes powerful men, and she will not be the last! Her art, perhaps, surpasses all the others in terms of pun-usage. The creator and star of CW’s musical comedy “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” took to Twitter to…
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Community The Great Latke Debate: Applesauce vs Sour Cream
For many American Jews, Hanukkah is synonymous with latke season. Pillowy on the inside and perfectly crisp on the outside, these potato pancakes are delicious just about however you serve them. But like any Jewish matter, a contentious debate takes place every year over what the best way to top them is. Traditionally, either sour…
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Food The History of the Latke-Hamentash Debate – Alive And Well Since 1946
For 72 years running, some of the country’s foremost scholars have gathered in one of the University of Chicago’s most Gothic halls to debate one of the most challenging questions of our time: what is superior, latkes, the Hanukkah fried potato special, or hamentashen, the triangular Purim pastries? To paraphrase 2018 debate moderator Joshua Feigelson,…
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Food At Brooklyn’s Latkefest, A Short Rib Latke Wins 1st Place
At the 10th annual Latkefest, taking place at the Brooklyn Museum, 26 different versions of the latke, from deconstructed to overstuffed, were being studiously examined by judges and over 500 participants, in a continuation of a decade-old New York tradition. All proceeds went to benefit the Sylvia Center, a non-profit dedicated to teaching children nutrition…
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Community When Did Jews Start Giving One Another Hanukkah Gelt?
Gift-giving on Hanukkah is one of those interesting modern conundrums, something that’s always fallen somewhere between bothering me and delighting me. Aside from inescapable disingenuousness of the Hanukkah Harry exchanges we staged in my yeshiva day school years and the slippery slope of Hanukkah gifts that seem to lead inevitably to Hanukkah bushes, Hanukkah stockings…
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News Chabad’s Helicopter Gelt Drop Is Great For Hanukkah – Or Is It?
See the helicopter, hovering low above a grassy field ringed with children jonesing for a sugar rush. Watch pounds and pounds of gelt — chocolate coins in metallic foil — dumped out of said helicopter. Observe the children descend on the fallen gelt like Israelites on manna from heaven. If you happen to be in…
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