Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.
Hanukkah
The Latest
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The Schmooze The War on Hanukkah is Real — Your Chocolate Maccabees are Really Santas
Dear friends, winter is coming. And with the cold wind comes the war on Hanukkah. It’s real, and it’s Santa shaped. When Jennie Rivlin Roberts, owner of , ordered these cute maccabees made out of chocolate — the very same chocolate used to make their seasonal gelt coins — to sell to her Jewish customers,…
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The Schmooze How to Wear Hanukkah Swag Without Offending Anyone
♫ On the first day of Hanukkah my true love gave to me, a dreidel with a stripper on top.♫ Not even two weeks after the offensive , we have entered the Hanukkah season minefield. As if Jewish women don’t deal with enough stereotypes, a novelty item just sprinkled some salt on the wound. According…
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The Schmooze You Can Dance With Mensch on a Bench for Hanukkah
Toymaker Neal Hoffman has four words for Jewish parents facing the “December Dilemma” of Christmas envy: Mensch on a Bench! Hoffman, the man behind the Mensch on a Bench, has partnered with Office Depot’s popular Elf Yourself app to “put some Funakkah in Hanukkah.” The app allows users to input their face onto that of…
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The Schmooze Yes, the ‘Mensch on A Bench’ TV Special Is Coming
Halloween is more than a month away but our minds are already on the upcoming festival of lights, Hanukkah. Last year’s hottest Hanukkah toy, , was a runaway success after its founder, Neal Hoffman, first pitched it on “Shark Tank,” the ABC show where entrepreneurs invest their money in up-and-coming ventures. But we doubt anyone…
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Opinion A Deadly Plague of Shabbat Fires
The Sabbath fire that killed seven children in an Orthodox Jewish family in Brooklyn on Saturday was at least the fourth deadly blaze in the borough resulting from Sabbath and holiday observance in the past 15 years. In all 11 people have been killed in the four fires, all but one of them children. At…
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Culture Meet Lyla Black, America’s Youngest Jewish Toymaker
There are no monsters living under Lyla Black’s bed, and, she doesn’t want any living under yours. Lyla, a soft-spoken 8-year-old from the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, is the inventor of the Lyla Tov (Hebrew for Good Night) Monster, a plush happy-faced, pear-shaped stuffed toy that just won her the prestigious TAGIE award for young…
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Breaking News Benjamin Netanyahu Calls for End to Bigotry in Christmas Message
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wished Christians in Israel and throughout the world a Merry Christmas. In a videotaped message, Netanyahu noted that Christians throughout the Middle East are subject to persecution, except in Israel. “Christian communities across the Middle East are experiencing a particularly difficult time. They’re experiencing violence, persecution and fear,” Netanyahu said….
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Food A Christmas Story — With Latkes
Lior Zaltzman Last week, I offered some homemade latkes to my upstairs neighbor, Caitrin Kiley. As she happily ate a few (with sour cream, for which she has a slight preference over apple sauce), she casually mentioned her family’s Christmas morning tradition. The Kileys, a Catholic family from Connecticut, have a longstanding routine. Assorted relatives…
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