tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/hanukkah-46408/articlesHanukkah – The Conversation2023-12-13T18:06:06Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2197892023-12-13T18:06:06Z2023-12-13T18:06:06ZWhy did a far-right MP take a fire extinguisher to a Jewish menorah just as Poland’s new government was being voted into power?<p>In an attack caught on video, a member of the Polish parliament (Sejm) used a fire extinguisher to put out the Hanukkah candles on a menorah positioned in a public area of the building, filling the room with mist and covering bystanders with foam. Grzegorz Braun, an MP for the far-right alliance Konfederacja, then stated that “those who take part in acts of Satanic worship should be ashamed”. He was subsequently excluded from the sitting of parliament. Konfederacja <a href="https://twitter.com/KONFEDERACJA_/status/1734629552930885831">condemned</a> his actions on X (formerly Twitter).</p>
<p>Konfederacja was established in 2018 as an alliance of five far-right Polish parties, including Braun’s Konfederacja Korony Polskiej (Confederation of the Polish Crown). The alliance <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/poland-election-results-opposition-donald-tusk-wins-final-count-civic-platform-pis/">won</a> 7.2% of the vote in this year’s election. </p>
<p>Braun himself has been an MP since 2019, and has been outspoken with his antisemitic, anti-LGBTQ+, and anti-EU views and conspiracy theories. He infamously <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/anti-semitism-polish-protests-against-restitution">refers</a> to “the war which the Jews have waged against the Polish nation”, for example. </p>
<p>This isn’t his first publicity stunt. In June 2023, he <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/polish-radical-right-wing-mp-disrupts-lecture-on-holocaust/a-65795483">interrupted</a> a lecture on “Poland’s problems with the history of the Holocaust” by shouting “enough” and forcibly taking the microphone away from the speaker. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1734602565223174308"}"></div></p>
<p>Braun’s latest actions may have been a response to the results of the latest Polish election, which saw <a href="https://theconversation.com/poland-votes-for-change-after-nearly-a-decade-spent-sliding-towards-autocracy-but-tricky-coalition-talks-lie-ahead-for-donald-tusk-215618">Donald Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition (KO)</a> receiving enough votes to form a coalition government with the Left and the centre-right Third Way. Braun’s antisemitic act came just as parliament was preparing for a vote of confidence in the new government. The vote went ahead and the motion passed, despite the disruption.</p>
<h2>Contextualising antisemitism in Poland</h2>
<p>The sight of Braun brandishing the fire extinguisher may have been depressing, but perhaps not surprising, to many Polish people. There is comparatively less stigma around overt antisemitism in Poland than in some other European nations. </p>
<p>It is true that countries such as France and Germany have also struggled with the phenomenon of historical competitive victimhood, feeling that the suffering of their non-Jewish populations during the second world war has been overlooked due to a focus on the Holocaust – but Poland is a particularly <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17504902.2023.2245284?src=">prevalent example</a> of the problem.</p>
<p>Non-Jewish Poles suffered a huge amount under the Soviet and Nazi occupations. The Soviet Union did not recognise the Polish state and the Nazis considered all Poles to be subhuman. It is estimated that between <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/m/pdfs/2000926-Poles.pdf">1.8 and 1.9 million non-Jewish Poles</a> died under the Nazis.</p>
<p>Accepting Jewish victimhood (<a href="https://holocausteducation.org.uk/teacher-resources/post-it-online-courses/jewish-life-warsaw/">90% of Polish Jews</a> were killed in the Holocaust) and considering the possible <a href="https://iupress.org/9780253010742/hunt-for-the-jews/">complicity</a> of non-Jewish Poles in the occupation is often felt to take focus away from the latter’s experience. Some consider that events such as the Katyn massacre of 1940 are overlooked and the hardship of non-Jewish Polish forced labourers forgotten. </p>
<p>In a recent poll by the Anti-Defamation League, 57% of respondents in Poland said that Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust, and scholars have <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43783763">demonstrated</a> that feelings of victimisation correlate with antisemitic beliefs in Poland. This is compounded by the legacy of the communist regime in Poland as part of the Soviet Bloc. During that period, Jewish suffering in the Holocaust was generalised as part of the wider victimhood from fascism, rather than marked as something specific to the Jewish community.</p>
<p>The effects of this are still felt. As recently as 2018, the Law and Justice party (PiS), in government at the time, <a href="https://theconversation.com/poland-is-trying-to-rewrite-history-with-this-controversial-new-holocaust-law-91774">passed a law</a> making it illegal to accuse the Polish nation or state of complicity in the Nazi Holocaust. This was subsequently changed to make it a civil, rather than a criminal, offence.</p>
<p>Catholicism has also played a role in Polish antisemitism since before the Holocaust. This is now visible through religious media outlets such as Radio Maryja, which <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/radio-maryja-25-years-anti-semitism">broadcasts</a> antisemitic conspiracy theories, such as alleged Jewish infiltration in liberal politics, and fears of Jews reclaiming property stolen during the Holocaust. The latter is a particularly contentious issue in Poland, as it is the only EU country not to have passed any legislation to restore stolen property to the descendants of their Jewish owners.</p>
<p>Braun’s reference to “acts of Satanic worship” is also telling. It implies a belief in the <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/world/indelible-stain-hate">blood libel claim</a> – the idea that forms a key part of historical anti-Jewish hatred and alleges that Jews use Christian blood in their acts of worship. </p>
<p>Throughout its administration, PiS sought to present itself as the defender of Christian values. And, while not as overtly antisemitic as Konfederacja, PiS has arguably normalised antisemitism while in power due to its exclusionary narratives. The party has drawn on its Christian image to argue that it is defending Poland against Muslims, to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-54191344">ostracise members of the LGBTQ+ community</a> and to <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/02/06/poland-womens-rights-activists-targeted">target</a> women’s rights activists protesting against abortion restrictions. The notion that the Polish in-group is comprised of traditional Catholics and no one else is detrimental to Poland’s Jews.</p>
<h2>The far right in western Europe</h2>
<p>While antisemitism is far from unique to Poland, the far-right parties that have seen electoral success in western Europe are more implicit in their expressions of antisemitism. Parties like Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) have learned the gains to be made by refuting accusations of prejudice towards Jews. Braun’s Konfederacja is perhaps ideologically more akin to extreme parties such as Die Heimat (formerly the NPD) in Germany – which are electorally irrelevant now.</p>
<p>Electorally successful parties, such as the AfD, Rassemblement National in France, or the Freedom Party of Austria, are known for engaging in Holocaust relativism and occasionally using antisemitic code words, such as “globalists”. But as these parties have also constructed an image for themselves as pro-Jewish, predominantly through the narrative of wanting to “protect” Jews from Muslim antisemitism, it would be unlikely for these parties to engage in a stunt such as Braun’s, publicly attacking Jews for being Jews.</p>
<p>It is at least comforting that Braun’s stunt received such a backlash and that his alliance remains on the fringes of Polish politics. Meanwhile, Tusk’s new premiership hopefully heralds a time of greater inclusion in Polish society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219789/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claire Burchett receives funding from the London Arts & Humanities Doctoral Training Partnership. </span></em></p>Grzegorz Braun’s act was a reminder of how antisemitism has been normalised by the outgoing administration.Claire Burchett, PhD candidate in European Politics, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2183292023-12-11T13:13:00Z2023-12-11T13:13:00ZHow cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger became the scents of winter holidays, far from their tropical origins<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564556/original/file-20231208-29-lo8tej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=38%2C0%2C5075%2C3879&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon and other gingerbread spices.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/gingerbread-spices-on-slate-star-anise-cinnamon-royalty-free-image/1297922082">Almaje/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Regardless of how you celebrate end-of-year holidays, food is probably central to your winter festivities. And a trio of spices – cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger – feature in many dishes and drinks and are an unmistakable part of the scent profile we associate with the holiday season.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://soilcrop.tamu.edu/people/desalvio-serina/">plant scientist</a>, I was curious to know how these spices, grown in the tropics, became so closely associated with the Northern Hemisphere’s winter holidays. Just as <a href="https://theconversation.com/cranberries-can-bounce-float-and-pollinate-themselves-the-saucy-science-of-a-thanksgiving-classic-216326">cranberries’ fall harvest</a> makes them a natural choice for Thanksgiving, I thought that perhaps the seasonality of spice harvest had something to do with their use during the winter months.</p>
<p>However, this doesn’t appear to be the case. When it comes to growing spices, producers are playing the long game. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ygnzhWrML_4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Spices are prized commodities that have fueled global trade, exploration and conquest for centuries.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Growing holiday spices</h2>
<p>Take ginger, which features in both sweet and savory recipes in many cuisines worldwide. Ginger roots take between eight and 10 months to fully mature. The plants can be <a href="https://agrilifeextension.tamu.edu/library/gardening/ginger/">harvested at any time of year</a> if they are mature and haven’t been exposed to cold or wind. </p>
<p>That timing is important because harvesting ginger means uprooting the whole plant to get to the rhizomes growing underground. Rhizomes function like <a href="https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/plant-science-at-the-dinner-table-ginger">underground stems</a>, storing nutrients for the plant to help it survive the winter. Once cold weather signals to the plant to dip into its underground supply of nutrients, the quality of the harvested ginger will decline significantly.</p>
<p>Nutmeg comes from grinding seeds of the <em>Myristica fragrans</em> tree, an evergreen that’s <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/nutmeg">native to Indonesia</a>. The trees start flowering in their sixth year, but peak production comes when they are closer to 20 years old. </p>
<p>Workers harvest fruit from the trees, which typically grow to heights of <a href="https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=282832&isprofile=1&basic=Myristica%20fragrans">10 to 30 feet</a> (3 to 10 meters), using long poles to knock the fruits down. For spice production, the fruits then are dried in the sun. </p>
<p>Nutmeg comes from grinding the inner seed kernels; its <a href="https://www.thespicehouse.com/blogs/news/what-is-mace">sister spice, mace</a>, comes from grinding the tissue that envelopes the seeds. Since this plant yields two spices, the long wait for the trees to mature is worthwhile for producers.</p>
<p>Cinnamon is made from the bark of two trees: <em>Cinnamomum verum</em> for cinnamon sticks, and <em>Cinnamomum cassia</em> for ground cinnamon. The two types have different textures and flavor profiles, but both are made from the outermost layer of the trees’ bark. Production typically starts after a tree is 2 years old.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/heres-how-cinnamon-harvested-valley-indonesia-180955063/">Peeling bark from cinnamon tree branches</a> is easiest after <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54426-3_7">heavy rainfalls</a>, which soften the bark, so harvests typically happen after monsoon seasons. The same effect can be achieved outside of monsoon season by soaking branches in buckets of water.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564557/original/file-20231208-31-1xol8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a t-shirt scrapes long shreds of bark from a branch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564557/original/file-20231208-31-1xol8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564557/original/file-20231208-31-1xol8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564557/original/file-20231208-31-1xol8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564557/original/file-20231208-31-1xol8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564557/original/file-20231208-31-1xol8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564557/original/file-20231208-31-1xol8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564557/original/file-20231208-31-1xol8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Sri Lankan farmer peels freshly harvested cinnamon sticks. Sri Lanka is the world’s largest exporter of cinnamon, responsible for 80% of production.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sri-lankan-farmer-peels-freshly-harvested-cinnamon-sticks-news-photo/146590450">Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What makes a spice ‘warm’?</h2>
<p>Cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg all are widely described as “warm” spices, which probably has less to do with where they come from and more with <a href="https://www.piedmont.org/living-real-change/the-healthiest-winter-spices">how they affect our bodies</a>. </p>
<p>In the same way that mint can “taste” cold due to its <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-1716.1951.tb00824.x">menthol content</a>, cinnamon’s warm taste is attributed to <a href="https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Cinnamaldehyde#section=Structures">a compound called cinnamaldehyde</a>, which gives the spice its distinctive taste and smell. This chemical tricks our nervous system when we eat it by triggering the same pathway that perceives warmth, much as <a href="https://www.houstonmethodist.org/blog/articles/2020/sep/how-to-cool-your-mouth-down-after-eating-spicy-food/#">capsaicin in peppers</a> triggers feelings of pain.</p>
<p>Cinnamaldehyde also helps <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/chemistry/cinnamaldehyde">decrease blood glucose levels</a>, so enjoying some cinnamon tea after a big Christmas dinner can help stop your blood sugar from spiking. Cinnamon has been used for thousands of years in traditional medicine across Asia for its antibacterial properties and as a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0974-8490.157990">digestive aid</a>. </p>
<p>Christopher Columbus’ first voyage west across the Atlantic sought to find a <a href="https://www.cabinet.ox.ac.uk/cinnamon-peppercorns-nutmeg-and-cloves-0">direct route to Asia to purchase cinnamon</a> and other spices directly where they were grown.<br>
Indeed, the spice trade can be seen as a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/bespoke/made-on-earth/the-flavours-that-shaped-the-world/">microcosm for the story of globalization</a>, with all of its associated benefits and harms.</p>
<h2>Spicing up our health and digestive systems</h2>
<p>Ginger and nutmeg don’t trick our nervous systems into feeling warm, but they both contain a myriad of compounds that aid in digestion and can fend off viral and bacterial infections. Ginger is an excellent <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.4137/IMI.S36273">anti-nausea agent</a> because of a compound called gingerol, which increases <a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/ginger-benefits#">gut mobility</a>. This means food doesn’t linger in the gut as long, which cuts down on gas production and keeps us from feeling bloated and sick.</p>
<p>Ginger was first used for food purposes in the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/history-gingerbread/#">Middle Ages</a> as a way of masking the taste of preserved meats, which were mainly consumed in the winter months surrounding holidays. Unlike most spices, it can be used for cooking in many forms – fresh, dried and ground, candied or pickled. Each version offers a different level of ginger’s signature bite.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wNJxrbgmaow?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Gingerbread, which typically is flavored with multiple spices including ground ginger, has existed in various forms for centuries.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like cinnamon, nutmeg is another anti-diabetic. It has been shown to both decrease blood glucose levels and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/%2010.5603/FM.a2019.0052">increase serum insulin</a>. Insulin helps regulate how sugars are stored in our bodies by moving glucose out of our bloodstream and into cells, where it can be accessed later when we need an energy boost. So cinnamon can help ensure that all those holiday baked goods are put to use energetically, whether that’s right now or later. </p>
<p>Nutmeg seeds produce many natural compounds, some of which have the potential to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-375688-6.10098-2">fight pathogenic bacteria</a>. During the 1600s, doctors believed nutmeg could be effective at warding off the bubonic plague, and many people wore it tied around their necks. This belief likely came from nutmeg’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exppara.2021.108104">insecticidal qualities</a>, which would have helped keep fleas carrying the plague off people sporting a nutmeg necklace. </p>
<p>The sights and sounds of the winter holidays are distinctive, but nothing is as all-encompassing and nostalgic as the smells and tastes. Understanding how we have evolved traditions surrounding food, and the science behind those foods, can help us further appreciate their role in the season of celebrations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218329/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Serina DeSalvio does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Spices have been prized commodities for centuries. Today, ‘warm’ flavors boost our health and spirits in fall and winter.Serina DeSalvio, Ph.D. Candidate in Genetics and Genomics, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2151192023-12-05T13:22:09Z2023-12-05T13:22:09ZHanukkah celebrations have changed dramatically − but the same is true of Christmas<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563077/original/file-20231202-25-d6v2he.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C0%2C1013%2C682&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Candles on a large Hanukkah menorah shine in front of a Christmas tree at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, in 2015.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/candles-have-been-lit-on-the-10-metre-tall-hannukah-menorah-news-photo/1036787974?adppopup=true">Gregor Fischer/picture alliance via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hanukkah is not the Jewish Christmas. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/12/12/945611059/hanukkah-story">Articles and op-eds</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/hanukkah-jewish-christmas-commercialized/2021/11/23/bcc1df94-495d-11ec-95dc-5f2a96e00fa3_story.html">in newspapers</a> remind readers of that fact every year, lamenting that the Jewish Festival of Lights has almost become an imitation of the Christian holiday.</p>
<p>These pieces exist for a reason. Hanukkah is a minor festival in the Jewish liturgical year, whose major holidays come in the fall and spring – the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-the-jewish-high-holy-days-a-look-at-rosh-hashanah-yom-kippur-and-a-month-of-celebrating-renewal-and-moral-responsibility-166079">High Holidays</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-passover-different-from-all-other-nights-3-essential-reads-on-the-jewish-holiday-202678">Passover</a>, respectively. Because of its proximity to Christmas, however, Hanukkah has been culturally elevated into a major celebration.</p>
<p>American shops and schools nod to diversity by putting up menorahs next to Christmas trees or including the <a href="https://reformjudaism.org/media/video/dreidel-song-i-made-it-out-clay">dreidel song</a> in the “holiday concert” alongside Santa, Rudolph or the Christ child. Even Chabad, <a href="https://www.chabad.org/">an Orthodox Jewish movement</a>, holds public menorah lightings that look remarkably like public Christmas tree lightings. </p>
<p>Store windows, doctors’ offices and college dining halls display Christmas trees and menorahs side by side, though the <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-hanukkiyah-menorah/">latter is a ritual object</a>, not merely a decoration. A menorah, or “hanukkiah,” is lit in a specific way, on specific days, with accompanying prayers – more akin to a <a href="https://www.umc.org/en/content/ask-the-umc-what-do-the-candles-in-our-advent-wreath-mean">Christian</a> <a href="https://www.usccb.org/resources/what-advent-wreath">Advent wreath</a> than to the holly decking the halls.</p>
<p>Much of my <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/jewishstudies/samira-mehta-0">Jewish studies and gender research</a> focuses on <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469636368/beyond-chrismukkah/">interfaith families</a>, for whom these issues can be especially tricky. I empathize with Jewish Americans worried about Hanukkah growing too similar to Christmas – but the history of both holidays is more complicated than these comparisons let on.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563078/original/file-20231202-75503-ehllq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photo of four young boys, three of them looking on as the eldest lights a candle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563078/original/file-20231202-75503-ehllq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563078/original/file-20231202-75503-ehllq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563078/original/file-20231202-75503-ehllq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563078/original/file-20231202-75503-ehllq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563078/original/file-20231202-75503-ehllq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563078/original/file-20231202-75503-ehllq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563078/original/file-20231202-75503-ehllq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The four sons of a Jewish family in Brookline, Mass., light the first candle of their menorah during Hanukkah in 1971.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-four-sons-of-a-jewish-family-light-a-menorah-during-news-photo/138778964?adppopup=true">Spencer Grant/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ancient revolt</h2>
<p>There’s a deep irony, of course, in seeing Hanukkah as a prime example of assimilation: The festival itself celebrates a victory against assimilation. </p>
<p>In 168 B.C.E., Antiochus IV Epiphanes, king of the Seleucid Empire, sent his army to conquer Jerusalem. <a href="https://reformjudaism.org/jewish-holidays/hanukkah/history-hanukkah-story">He outlawed Jewish holidays</a>, Shabbat observance and practices such as circumcision. His troops set up altars to the Greek gods in the Jewish temple, dedicating it to Zeus.</p>
<p>The Maccabees, a Jewish resistance movement led by a priestly family, opposed both Antiochus and Jews who assimilated to the conquering Greek culture. Hanukkah celebrates the rebels’ victory over the Seleucid army.</p>
<p>In the temple, the Jews kept an eternal flame burning – <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ner-tamid">as synagogues do today</a>. When the Maccabees reclaimed the temple, however, there was enough oil to last for only a day. Miraculously, the story says it lasted for a week: enough time to bring in more oil.</p>
<p>Traditional holiday celebrations, therefore, include lighting the menorah each night for eight days and eating food <a href="https://www.salon.com/2022/12/20/untraditional-hanukkah-celebrations-are-often-full-of-traditions-for-jews-of-color_partner/">cooked in oil</a>. <a href="https://reformjudaism.org/jewish-holidays/hanukkah/hanukkah-customs-and-rituals">Spinning dreidel</a> games are also traditional, as are songs like “<a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/rock-of-ages-maoz-tzur/">Maoz Tzur</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563075/original/file-20231202-25-jdl9dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A table with a blue and white tablecloth, set with several serving dishes of fried foods." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563075/original/file-20231202-25-jdl9dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563075/original/file-20231202-25-jdl9dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563075/original/file-20231202-25-jdl9dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563075/original/file-20231202-25-jdl9dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563075/original/file-20231202-25-jdl9dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563075/original/file-20231202-25-jdl9dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563075/original/file-20231202-25-jdl9dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Latkes – fried potato pancakes – are one of the most popular Hanukkah foods in the U.S., usually served with applesauce or sour cream.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/having-a-meal-at-private-hannukah-party-on-6th-night-12-31-news-photo/530882869?adppopup=true">Lisa J Goodman/Moment Mobile via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“<a href="https://forward.com/culture/358070/how-my-subversive-hanukkah-bush-is-part-of-the-war-on-christmas/">Hanukkah bushes</a>” topped with a Star of David, extravagant presents, community menorah lightings in the park, blue and white lights on houses and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/12/02/advent-calendar-trend/">Hanukkah Advent calendars</a>? Not traditional, if “traditional” means things that have happened for hundreds of years.</p>
<h2>Carols and carousing</h2>
<p>Assimilation to the United States’ Christian-majority culture has played a role in Hanukkah’s modern transformation. That said, the story of how Hanukkah came to have the commercial, kids-and-gifts focus that it has in the U.S. today is a bit more complicated. </p>
<p>When people worry that Hanukkah is simply a Jewish adaptation to the Christmas gift season, I think they are imagining that Christmas itself has always been as most Americans today know it – with the presents, the tree and the family togetherness. But, in fact, both contemporary Christmas and contemporary Hanukkah <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691017211/consumer-rites">grew up together</a> in response to the Industrial Revolution.</p>
<p>Before the Industrial Revolution, both Europe and North America were primarily agrarian societies. When the harvest was completed, the entire Advent season took on an air of revelry – there was caroling in the streets and a certain amount of drunken carousing. For the more wealthy, it was a season of parties and balls. Sometimes, there would be <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/2712609">class-based conflict</a> – like vandalism or other crimes – between the wealthy partygoers and the working-class street parties.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563076/original/file-20231202-72894-1huoed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A postcard-like image in muted colors of seemingly young men and women drinking at an indoor party." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563076/original/file-20231202-72894-1huoed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563076/original/file-20231202-72894-1huoed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563076/original/file-20231202-72894-1huoed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563076/original/file-20231202-72894-1huoed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563076/original/file-20231202-72894-1huoed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563076/original/file-20231202-72894-1huoed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563076/original/file-20231202-72894-1huoed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 19th century Christmas celebrations in London – not exactly puritanical.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/christmas-celebrations-in-london-news-photo/3303651?adppopup=true">Hulton Archive/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The highlight of the season was New Year’s rather than Christmas. Gifts, if any, were small and usually handmade. The wealthy gave end-of-the-year bonuses to servants and tradespeople. All in all, the season was as much about friends as family, and celebrated in public as much or more than in private.</p>
<p>For a variety of reasons, social campaigners in the early 19th century looked to make Christmas into <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691017211/consumer-rites">the domestic celebration of consumption</a> that we have today. The shift from seasonal farm work to round-the-clock factory work made the evenings of carousing problematic, for example – hungover workers are not good workers – and moving the celebration to a single day solved that problem. Meanwhile, religious voices tried to emphasize Christmas as a celebration of Christ in Christian homes. </p>
<p>But more to the point, the Industrial Revolution created a huge market of relatively affordable goods that needed a market. Christmas provided an abundant market. And so did Hanukkah.</p>
<h2>New needs, new traditions</h2>
<p>Jews received the same advertisements for gifts and festive foods as their Christian neighbors, and it was hard to resist the pull of the celebratory season. However, the late American studies scholar <a href="https://chss.rowan.edu/departments/philosophy/faculty/AshtonDianne.html">Dianne Ashton’s</a> book “<a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814707395/hanukkah-in-america/">Hanukkah in America: A History</a>” suggests that Hanukkah did not take its current form only because American Jews were imitating Christmas in some sort of religious version of keeping up with the Joneses.</p>
<p>Hanukkah, which is celebrated mostly in the home, gave Jewish women a place to shine – much like a domestic Christmas gave such opportunities to Christian women. It allowed Jews to focus on the family bonds, which often <a href="http://www.beacon.org/Fighting-to-Become-Americans-P309.aspx">felt fragile and precious</a> in the shadow of immigration and relatives left behind. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563074/original/file-20231202-27-id5yza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A brunette woman crouches indoors by a table, amid a handful of children, as she holds a lit candle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563074/original/file-20231202-27-id5yza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563074/original/file-20231202-27-id5yza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563074/original/file-20231202-27-id5yza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563074/original/file-20231202-27-id5yza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563074/original/file-20231202-27-id5yza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563074/original/file-20231202-27-id5yza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563074/original/file-20231202-27-id5yza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A rabbi teaches preschoolers how to light a Hanukkah menorah in November 2018 in Washington, D.C.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/small-group-of-pre-schoolers-from-gan-hayeled-learn-how-to-news-photo/1075040466?adppopup=true">Alex Wong/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814707395/hanukkah-in-america/">focusing on children</a>, such as by having them light the candles – a job traditionally done by adult men – offered a way to engage the next generation in a time and place where being Jewish felt like a choice.</p>
<p>In America, Jews were full citizens, free from the laws that had previously kept their communities isolated in many parts of Europe. That freedom also made it easier for each individual to choose how much to engage with Jewish community, if at all. In America, you could leave your Judaism behind without converting to Christianity – <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691004792/leaving-the-jewish-fold">and many Jews did</a>. Hanukkah was a fun way to build attachments to the holiday. </p>
<p>American Jews adapted Hanukkah to their own needs, emphasizing aspects of the religion that made it work in this new environment. One can see that as assimilation, sure, but it was also adaptation for survival. Joining in the “holiday season” did mitigate the feeling of being an outsider, and a minority, at the holidays. But it also allowed for the creation of a new way of engaging Judaism in a new space and time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215119/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samira Mehta does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Assimilation no doubt played a role in making Hanukkah the commercialized holiday it is today. But other factors shaped the modern festival, too, a scholar of Jewish studies and gender explains.Samira Mehta, Associate Professor of Women and Gender Studies & Jewish Studies, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1913182022-12-16T18:34:39Z2022-12-16T18:34:39Z‘Untraditional’ Hanukkah celebrations are often full of traditions for Jews of color<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501458/original/file-20221216-18-gmfu5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=31%2C6%2C2084%2C1405&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hanukkah creates opportunities for families to celebrate their heritage – especially in the kitchen.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/image-of-the-hanukkah-jewish-holiday-with-a-menorah-royalty-free-image/889576958?phrase=hanukkah%20morocco&adppopup=true">zilber42/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hanukkah, the Jewish “festival of lights,” commemorates <a href="https://home.dartmouth.edu/news/2019/12/menorah-symbol-light">a story of a miracle</a>, when oil meant to last for one day lasted for eight. Today, Jews light the menorah, a candelabra with eight candles – and one “helper” candle, called a shamas – to remember the Hanukkah oil, which kept the Jerusalem temple’s everlasting lamp burning brightly. Each year, the holiday starts with just the shamas and one of the eight candles and ends, on the last night, with the entire menorah lit up.</p>
<p>But because the reason for the light is oil, Jews also celebrate by eating food cooked in oil. In the United States, most people think of those oil-soaked foods as <a href="https://smittenkitchen.com/2008/12/potato-pancakes-latkes/">latkes</a>, or potato pancakes, and jelly doughnuts called <a href="https://smittenkitchen.com/2014/12/jelly-doughnuts/">sufganiyot</a>. For most American Jews, these are indeed important holiday foods, replete with memories – both of their heavy, greasy deliciousness and of the smells that permeate the house for days after a latke fry. </p>
<p>More specifically, though, these treats are Ashkenazi, referring to Jews whose ancestors came from Eastern Europe. Two-thirds of Jews in the U.S. <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/05/11/race-ethnicity-heritage-and-immigration-among-u-s-jews/#:%7E:text=Two%2Dthirds%20of%20U.S.%20Jews,of%20these%20or%20other%20categories.">identify as Ashkenazi</a>, which has strongly shaped American Jewish culture. That Eastern European culture, however, is only one of many Jewish cultures around the world.</p>
<p>In recent years, Jews of color and non-Ashkenazi Jews have been bringing attention to new Hanukkah traditions that celebrate the diversity of Judaism in the U.S. My work as <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/wgst/samira-mehta">a scholar of gender</a> and <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/jewishstudies/people/faculty/samira-mehta">Jewish studies</a> often looks at how multicultural families <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469636368/beyond-chrismukkah/">navigate and celebrate</a> the many aspects of their identities.</p>
<h2>Many different Jewish stories</h2>
<p>Jews of color come from many places. Some people were born into communities that have always been Jewish and have never been considered white: For instance, there are Jewish communities in <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/mumbai-news/jews-in-mumbai-find-new-ways-to-keep-religious-traditions-alive/story-CYBhfoOQ1qoGIjG90vOgSJ.html">India</a>, <a href="https://minorityrights.org/minorities/ethiopian-jews/">Ethiopia</a> and <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-jews-of-kaifeng-chinas-only-native-jewish-community/">China</a>. Others are people of color adopted into white Jewish families; adult converts to Judaism; or children of interracial, <a href="https://doi.org/10.7312/zell16030-010">interfaith marriage</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man and woman flank a teenage girl in a red and black dress as they all smile and laugh." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501382/original/file-20221215-24-i4s7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501382/original/file-20221215-24-i4s7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501382/original/file-20221215-24-i4s7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501382/original/file-20221215-24-i4s7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501382/original/file-20221215-24-i4s7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501382/original/file-20221215-24-i4s7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501382/original/file-20221215-24-i4s7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many families find ways to incorporate other sides of their heritage into Jewish ceremonies and holidays.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/tsvi-reiter-and-lei-he-react-as-they-celebrate-daughter-news-photo/1211399973?phrase=bat%20mitzvah&adppopup=true">Lindsey Wasson/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Many Jews of color have strong ties to Ashkenazi Judaism. Increasingly, though, they are publicly celebrating the range of traditions they bring to the table, <a href="https://jewsofcolorinitiative.org/">making space for more diversity in mainstream Jewish life</a>. There’s been more conversation about the Ethiopian Jewish holiday <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/what-is-sigd/">Sigd</a>, for example, and what role it might play in American Jewish life.</p>
<p>One of my favorite examples is a children’s book called “<a href="https://pjlibrary.org/books/queen-of-the-hanukkah-dosas/if00831">The Queen of the Hanukkah Dosas</a>,” which features a boy and his little sister, named Sadie. Their dad is Ashkenazi and their mom is Indian or Indian American, as is their live-in grandmother, Amma-amma. In their house, Hanukkah means cooking up a plate of dosas, South Indian crepes sometimes wrapped around a savory filling. The narrator is annoyed by Sadie’s tendency to climb on things, but her climbing skills save the day, and the dinner, when the family is locked out of their house and she can climb in and open the door.</p>
<p>What I especially appreciate about this particular book is that the dosas are not the point of the story. This is a story about an annoying little sister who in the end saves the day, and her family just happens to make dosas as a Hanukkah treat. “The Queen of the Hanukkah Dosas” doesn’t mention whether the Indian side of the family is Jewish, but either way, its message for kids is clear: It can be totally normal to be a half-white, Jewish, half-Indian kid who has dosas for Hanukkah.</p>
<h2>‘Kosher Soul’</h2>
<p>In real life, one of the most influential Jews of color adding distinctive Hanukkah foods to the communal table is Michael Twitty. This acclaimed food historian is author of “<a href="https://thecookinggene.com/">The Cooking Gene</a>,” about the social and culinary history of African American food, and “<a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/koshersoul-michael-w-twitty?variant=39813830836258&s=09">Kosher Soul</a>,” which brings together traditions from these two sides of his identity.</p>
<p>Twitty <a href="https://afroculinaria.com/2011/12/22/hannukah-oy-hannukah-my-african-american-jewish-version-at-least/">notes on his blog</a>, Afroculinaria, that “traditionally African Jewish communities – the Beta Yisrael of Ethiopia, the Lemba of Southern Africa, and groups in West Africa, did not celebrate Hannukah.” That said, in the spirit of celebrating Jewish food from around the world, he shared the Somali dish sambusa, a flaky deep-fried pastry something like a samosa, that can be filled with meat or vegetables. As with dosas, it is not so much that these foods are traditionally associated with Hanukkah but that they could provide Black Jews with a way to celebrate African and Jewish aspects of their heritage with a food fried in oil. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A Black man wearing a white and red checked shirt and black pants stands in front of a backdrop with the words 'The New York Times.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500916/original/file-20221214-23-gagrtn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500916/original/file-20221214-23-gagrtn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500916/original/file-20221214-23-gagrtn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500916/original/file-20221214-23-gagrtn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500916/original/file-20221214-23-gagrtn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500916/original/file-20221214-23-gagrtn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500916/original/file-20221214-23-gagrtn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Michael W. Twitty attends the New York Times Food for Tomorrow Conference in 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/michael-w-twitty-attends-the-new-york-times-food-for-news-photo/610643252?phrase=michael%20twitty&adppopup=true">Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for New York Times</a></span>
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<p>Twitty is known for his skill at a wide range of cuisines, including a wide range of Jewish food; cuisine cooked by African Americans for themselves and, at times, white employers; and African foods. Drawing on all these traditions, Twitty created a riff on more traditional latkes: <a href="https://afroculinaria.com/2011/12/22/hannukah-oy-hannukah-my-african-american-jewish-version-at-least/">Louisiana-style latkes</a>, which include the “holy trinity” of Creole and Cajun cuisine – garlic, green onions and celery in this recipe – plus a bit of cayenne pepper.</p>
<p>Plenty of people improvise their latke recipes: My former synagogue, like many others, had latke cook-offs in which people brought all sorts of innovations, including black bean and sweet potato latkes and latkes flavored like samosa fillings. For Twitty, pulling from Creole flavors allows him to marry his Jewish religion and his African American heritage – and to offer a path for other Black Jews to do likewise.</p>
<h2>Full table, full selves</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A handful of men hold scrolls with Hebrew lettering at the front of a synagogue." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500928/original/file-20221214-219-7zvqjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500928/original/file-20221214-219-7zvqjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500928/original/file-20221214-219-7zvqjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500928/original/file-20221214-219-7zvqjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500928/original/file-20221214-219-7zvqjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500928/original/file-20221214-219-7zvqjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500928/original/file-20221214-219-7zvqjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Worshippers celebrate the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashana, at Shaare Rason Synagogue in Mumbai, India.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-jewish-community-people-offer-prayers-as-they-celebrate-news-photo/1172725974?phrase=indian%20jewish&adppopup=true">Pratik Chorge/Hindustan Times via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In my new book, “<a href="http://www.beacon.org/The-Racism-of-People-Who-Love-You-P1861.aspx">The Racism of People Who Love You</a>,” I think a lot about being brown in white spaces and about the innovations that come from blended identities. </p>
<p>I am not from a historically Jewish Indian community, but my own innovation, as a Jew of color, is this. The last Hanukkah before the pandemic, my mom came out to visit me. She is neither Jewish nor Indian but became an excellent Indian cook during many decades of her marriage. I, however, am not an excellent Indian cook and, whenever I am able to spend time with my mom, I want her to make something called <a href="https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/aloo-chole">aloo puri</a>, which is a chickpea and potato dish served with <a href="https://www.indianhealthyrecipes.com/poori-recipe-puri-recipe/">crispy, puffy fried bread</a>. I have no idea how to make the bread, and it is a “seeing Mommy” treat.</p>
<p>I invited an Indian colleague who was not going home for winter break to join us for dinner. When I happened to mention this dinner to one of my senior Jewish studies colleagues, he commented that he wanted to have my mom cook an Indian dinner for him, and so, with my mom’s permission, I invited him and his husband to join us as well. </p>
<p>My mom looked at me. “Puri are fried in oil,” she said, and all of a sudden we had a Hanukkah party, with a menorah lighting and fried food. For me, having my senior colleague there and excited to join us was a moment of realizing I could bring my full self to the table. </p>
<p>If I were the type to make holiday wishes, that is, perhaps, what I would wish for: a place where all Jews of color could bring their full selves to all the tables where they sit.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191318/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samira Mehta receives funding from the Henry Luce Foundation for an initiative called Jews of Color: Histories and Futures.</span></em></p>Multicultural Jewish families and Jews of color are innovating food-centered holidays to bring their whole selves to the table.Samira Mehta, Associate Professor of Women and Gender Studies & Jewish Studies, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1728402021-12-15T13:26:23Z2021-12-15T13:26:23ZTo tree, or not to tree? How Jewish-Christian families navigate the ‘December Dilemma’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435667/original/file-20211203-21-jke8oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C1014%2C640&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lots of families wrestle with how – and whether – to celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/happy-hanukkah-ornament-hangs-on-the-christmas-tree-at-amy-news-photo/630848980?adppopup=true">Brianna Soukup/Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Traditionally, for Christian-Jewish families – or at least in writing about them – the month of December is referred to as a “dilemma.” This time of year <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/23/nyregion/in-interfaith-homes-dealing-with-the-december-dilemma.html">brings discussion</a> about whether to celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or both, which often centers on one key question: “To tree, or not to tree?”</p>
<p>Of course, interfaith families negotiate these kinds of decisions all year round: Should we observe your traditions, my traditions, both, or neither? On some level, these are questions that any family – blood or chosen – has to navigate, even when they share the same religion. But December throws them into high relief for interfaith families, especially the decision of whether to put up a Christmas tree.</p>
<p>In my work on <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/jewishstudies/people/faculty/samira-mehta">American religion, particularly Judaism</a>, I have spent nearly a decade researching interfaith families – a topic which interests me, in part, because of my own experience in interfaith families.</p>
<p>Many people try to make decisions about how to observe holidays by drawing lines around what traditions are “religious” vs. “cultural.” But in my interviews, many families say that it is ultimately not what they choose to celebrate, but how they talk about it, that makes everyone feel included.</p>
<h2>More multifaith families</h2>
<p>What “interfaith marriage” means <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674423107">varies in different historical eras</a>. At moments in American history, a marriage between a Methodist and a Presbyterian would count, although both traditions are Protestant Christian. Many religious groups have had objections to interfaith marriage, often couched in worry that growing up in a multifaith home would be confusing or damaging for children.</p>
<p>After the peak of Jewish immigration in the early 20th century, the rate of interfaith marriage was low for the first few decades, but rose as Jewish communities became more assimilated and <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/204024/fighting-to-become-americans-by-riv-ellen-prell/">accepted as “American”</a>. By the 1990s, an estimated 50% of American Jews <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/national-jewish-population-survey-1990/">married non-Jews</a>, most of whom were Christian, had been raised in Christian households, or were from secular families who celebrated Christian holidays. The Jewish community often assumed people who “married out” were <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469636368/beyond-chrismukkah/">“lost” to Judaism</a>.</p>
<p>When Americans Jews started to marry non-Jews in increasingly large numbers in the 1970s and 1980s, there was <a href="https://www.proquest.com/docview/2507722993?accountid=11311&pq-origsite=primo">a huge controversy</a> over whether rabbis should perform their marriages. Initially, some rabbis in the Reform, Reconstructionist and Renewal movements – modern Judaism’s more liberal branches – decided that they would be willing to, as long as those couples agreed to keep a Jewish home. That said, this was not an era of high Jewish observance, so having a Jewish home was often less about Jewish practices like lighting candles for Shabbat and more about keeping Christian elements like holidays out of the home – at least until children were old enough to go to Hebrew school.</p>
<p>Many people argued that a home should not combine religions. As a small minority, Jewish Americans worried that <a href="https://forward.com/opinion/10217/tales-of-two-jewries-don-t-tell-much-anymore/">interfaith marriage</a> would mean a smaller Jewish community. And for some Jews, having elements of Christianity in the home could be painful, given its history of often <a href="https://theconversation.com/antisemitism-how-the-origins-of-historys-oldest-hatred-still-hold-sway-today-87878">oppressing Judaism</a>, and because holidays like Christmas increased their own sense of being cultural outsiders. You might have people of multiple religions in that home, they argued, but a Jewish home could not include Christian holidays – and Christmas, representing the birth of the Christian savior, seemed like the ultimate marker of Christianity.</p>
<h2>‘Culture’ vs. ‘religion’</h2>
<p>In this view, Christmas was a religious holiday and the tree was the symbol of a religious holiday, despite <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-unwrap-christmas-and-santa-for-the-little-atheists-in-your-life-51803">how celebrations like decorating, baking cookies and hanging stockings for Santa can be stripped of Christian theological meaning</a> for many people – including my own Hindu relatives. At the same time, however, many religious leaders and advice manuals argued that a Christmas tree was a cultural symbol, not a religious one, and therefore it shouldn’t matter to a Christian spouse whether or not the family put up a tree.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Cookies shaped like a menorah, a dreidel, a snowman, and a Christmas tree sit on a plate." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436763/original/file-20211209-140109-1i026ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436763/original/file-20211209-140109-1i026ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436763/original/file-20211209-140109-1i026ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436763/original/file-20211209-140109-1i026ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436763/original/file-20211209-140109-1i026ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436763/original/file-20211209-140109-1i026ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436763/original/file-20211209-140109-1i026ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Whose holidays get celebrated – and how – in interfaith homes?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thomas Northcut/DigitalVision via Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, “religion” and “culture” are complicated, debated categories that do not mean the same thing to everyone. In the U.S., the most common definition of religion <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691127767/between-heaven-and-earth">is shaped by Christianity</a> – and often, specifically, a form of Protestant Christianity that emphasizes beliefs over almost everything else. In this understanding, religion is mostly about what someone holds in their heart, not outward signs of that faith – particularly activities that aren’t rooted in theology, like church suppers, Easter eggs or Santa.</p>
<p>But “belief” can’t capture a whole tradition, even Protestant ones, never mind <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4139954">other traditions like Judaism</a>. This understanding of “religion” as something separate from “culture” also assumes that somehow “religion” is more important to people.</p>
<p>It <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469636368/beyond-chrismukkah/">does not help someone understand</a> why a Christmas tree might feel emotionally central to a cultural Christian who does not have faith, or feel terribly problematic to a Jew even if they understand that the tree is not part of theology.</p>
<h2>Listening with care</h2>
<p>Ultimately, perhaps, it is not actually important to use these lines between religion and culture, especially since they are much more complicated than they might appear at first glance. </p>
<p>In my <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469636368/beyond-chrismukkah/">ethnographic research</a>, the families that had the happiest holidays were the families that listened well to each other and felt that everyone’s voices were heard. </p>
<p>For instance, one couple took the standard advice to forgo the tree, but decorated with evergreens. This solution did not really satisfy the wife, who had grown up Christian, and annoyed her Jewish husband. In the end, no one was happy.</p>
<p>By contrast, another couple discussed what mattered most to them. The Jewish husband explained that he felt an “allergy” to both Jesus and the Christmas tree. His Christian wife thought about it and came to the conclusion that Jesus was central to her holiday, but a tree was not. Therefore, they had a nativity scene but went without a tree – in other words, they went with the clearly religious symbol. She appreciated his willingness to let her have Christ in their home; he appreciated that she gave up the tree. </p>
<p>One Jewish woman said that her husband’s decorations – stockings and a tree – can make her feel like it is “all Christmas, all the time,” especially when Hanukkah falls early and celebrations are over long before Christmas. But she appreciates that he agreed to raise their child as a Jew, to have their primary religious community be Jewish, and to attend services with her for the High Holidays and special events. It is hard for her to have a tree in their home, but she recognizes that, while her main compromise comes in December, he has altered his life year-round. </p>
<p>[<em>Over 140,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>Other families settled joyfully into doing both, building family traditions out of both heritages. Still other families agreed to give up Christmas at home in favor of fun family vacations, or long visits with Christmas-celebrating relatives.</p>
<p>What made a difference? For these families, my research suggested that it was not what they decided, but how they decided: by listening to each other in a spirit of collaboration and generosity. </p>
<p>These compromises may seem especially challenging in <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11060281">a shared domestic space</a>, which people want to feel like “home.” But the basic principle holds true in other environments, as well: listening to loved ones, sharing what matters to us, honoring as much of that as possible – and maybe learning to love what our loved ones love.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172840/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samira Mehta receives funding from the Henry Luce Foundation.</span></em></p>Figuring out whether to celebrate holidays, and how, is tricky for lots of interfaith families – but thoughtful communication makes a difference.Samira Mehta, Assistant Professor of Women and Gender Studies & Jewish Studies, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1728382021-11-30T20:10:33Z2021-11-30T20:10:33ZBiden brings a menorah lighting back to the White House, rededicating a Hanukkah tradition from the 20th century<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434756/original/file-20211130-19-lugoip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C27%2C4576%2C3094&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The lighting of the National Menorah in Washington, D.C. in 2012.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TempestInACoffeeCup/97886c33be6746f39a45537b5aefd4f8/photo?Query=white%20house%20menorah&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=101&currentItemNo=95">AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Joe Biden’s staff has dispatched invitations to a “<a href="https://twitter.com/jacobkornbluh/status/1463711477236436994?s=20">Menorah Lighting to be held at the White House</a>” on Dec. 1, the evening when the fourth candle of the eight-day festival of Hanukkah will be lit. The event promises to be quite different from last year’s event, hosted by Donald Trump. </p>
<p>President Trump in 2020 held what he called a “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55265441">Hanukkah Reception</a>” in midafternoon before Hanukkah began. The reception was a heavily partisan affair, no candles were lit, much food was consumed, and some of the participants went maskless, the raging COVID epidemic notwithstanding. Most Democrats as well as many Jewish leaders stayed home. </p>
<p>President Biden’s “menorah lighting,” by contrast, promises to privilege ritual over reception, focusing on the lighting of the traditional Hanukkah candelabrum itself. Reportedly, the event will be nonpartisan, with COVID-19 precautions enforced. According to the Jewish Forward, <a href="https://forward.com/news/478762/the-more-modest-less-partisan-white-house-hanukkah-party-is-on/">no food or drink will be served at all, so masks won’t even need to be lifted</a>. In addition, the guest list has been severely pared down to encourage social distancing – so much so that a senior White House official was quoted as saying it would likely be the smallest White House Hanukkah party in history. </p>
<p>The vice president and second gentleman Douglas Emhoff are <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/vp-kamala-harris-and-husband-doug-emhoff-light-hanukkah-menorah-at-home/">slated to be among those in attendance</a>, and for the first time the ceremony will be livestreamed. On Nov. 28, Emhoff also attended the lighting of the National Menorah on the Washington Ellipse. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1463923298413252615"}"></div></p>
<p>Overlooked amid these carefully parsed details is a question that, to me, as a <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/hornstein/sarna/index.html">historian of American Jewish life and a scholar of American religion</a>, seems far more fascinating and important: How did the office of the president of the United States come to hold official White House menorah lightings and Hanukkah parties in the first place? </p>
<h2>White House traditions</h2>
<p>For most of American history, the only December holiday that <a href="https://www.whitehousehistory.org/press-room/press-backgrounders/white-house-christmas-traditions">gained White House recognition</a> was Christmas. President John Adams and first lady Abigail Adams, back in 1800, threw the first White House Christmas party, a modest affair, planned with their 4-year-old granddaughter in mind, and with invitations sent to selected government officials and their children. </p>
<p>In 1923, President Calvin Coolidge inaugurated the <a href="https://www.whitehousehistory.org/a-coolidge-christmas">practice of lighting an official White House Christmas tree</a>. He also delivered the first formal presidential Christmas message. His message assumed, as most Americans of that time did, that everybody celebrated Christmas. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434757/original/file-20211130-25-1gv89hd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="President Jimmy Carter, stands with a rabbi, at the Hanukkah menorah lighting." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434757/original/file-20211130-25-1gv89hd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434757/original/file-20211130-25-1gv89hd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434757/original/file-20211130-25-1gv89hd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434757/original/file-20211130-25-1gv89hd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434757/original/file-20211130-25-1gv89hd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434757/original/file-20211130-25-1gv89hd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434757/original/file-20211130-25-1gv89hd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Jimmy Carter at Lafayette Park in Washington D.C. for the Hanukkah menorah lighting in 1979.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Carter_Menorah.jpg">White House</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It displayed, according to <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/1352/WHITE_HOUSE_CAROLS_AND_BRILLIA.pdf">The Washington Post</a>, “the reverence of a Christian people giving at the seat of their government the expression of their praise for ‘the King of kings’ on the eve of the anniversary of His birth.” Neither Adams nor Coolidge uttered one word about Hanukkah. </p>
<p>Official notice of Hanukkah waited another half-century – until 1979 – by which time Jews had become much more visible as members of American society and government. Ironically, the president who first <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/525">paid attention to Hanukkah was Jimmy Carter</a>, although he wasn’t the Jewish community’s favorite Democratic candidate. When he ran for reelection in 1980, he got <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-voting-record-in-u-s-presidential-elections">less than 50%</a> of the Jewish vote – less than any Democrat since 1928. </p>
<p>In 1979, following weeks of seclusion in the White House after Iranian students took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran, seizing 52 diplomats and citizens, President Carter emerged and crossed over to Lafayette Park. He <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/525">lit the large Hanukkah candelabrum</a>, dubbed the “National Menorah,” that had been <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-theres-30-foot-menorah-national-mall-180961553/">erected in the park with private funds</a> and delivered brief remarks. </p>
<p>Seeing that Jews celebrate their own holiday in December – Hanukkah – he directed his <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/There_Really_Is_a_Santa_Claus/6rAc9xM5VqYC?hl=en&gbpv=0">next annual Christmas message not to all Americans, as heretofore, but</a> only “to those of our fellow citizens who join us in the joyous celebration of Christmas.” </p>
<p>Every president since has recognized Hanukkah with a special menorah lighting ceremony or reception and limited his Christmas messages to those who actually observe the holiday.</p>
<h2>Menorah lightings</h2>
<p>Hanukkah came to the White House itself in 1989, when <a href="https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/president/holiday/hanukkah/">President George H.W. Bush displayed a menorah</a> there – a candelabrum given to him by the Synagogue Council of America. </p>
<p>But Bill Clinton was the first president to actually light a menorah in the White House. In 1993, he invited a dozen schoolchildren to the Oval Office for a small ceremony. The event made headlines when <a href="https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1993-12-09-9312090779-story.html">6-year-old Ilana Kattan’s ponytail dipped into the flame</a> and a wisp of smoke was visible around her head. <a href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/12/white-house-hanukkah-hair-fire-bill-clinton.html">Clinton memorably extinguished the flame</a> with his bare hands. </p>
<p>Menorah lightings grew in prominence during the Clinton years. Memorably, in 1998 Clinton <a href="https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/president/holiday/hanukkah/">joined Israel’s then-President Ezer Weizman</a> in lighting a candle on the first night of Hanukkah in Jerusalem. </p>
<p>But no White House Hanukkah parties ever took place under Clinton. Instead, he included Jewish leaders in a large annual “holiday party.” </p>
<h2>Annual Hanukkah parties</h2>
<p>The first president to host an official White House Hanukkah party, and the first to actually light a menorah in the White House residence and not just in its public spaces, was <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?167772-1/hanukkah-menorah-lighting">George W. Bush, beginning in both cases in 2001</a>.</p>
<p>Bush made a point of inserting religion into his many annual Christmas parties. He <a href="https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/12/20011210-7.html">sought to underscore</a> through the Hanukkah party that the White House “belongs to people of all faiths.” Since then Hanukkah has become an official White House tradition. </p>
<p>Hasidic leaders in the distinctive black suits worn by members of their community regularly appeared at these parties. Beginning in 2005 the <a href="https://www.insider.com/white-house-hanukkah-party-history-how-it-began#the-white-house-kitchen-was-made-kosher-for-the-occasion-starting-in-2005-7">parties became completely kosher</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372632/original/file-20201202-15-106hf2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C64%2C2502%2C1600&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372632/original/file-20201202-15-106hf2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C64%2C2502%2C1600&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372632/original/file-20201202-15-106hf2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372632/original/file-20201202-15-106hf2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372632/original/file-20201202-15-106hf2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372632/original/file-20201202-15-106hf2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372632/original/file-20201202-15-106hf2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372632/original/file-20201202-15-106hf2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Barack Obama at the annual Hanukkah reception in the White House in 2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ObamaHanukkah/88ffacdd25304636bef6e2162e018d7a/photo?Query=hanukkah%20white%20house&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=216&currentItemNo=13">AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Barack Obama maintained the tradition of the White House Hanukkah party, holding two of them in 2013, and Donald Trump maintained the tradition as well. Both in 2018 and 2019, he also held <a href="https://www.jta.org/2018/12/07/united-states/trumps-hanukkah-parties-celebrate-his-decision-to-move-the-israel-embassy">two Hanukkah parties</a> for his friends and Jewish family members – including his daughter, Ivanka – and invited selected non-Jewish guests to attend them. Last year, amid the pandemic, Trump again held two Hanukkah parties. He spoke at one of them and lamented the “<a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/stopping-by-white-house-hanukkah-party-trump-laments-stolen-election/">stolen election</a>” that he insisted he had won.</p>
<p>The fact that this year the White House is abandoning the Hanukkah reception altogether and returning to the tradition of the menorah lighting suggests a shift back to the religious aspects of Hanukkah. </p>
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<p>What is truly significant, however, is how much America has changed since Presidents John Adams and Calvin Coolidge invented America’s White House Christmas traditions and paid no attention to Hanukkah at all.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-hanukkah-came-to-be-an-annual-white-house-celebration-150506">first published</a> on Dec. 4, 2020</em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172838/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan D. Sarna does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Every president since Jimmy Carter has recognized Hanukkah with a special menorah lighting ceremony.Jonathan D. Sarna, University Professor and Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1722812021-11-30T13:32:08Z2021-11-30T13:32:08ZThis Hanukkah, learn about the holiday’s forgotten heroes: Women<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434312/original/file-20211129-15-187mjhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=21%2C9%2C1001%2C671&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Jewish woman lights a candle for the festival of Hanukkah at the Western Wall Plaza in Jerusalem.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jewish-woman-lights-a-candle-for-the-festival-of-hanukkah-news-photo/94374005">Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The eight-day Jewish festival of Hanukkah commemorates <a href="https://theconversation.com/hanukkahs-true-meaning-is-about-jewish-survival-88225">ancient Jews’ victory</a> over the powerful Seleucid empire, which ruled much of the Middle East from the third century B.C. to the first century A.D.</p>
<p>On the surface, it’s a story of male heroism. A ragtag rebel force led by a rural priest and his five sons, called the Maccabees, freed the Jews from oppressive rulers. Hanukkah, which means “rededication” in Hebrew, celebrates the Maccabees’ victory, which allowed the Jews to rededicate their temple in Jerusalem, the center of ancient Jewish worship.</p>
<p>But as <a href="https://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/religious-studies/faculty/alan-avery-peck">a professor of Jewish history</a>, I believe that seeing Hanukkah this way misses the inspiring women who were prominent in the earliest tellings of the story. </p>
<p>The bravery of a young widow named Judith is at the heart of <a href="https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/judith-apocrypha">an ancient book</a> that bears her name. The heroism of a second woman, an unnamed mother of seven sons, appears in a book known as 2 Maccabees.</p>
<h2>Saving Jerusalem</h2>
<p>These books are not included in the Hebrew scriptures, but appear in other collections of religious texts known as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Septuagint">the Septuagint</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/apocrypha">the Apocrypha</a>.</p>
<p>According to these texts, Judith was a young Israelite widow in a town called Bethulia, strategically situated on a mountain pass into Jerusalem. To besiege Jerusalem, the Seleucid army first needed to capture Bethulia.</p>
<p>Facing such a formidable enemy, the townsfolk were terrified. Unless God immediately intervened, they decided, they would <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judith+7&version=NRSV">simply surrender</a>. Enslavement was preferable to certain death. </p>
<p>But Judith scolded the local leaders for testing God, and was brave enough to take matters into her own hands. Removing her widow’s clothing, she entered the enemy camp. She beguiled the Seleucid general, Holofernes, with her beauty, and promised to give her people over to him. Hoping to seduce her, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judith+12&version=NRSV">Holofernes prepared a feast</a>. By the time his entourage left him alone with Judith, he was drunk and asleep. </p>
<p>Now she carried out her plan: cutting off his head and escaping back to Bethulia. The following morning, the discovery of Holofernes’ headless body left the Seleucid army trembling with fear. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judith+15&version=NRSV">Soldiers fled</a> by every available path as Bethulia’s Jews, recovering their courage, rushed in and slaughtered them. Judith’s bravery saved her town and, with it, Jerusalem.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A dark painting depicts a woman holding a sword and a man's decapitated head." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434313/original/file-20211129-19-1mmwsgf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434313/original/file-20211129-19-1mmwsgf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434313/original/file-20211129-19-1mmwsgf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434313/original/file-20211129-19-1mmwsgf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434313/original/file-20211129-19-1mmwsgf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434313/original/file-20211129-19-1mmwsgf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434313/original/file-20211129-19-1mmwsgf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Judith has inspired artists for centuries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_aux_portes_de_B%C3%A9thulie">"Judith aux portes de Béthulie," by Jules-Claude Ziegler/Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A family’s sacrifice</h2>
<p>The book of 2 Maccabees, Chapter 7, meanwhile, relates the story of an unnamed Jewish mother and her seven sons, who were seized by the Seleucids. </p>
<p>Emperor Antiochus commanded that they eat pork, which is forbidden by the Torah, to show their obedience to him. One at a time, the sons refused. An enraged Antiochus subjected them to unspeakable torture. Each son withstood the ordeal and is portrayed as a model of bravery. Resurrection awaits those who die in the service of God, they proclaimed, while for Antiochus and his followers, only death and divine punishment lay ahead.</p>
<p>Throughout these ordeals, their mother <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Maccabees+7&version=NRSV">encouraged her sons</a> to accept their suffering. “She reinforced her woman’s reasoning with a man’s courage,” as 2 Maccabees relates, and admonished her sons to remember their coming reward from God. </p>
<p>Having killed the first six brothers, Antiochus promised the youngest a fortune if only he would reject his faith. His mother told the boy, “Accept death, so that in God’s mercy I may get you back again along with your brothers.” The story in 2 Maccabees ends with the simple statement that, after her sons’ deaths, the mother also died. </p>
<p>Later retellings give the mother a name. Most commonly, <a href="https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/hannah-mother-of-seven">she is called Hannah</a>, based on a detail in <a href="https://biblehub.com/jps/1_samuel/2.htm">the biblical book of 1 Samuel</a>. In this section, called the “prayer of Hannah,” the prophet Samuel’s mother refers to herself as having borne seven children.</p>
<h2>Working with God</h2>
<p>Jewish educator and author <a href="https://gsehd.gwu.edu/directory/brown-erica">Erica Brown</a> has emphasized a lesson we should learn from the story of Judith, one that emerges from 2 Maccabees as well. “Just like the Hanukkah story generally, the message of these texts is that it’s not always the likely candidates who save the day,” <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/yet-another-miracle/">she writes</a>. “Sometimes salvation comes when you least expect it, from those who are least likely to deliver it.”</p>
<p>Three hundred years after the Maccabean revolt, Judaism’s earliest rabbis stressed a similar message. Adding a new focus to Hanukkah, they spoke of <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/85895?lang=bi">a divine miracle</a> that occurred when the ancient Jews took back the Temple and wanted to relight the holy “<a href="https://www.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/eternal-flame-within-us-all">eternal flame</a>” inside. They found just one small vessel of oil, sufficient to light the flame for only one day – but it lasted eight days, giving them time to produce a new supply.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.hartman.org.il/person/rabbi-prof-david-hartman/">the influential rabbi</a> David Hartman <a href="https://www.hartman.org.il/the-courage-to-defy-mass-culture-reflections-on-the-lights-of-hanukkah/">pointed out</a>, the Hanukkah story celebrates “our people’s strength to live without guarantees of success.” Some ordinary person, he points out, took the initiative to rekindle the eternal flame, despite how futile doing so may have seemed.</p>
<p>Ever since, Judaism has increasingly focused on the interaction of the human and the divine. The Hanukkah story teaches listeners that they all must play a part to repair a hurting world. Not everyone needs to be a Judith or Hannah; but, like them, we humans can’t wait for God to take care of it.</p>
<p>In synagogues, one of the readings for the week during Hanukkah is from <a href="https://biblehub.com/jps/zechariah/4.htm">the prophet Zechariah</a>, who proclaimed, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts.” These words succinctly capture the meaning of Hanukkah and express what Jews might think about while lighting the Hanukkah candles: our responsibility to act in the spirit of God to create the miracles the world needs to become a place of beauty, equity and freedom. </p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Avery-Peck does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Jewish festival of Hanukkah, which in 2022 begins on the evening of Dec. 18, focuses on the story of the male Maccabees. But women are also heroes in histories from that era, including Judith and Hannah.Alan Avery-Peck, Kraft-Hiatt Professor in Judaic Studies, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1505062020-12-04T13:28:14Z2020-12-04T13:28:14ZHow Hanukkah came to be an annual White House celebration<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372888/original/file-20201203-15-15vjmd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C39%2C3747%2C2459&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Donald Trump speaks during a Hanukkah reception at the White House in 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TrumpHanukkah/a1da70611d804af38115d0f2d980ec12/photo?Query=white%20house%20hanukkah%20trump&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=58&currentItemNo=7">AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-throwing-in-person-white-house-hanukkah-party-despite-covid-concerns/">President Trump’s plan of holding an in-person Hanukkah reception</a> at the White House on Dec. 9, despite concerns over the coronavirus, is getting much attention on social media. </p>
<p>Some asked whether anyone would be reckless enough to attend, observing that an in-person party, amid the COVID-19 surge, could turn out to be another superspreader event. Others wondered who would be invited, recalling that President Trump, in the past, limited his invitation list to supporters, and why the event was being held on that date. The eight-day festival of Hanukkah, regulated by the Jewish lunar calendar, begins this year on the night of Dec. 10. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1330913002317635585"}"></div></p>
<p>Overlooked amid these questions is one that to me, as a <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/hornstein/sarna/index.html">historian of American Jewish life and a scholar of American religion</a>, seems far more fascinating and important. How did the office of the president of the United States come to hold an official White House Hanukkah party in the first place? </p>
<h2>White House traditions</h2>
<p>For most of American history, the only December holiday that <a href="https://www.whitehousehistory.org/press-room/press-backgrounders/white-house-christmas-traditions">gained White House recognition</a> was Christmas. President John Adams and first lady Abigail Adams, back in 1800, threw the first White House Christmas party, a modest affair, planned with their four-year-old granddaughter in mind, and with invitations sent to selected government officials and their children. </p>
<p>In 1923, President Calvin Coolidge inaugurated the <a href="https://www.whitehousehistory.org/a-coolidge-christmas">practice of lighting an official White House Christmas tree</a>. He also delivered the first formal presidential Christmas message. His message assumed, as most Americans of that time did, that everybody celebrated Christmas. </p>
<p>It displayed, according to <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/1352/WHITE_HOUSE_CAROLS_AND_BRILLIA.pdf">The Washington Post</a>, “the reverence of a Christian people giving at the seat of their government the expression of their praise for ‘the King of kings’ on the eve of the anniversary of His birth.” Neither Adams nor Coolidge uttered one word about Hanukkah. </p>
<p>Official notice of Hanukkah waited another half-century – until 1979 – by which time Jews had become much more visible as members of American society and government. Ironically, the president who first <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/525">paid attention to Hanukkah was Jimmy Carter</a>, although he wasn’t the Jewish community’s favorite Democratic candidate. When he ran for reelection in 1980, he got <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-voting-record-in-u-s-presidential-elections">less than 50%</a> of the Jewish vote – less than any Democrat since 1928. </p>
<p>In 1979, following weeks of seclusion in the White House after Iranian students took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran seizing 52 diplomats and citizens, President Carter emerged and crossed over to Lafayette Park. He <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/525">lit the large Hanukkah candelabrum</a>, dubbed the “National Menorah,” <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-theres-30-foot-menorah-national-mall-180961553/">erected in the park with private funds</a> and delivered brief remarks. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372631/original/file-20201202-13-8slr2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372631/original/file-20201202-13-8slr2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372631/original/file-20201202-13-8slr2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372631/original/file-20201202-13-8slr2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372631/original/file-20201202-13-8slr2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372631/original/file-20201202-13-8slr2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372631/original/file-20201202-13-8slr2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372631/original/file-20201202-13-8slr2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The lighting ceremony of the National Hanukkah Menorah, at the Ellipse, near the White House, in 2008.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/MenorahLighting/90f1d602ce634eef8ff66f1c25aa48d0/photo?Query=menorah%20white%20house&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=101&currentItemNo=17">AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Seeing that Jews celebrate their own holiday in December – not Christmas but Hanukkah – he directed his <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/There_Really_Is_a_Santa_Claus/6rAc9xM5VqYC?hl=en&gbpv=0">next annual Christmas message</a> only “to those of our fellow citizens who join us in the joyous celebration of Christmas.” </p>
<p>Every president since has recognized Hanukkah with a special menorah-lighting ceremony, and limited his Christmas messages to those who actually observe the holiday.</p>
<h2>Menorah lightings</h2>
<p>Hanukkah came to the White House itself, in 1989, when <a href="https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/president/holiday/hanukkah/">President George H.W. Bush displayed a menorah</a> there, a candelabrum given to him by the Synagogue Council of America. </p>
<p>But Bill Clinton was the first president to actually light a menorah in the White House. In 1993, he invited a dozen schoolchildren to the Oval Office for a small ceremony. The event made headlines when <a href="https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1993-12-09-9312090779-story.html">6-year-old Ilana Kattan’s ponytail dipped into the flame</a> and a wisp of smoke was visible around her head. Clinton was reported to have gently rubbed her ponytail with his fingers.</p>
<p>Menorah lightings grew in prominence during the Clinton years. Memorably, in 1998, Clinton <a href="https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/president/holiday/hanukkah/">joined Israel’s then-President Ezer Weizman</a> in lighting a candle on the first night of Hanukkah in Jerusalem. </p>
<p>But no White House Hanukkah parties ever took place under Clinton. Instead, he included Jewish leaders in a large annual “holiday party.” </p>
<h2>Annual Hanukkah parties</h2>
<p>The first president to host an official White House Hanukkah party, and the first to actually light a menorah in the White House residence and not just in its public spaces, was <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?167772-1/hanukkah-menorah-lighting">George W. Bush, beginning in both cases in 2001</a>.</p>
<p>Since Bush made a point of inserting religion, complete with baby Jesus, into his many annual Christmas parties, he sought to underscore through the Hanukkah party that, <a href="https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/12/20011210-7.html">as he explained</a>, the White House “belongs to people of all faiths.” Since then Hanukkah has become an official White House tradition. </p>
<p>Hasidic leaders in the distinctive black suits worn by members of their community regularly appeared at these parties. Beginning in 2005 the <a href="https://www.insider.com/white-house-hanukkah-party-history-how-it-began#the-white-house-kitchen-was-made-kosher-for-the-occasion-starting-in-2005-7">parties became completely kosher</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372632/original/file-20201202-15-106hf2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C64%2C2502%2C1600&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372632/original/file-20201202-15-106hf2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C64%2C2502%2C1600&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372632/original/file-20201202-15-106hf2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372632/original/file-20201202-15-106hf2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372632/original/file-20201202-15-106hf2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372632/original/file-20201202-15-106hf2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372632/original/file-20201202-15-106hf2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372632/original/file-20201202-15-106hf2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Barack Obama at the annual Hanukkah reception in the White House in 2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ObamaHanukkah/88ffacdd25304636bef6e2162e018d7a/photo?Query=hanukkah%20white%20house&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=216&currentItemNo=13">AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Barack Obama maintained the tradition of the White House Hanukkah party, holding two of them in 2013, and Donald Trump maintained the tradition as well. Both in 2018 and 2019, he also held <a href="https://www.jta.org/2018/12/07/united-states/trumps-hanukkah-parties-celebrate-his-decision-to-move-the-israel-embassy">two Hanukkah parties</a> for his friends and Jewish family members – including his daughter, Ivanka – and invited selected non-Jewish guests to attend them. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>The fact that this year, amid COVID-19 concerns and a presidential transition, the White House is planning just one Hanukkah party, has pruned the guest list and will <a href="https://www.jta.org/quick-reads/trumps-white-house-is-throwing-an-in-person-hanukkah-party">hold the event on Dec. 9, before Hanukkah starts</a>, remains noteworthy. </p>
<p>What is truly significant, however, is how much America has changed since Presidents John Adams and Calvin Coolidge invented America’s White House Christmas traditions and paid no attention to Hanukkah at all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150506/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan D. Sarna does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For much of American history, the only December holiday to be recognized in the White House was Christmas, but menorah lightings are now an annual tradition.Jonathan D. Sarna, University Professor and Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1276202019-12-22T20:21:27Z2019-12-22T20:21:27ZThe story of Hanukkah: how a minor Jewish holiday was remade in the image of Christmas<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303928/original/file-20191127-180279-6f2ziy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Menorahs have now become ubiquitous features around the world during Hanukkah, from Berlin to New York to Melbourne.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hayoung Jeon/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The eight-day Jewish festival of Hanukkah begins Sunday, December 22. From Melbourne and New York to Berlin and Moscow, thousands of people will gather to light giant menorahs. In many places, these public ceremonies will be accompanied by music, street food and carnivals. </p>
<p>These events may primarily target Jewish communities but, given their prominent locations, many non-Jews will also participate.</p>
<p>In the US especially, Hanukkah has become a widely recognised holiday. As well as lighting the <a href="https://nationalmenorah.org/">National Menorah</a> in Washington DC, the president hosts an <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/The-history-of-the-White-House-Hanukkah-party-573695">annual Hanukkah party</a> in the White House. In big cities like New York, parents of Jewish children are often <a href="https://pjlibrary.org/beyond-books/pjblog/december-2016/sharing-hanukkah-at-school">invited into elementary school classrooms</a> to explain Hanukkah to students. </p>
<p>Hanukkah has even entered American popular culture. The classic children’s Hanukkah song “Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel” has appeared in several episodes of <a href="https://southpark.fandom.com/wiki/Dreidel,_Dreidel,_Dreidel">South Park</a>. </p>
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<p>And comic Adam Sandler’s <a href="https://genius.com/Adam-sandler-the-chanukah-song-lyrics">“The Hanukkah Song”</a> became a national obsession when it was first performed on Saturday Night Live in 1994. Sandler even found two words to (sort of) rhyme with Hanukkah in the refrain:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Put on your yarmulke, here comes Hanukkah! So much fun-akah, to celebrate Hanukkah!</p>
</blockquote>
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<p>But in the Jewish calendar, Hanukkah is of relatively minor religious significance compared with the biblical festival of Passover or the holiest day of the Jewish year, Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). </p>
<p>So why has it become the most widely known and publicly celebrated of all Jewish holidays, particularly in the US? </p>
<h2>The origins of Hanukkah</h2>
<p>Hanukkah commemorates a historical event that took place in Jerusalem in the 2nd century BCE, when the Seleucid Greek empire was the ruling power. In 168 BCE, the king Antiochus IV Epiphanes outlawed Jewish practice and defiled the Jewish Temple in the city by installing an altar to Zeus Olympios and sacrificing pigs.</p>
<p>A small army of Jews, known as the Maccabees, rebelled against this religious persecution. They regained control over the Temple, removed the symbols of Zeus and built a new altar so they could once again offer sacrifices in keeping with Jewish law. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hanukkahs-true-meaning-is-about-jewish-survival-88225">Hanukkah's true meaning is about Jewish survival</a>
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<p>According to a legend recounted in the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24367959">Talmud</a>, a compilation of 3rd to 6th century Jewish teachings, a miracle occurred at this time. </p>
<p>There was only enough oil to keep the Temple’s menorah, one of its most important ritual objects, burning for one day. But the flame stayed alight for eight days, until a new supply of oil could be found - the basis for the eight-day celebration of Hanukkah.</p>
<h2>An alternate version of history</h2>
<p>Based on this version of events, Jews have seen the Maccabees as heroes who fought for religious liberty against a repressive regime. </p>
<p>But the historical record is more complex.</p>
<p>The most detailed accounts of the story of Hanukkah are recorded in First and Second Maccabees, historical books that describe the military and political events leading up to and following the Maccabean revolt. They are <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/omitting-the-maccabees/">not included in the Hebrew Bible</a>, but are part of the Catholic biblical canon. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/r/rsv/rsv-idx?type=DIV1&byte=4219672">First Maccabees</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>lawless men came forth from Israel, and misled many, saying, ‘Let us go and make a covenant with the Gentiles round about us’. … [T]hey built a gymnasium in Jerusalem, according to Gentile custom, and removed the marks of circumcision, and abandoned the holy covenant. They joined with the Gentiles and sold themselves to do evil.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These “lawless men” were not the Seleucid rulers, but Jews who wanted to integrate aspects of Greek (Hellenistic) culture with Jewish tradition.</p>
<p>Hellenistic culture was based on the Greek language, literature, art and philosophy, as well as the distinctively Greek form of social and political organisation, the <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/Polis/">polis</a>. But Hellenistic culture also involved the worship of Greek gods and social customs, such as athletic contests, that some considered incompatible with Jewish tradition. </p>
<p>These Hellenising Jews were the targets of the Maccabees’ vengeful attacks as much as the Seleucid Greek regime itself. As First Maccabees relates: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>They organised an army, and struck down sinners in their anger and lawless men in their wrath; the survivors fled to the Gentiles for safety.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In this light, the Maccabees were not heroic liberators and defenders of religious freedom. Rather, they could be viewed as intolerant religious zealots, intent on stamping out any attempt to “modernise” Jewish tradition.</p>
<p>Today, most Jews would still consider the Maccabees to be heroes and defenders of Judaism. Certainly, it’s the story that children are taught in Jewish schools and synagogues. However, they would be surprised, and likely rather disturbed, by the religious fundamentalism of the Maccabees that is represented in the historical sources. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304172/original/file-20191128-176629-12zq27c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304172/original/file-20191128-176629-12zq27c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304172/original/file-20191128-176629-12zq27c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304172/original/file-20191128-176629-12zq27c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304172/original/file-20191128-176629-12zq27c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304172/original/file-20191128-176629-12zq27c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304172/original/file-20191128-176629-12zq27c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Jewish man lighting a Hanukkah candle outside his house in Jerusalem.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Abir Sultan/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Remaking Hanukkah in the image of Christmas</h2>
<p>Diane Ashton, an American religious historian, has traced <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814707395/hanukkah-in-america/">the history of Hanukkah in the US</a> and described how Jews have transformed Hanukkah in the past two centuries to reflect the evolving traditions of Christmas. </p>
<p>Inspired by children’s Christmas events in churches, <a href="https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2018/12/07/hanukkah-how-cincinnati-rabbis-popularized-jewish-holiday/2222127002/">American rabbis began introducing special Hanukkah celebrations</a> for children at synagogues in the 19th century. They would tell the story of Hanukkah, light candles, sing hymns and hand out sweets. This was a way to entice children to attend synagogues, which otherwise offered little of interest to them. </p>
<p>Over time, Hanukkah became one of the only times of the year that many Jewish families engaged with Jewish tradition.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-hanukkah-came-to-america-106426">How Hanukkah came to America</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In the early 20th century, with the commercialisation of Christmas well under way, more changes occurred. Gift-giving was never a feature of Hanukkah historically, but new Jewish immigrants from Europe began buying presents for their children as a way of signifying their economic success in the new world. </p>
<p>In more recent years, the public display of menorahs has also been <a href="https://jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com/chanukah-in-america/">promoted by Chabad</a>, the Orthodox Jewish Hasidic movement that aims to bring Jews closer to their own religion.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303929/original/file-20191127-112489-spfkjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303929/original/file-20191127-112489-spfkjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303929/original/file-20191127-112489-spfkjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303929/original/file-20191127-112489-spfkjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303929/original/file-20191127-112489-spfkjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303929/original/file-20191127-112489-spfkjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303929/original/file-20191127-112489-spfkjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Barack Obama, during a Hanukkah reception at the White House in 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael Reynolds/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These displays, often alongside Christmas trees, have elevated the significance of Hanukkah in the minds of both Jews and non-Jews. They were even the subject of a <a href="https://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2017/12/07/Shedding-light-on-an-old-menorah-case/stories/201712060179">US Supreme Court ruling in 1989</a>, when the court rejected a request by the city of Pittsburgh to bar a large menorah from a public building, ruling it did not amount to a government endorsement of Judaism.</p>
<p>Over time, American Jews have thus remade Hanukkah in the image of Christmas. In doing so, they have been able to participate in the festive season in a way that is distinctly Jewish, balancing their desires to both assimilate and retain their unique cultural identity. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-hanukkahs-portrayal-in-pop-culture-means-to-american-jews-107676">What Hanukkah's portrayal in pop culture means to American Jews</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Elsewhere in the world, while large-scale public menorah lightings have become more widespread, Hanukkah is mostly a time for families to come together. Fried food, to commemorate the miracle of the oil, features heavily in family celebrations, including the popular potato fritters called <em>latkes</em> and deep-fried, jam-filled doughnuts known as <em>sufganiyot</em>.</p>
<p>Giving small gifts to children has become common, though nowhere has Hanukkah reached the level of commercialisation and <a href="http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/06/the-belief-blogs-hanukkah-kitsch-gift-list/">kitsch</a> that it has in the US. </p>
<p>For any other Jewish festival, this might be seen as a corrupting influence. But given that Hanukkah remains, for most Jews, a relatively minor holiday, it is viewed with some bemusement as just another example of American <em>meshugas</em> (craziness).</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127620/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Forgasz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Giving small gifts to children has become common around the world, though nowhere has Hanukkah reached the level of commercialisation that it has in the US.Rebecca Forgasz, Associate Professor, Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1076762018-12-05T11:41:35Z2018-12-05T11:41:35ZWhat Hanukkah’s portrayal in pop culture means to American Jews<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248842/original/file-20181204-34157-jbguce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hanukkah demands fewer religious rituals than most other Jewish observances.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/three-generation-jewish-family-lighting-chanukah-61230784?src=-i6Vd57GC-Gl7WVXZ1Nksw-1-53">Golden Pixels LLC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When I was growing up in suburban New York, Hanukkah was not grounded in religious observance. Having no clue that there are traditional Hebrew blessings that accompany the kindling of the Hanukkah candles, we invented our own wishes, awkwardly voiced out loud, for happiness and peace.</p>
<p>Then again, the festival of Hanukkah demands the performance of fewer religious rituals than most other Jewish observances. Even the most pious Jews do not take off from work during the eight-day festival. After all, the holiday is never mentioned in the Bible, since the events that it commemorates occurred hundreds of years after the Bible was written. </p>
<p>Today, this minor festival of Hanukkah has become supersized into a Jewish version of Christmas – a time for family gatherings, gift-giving and festivity. But it is through pop culture that Jews have found their own identity, in which they can take pride.</p>
<h2>Hanukkah in America</h2>
<p>The true story of Hanukkah is of a conflict <a href="https://jps.org/books/jerusalem/">between two different groups of Jews</a> – those who were eager to become part of the Hellenistic culture represented by the Syrian-Greeks against a band of zealots called the Maccabees, who sought to maintain Jewish rites. </p>
<p>Today, in the U.S., however, <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/jewish-american-beliefs-attitudes-culture-survey/">only 15 percent of American Jews</a> view their Jewish identity as rooted in religion. And for many American Jews, aspects of Hanukkah that are most attractive tend to be those that mirror what many other Americans are doing at this time of year – <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9780814707395/">such as celebrating Christmas</a>. </p>
<p>As some economists have pointed out, Hanukkah is the only Jewish holiday that is <a href="http://web.stanford.edu/%7Eleinav/pubs/EJ2010.pdf">celebrated much more widely</a> among American Jews who have children. Notably, Jews who live in Christian majority areas, end up spending more on Hanukkah gifts than those who reside in mostly Jewish neighborhoods. By contrast, Hanukkah in Israel <a href="http://web.stanford.edu/%7Eleinav/pubs/EJ2010.pdf">is not as significant.</a> </p>
<h2>Hanukkah in pop culture</h2>
<p>Nonetheless, American Jews have carved out a place for Hanukkah in pop culture. </p>
<p>Seeing their own group depicted in pop culture has been an important source of pride for American Jews throughout the last century, as I observed in my book on <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/in-their-own-image/9780813538099">Jewish vaudeville, theater and film</a>.</p>
<p>Jewish comedians over the last few decades <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/a-kosher-christmas/9780813553801">have mined humor</a> from the need that Jews have to feel that their minority identity is still a meaningful and salient one, even while poking gentle fun at Christmas.</p>
<p>An example is that of comedian Jon Lovitz’s Hanukkah Harry premiered on “Saturday Night Live” in 1989. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MXtGYwY_D7o?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Hanukkah Harry.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a gray-bearded, ultra-Orthodox Jewish character, Hanukkah Harry fills in for an ailing Santa to deliver presents on Christmas Eve only to face disappointment from Christian children when they receive chocolate coins and dreidels, a Hanukkah spinning top, which seem paltry and foreign to them.</p>
<p>And another comedian, Adam Sandler, whose <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUCNAnp2QAI">“Hanukkah Song”</a> was first performed on “Saturday Night Live” in 1994, reminds Jews that they have their own holiday in which they can take pride. “When you feel like the only kid in town without a Christmas tree,” the song starts off, “here’s a list of people who are Jewish just like you and me,” and then provides a humorous list of celebrities who are at least partly Jewish in ancestry, from Kirk Douglas to Dinah Shore. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Adam Sandler’s Hanukkah song.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The song has been watched almost 5 million times on YouTube.</p>
<h2>Jewish role in secularizing Christmas</h2>
<p>Some scholars suggest that before making Hanukkah into an essentially non-religious celebration, Jews had already “secularized” Christmas. </p>
<p>Music scholar <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/99513/a-fine-romance-by-david-lehman/9780805242713">David Lehman</a>, for example, writes that Christmas “became a secular holiday” thanks to the efforts of composer Irving Berlin, a Russian Jewish immigrant whose “White Christmas” unified Americans during the Second World War. Its lyrics about “sleigh bells in the snow” appealed to common feelings of nostalgia toward hearth and home.</p>
<p>Indeed, a <a href="http://riddlefilms.com/portfolio-item/the-jews-who-wrote-christmas/">new documentary</a> from Canadian filmmaker Larry Weinstein also shows the role of Jewish songwriters in recreating Christmas as a secular holiday. The majority of iconic Christmas carols, from “The Christmas Song,” about chestnuts roasting on an open fire, to “Silver Bells,” were written by Jews. These songs de-emphasized the religious aspects of the holiday and turned it into a celebration of cold weather, family and simple pleasures. </p>
<p>Even “Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer” can be seen as a song about an outsider who, without losing what what makes him distinct, manages to join the in-crowd, just as Jews themselves did in America. </p>
<h2>Connecting to other Jews</h2>
<p>In the end, the contemporary celebration of Hanukkah does not tend to hinge on the need to reclaim a distinctive religious practice. Instead, it centers on recapturing a sense of connection to other Jews.</p>
<p>This Hanukkah, I will celebrate the holiday with my wife and children by lighting the menorah and chanting the Hebrew blessings – which I finally learned.</p>
<p>The real highlight, however, will not be the religious aspects, which are pretty thin, but the gustatory pleasure of the thick, sizzling potato latkes, waiting to be covered with sour cream or apple sauce.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107676/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ted Merwin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite the primacy of Christmas in American culture, the visibility of Hanukkah in pop culture reminds Jews that they have their own holiday in which they can take pride.Ted Merwin, Part-Time Associate Professor of Religion, Dickinson CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1064262018-12-02T15:29:11Z2018-12-02T15:29:11ZHow Hanukkah came to America<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248046/original/file-20181129-170253-111de2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In the United States, Hanukkah has gained much significance.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/grandmother-grandfather-grandparents-embrace-their-grandson-543199741?src=-i6Vd57GC-Gl7WVXZ1Nksw-1-75">Tercer Ojo Photography/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hanukkah may be the best known Jewish holiday in the United States. But despite its popularity in the U.S., Hanukkah is ranked one of Judaism’s minor festivals, and nowhere else does it garner such attention. The holiday is mostly a domestic celebration, although special holiday prayers also expand synagogue worship.</p>
<p>So how did Hanukkah attain its special place in America?</p>
<h2>Hanukkah’s back story</h2>
<p>The word “Hanukkah” means dedication. It commemorates the rededicating of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem in 165 B.C. when Jews – led by a band of brothers called the Maccabees – <a href="https://jps.org/books/jerusalem">tossed out statues of Hellenic gods</a> that had been placed there by King Antiochus IV when he conquered Judea. Antiochus aimed to plant Hellenic culture throughout his kingdom, and that included worshipping its gods. </p>
<p>Legend has it that during the dedication, as people prepared to light the Temple’s large oil lamps to signify the presence of God, only a tiny bit of holy oil could be found. Yet, that little bit of oil remained alight for eight days until more could be prepared. Thus, each Hanukkah evening, for eight nights, Jews light a candle, adding an additional one as the holiday progresses throughout the festival. </p>
<h2>Hanukkah’s American story</h2>
<p>Today, America is home to <a href="http://ajpp.brandeis.edu">almost 7 million Jews</a>. But Jews did not always find it easy to be Jewish in America. Until the late 19th century, America’s Jewish population was very small and grew to only as many as 250,000 in 1880. The basic goods of Jewish religious life – such as kosher meat and candles, Torah scrolls, and Jewish calendars – were often hard to find.</p>
<p>In those early days, major Jewish religious events took special planning and effort, and minor festivals like Hanukkah <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/search/node/american%20judaism">often slipped by unnoticed</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9780814707395/">My own study of American Jewish history</a> has recently focused on Hanukkah’s development. </p>
<p>It <a href="http://www.uapress.ua.edu/product/Isaac-Harby-of-Charleston-1788-1828,621.aspx">began with a simple holiday hymn</a> written in 1840 by Penina Moise, a Jewish Sunday school teacher in Charleston, South Carolina. Her evangelical Christian neighbors worked hard to bring the local Jews into the Christian fold. They urged Jews to agree that only by becoming Christian could they attain God’s love and ultimately reach Heaven. </p>
<p>Moise, a famed poet, saw the holiday celebrating dedication to Judaism as an occasion to inspire Jewish dedication despite Christian challenges. Her congregation, Beth Elohim, publicized the hymn by including it in their hymnbook. </p>
<p>This English language hymn expressed a feeling common <a href="http://www.uapress.ua.edu/product/Isaac-Harby-of-Charleston-1788-1828,621.aspx">to many American Jews</a> living as a tiny minority. “Great Arbiter of human fate whose glory ne'er decays,” <a href="https://hymnary.org/hymn/HAJW1887/118">Moise began the hymn</a>, “To Thee alone we dedicate the song and soul of praise.” </p>
<p>It became a favorite among American Jews and could be heard in congregations around the country for another century. </p>
<p>Shortly after the Civil War, Cincinnati Rabbi Max Lilienthal <a href="https://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/max-lilienthal">learned about special Christmas events for children</a> held in some local churches. To adapt them for children in his own congregation, he created a Hanukkah assembly where the holiday’s story was told, blessings and hymns were sung, candles were lighted and sweets were distributed to the children. </p>
<p>His friend, Rabbi Isaac M. Wise, created a similar event for his own congregation. Wise and Lilienthal edited national Jewish magazines where they publicized these innovative Hanukkah assemblies, encouraging other congregations to establish their own. </p>
<p>Lilienthal and Wise also aimed to reform Judaism, streamlining it and emphasizing the rabbi’s role as teacher. Because they felt their changes would help Judaism survive in the modern age, they called themselves <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9780814707395/">“Modern Maccabees</a>.” Through their efforts, special Hanukkah events for children became standard in American synagogues. </p>
<h2>20th-century expansion</h2>
<p>By 1900, industrial America produced the abundance of goods exchanged each Dec. 25. Christmas’ domestic celebrations and gifts to children <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/search?cc=us&lang=en&q=restad,%20penne">provided a shared religious experience to American Christians</a> otherwise separated by denominational divisions. As a home celebration, it sidestepped the theological and institutional loyalties voiced in churches. </p>
<p>For the 2.3 million Jewish immigrants who entered the U.S. between 1881 and 1924, providing their children with gifts in December proved they were <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/adapting-to-abundance/9780231068536">becoming American and obtaining a better life</a>. </p>
<p>But by giving those gifts at Hanukkah, instead of adopting Christmas, they also expressed their own ideals of American religious freedom, as well as their own dedication to Judaism.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248049/original/file-20181129-170223-b9e46f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248049/original/file-20181129-170223-b9e46f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248049/original/file-20181129-170223-b9e46f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248049/original/file-20181129-170223-b9e46f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248049/original/file-20181129-170223-b9e46f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248049/original/file-20181129-170223-b9e46f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248049/original/file-20181129-170223-b9e46f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Hanukkah religious service and party in 1940.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/center_for_jewish_history/8232639754/">Center for Jewish History, NYC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After World War II, many Jews relocated from urban centers. Suburban Jewish children often comprised small minorities in public schools and found themselves <a href="http://www.adathjeshurun.info/Perspectives/Rabbinical_Perspective-12.2011-01.2012.pdf">coerced to participate in Christmas assemblies</a>. Teachers, administrators and peers often pressured them to sing Christian hymns and assert statements of Christian faith. </p>
<p>From the 1950s through the 1980s, as Jewish parents argued for their children’s right to freedom from religious coercion, they also <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9780814707395/">embellished Hanukkah</a>. Suburban synagogues expanded their Hanukkah programming. </p>
<p>As I detail in my book, Jewish families embellished domestic Hanukkah celebrations with decorations, nightly gifts and holiday parties to enhance Hanukkah’s impact. In suburbia, Hanukkah’s theme of dedication to Judaism shone with special meaning. Rabbinical associations, national Jewish clubs and advertisers of Hanukkah goods carried the ideas for expanded Hanukkah festivities nationwide. </p>
<p>In the 21st century, Hanukkah accomplishes many tasks. Amid Christmas, it reminds Jews of Jewish dedication. Its domestic celebration enhances Jewish family life. In its similarity to Christmas domestic gift-giving, Hanukkah makes Judaism attractive to children and – according to my college students – relatable to Jews’ Christian neighbors. In many interfaith families, this shared festivity furthers domestic tranquility. </p>
<p>In America, this minor festival has attained major significance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106426/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dianne Ashton received funding for her research on Hanukkah from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Gilder Lehrman Institute, the American Jewish Archives, and Rowan University.</span></em></p>Hanukkah is ranked one of Judaism’s minor festivals, but its popularity in the US has a lot to do with America’s Jews trying to fight assimilation into a culture that welcomed them.Dianne Ashton, Professor of Religion, Rowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/882202017-12-20T11:28:40Z2017-12-20T11:28:40ZWhat Kwanzaa means for Black Americans<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199992/original/file-20171219-4965-irl2l8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kwanzaa celebrations.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/blackhour/8381590157/in/photolist-dLDQK8-dFUBXu-dLDQPe-dLDQNX-dLKoPh-6z3C3z-dLDQL6-dLKoYq-4i5qHT-esxgv1-dLDQHa-dLKoUC-64MWaq-dLKoXW-dLKoSw-5JDYvt-tZmHW-dLDQMH-7qn7q2-dLKoTj-icfNpX-dLKoPo-dLDQVa-Chc6Mv-dLKoT1-5JJgyb-Q3TXbW-dLDQNT-4i9uMN-7qJMK3-dLDQMk-5M7Kvj-kpJu7S-dLKoYo-b1ECLr-b4mP2e-q3dcDT-4i5qgi-b4janZ-b4mP5H-AULP88-95AkDM-4i9vMW-dLDQST-aX7y44-aZt9q4-7mGgSu-aX7y4n-7LLdMz-7LQaQE">Black Hour</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Dec. 26, millions throughout the world’s African community will start <a href="http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/index.shtml">weeklong celebrations of Kwanzaa</a>. There will be daily ceremonies with food, decorations and other cultural objects, such as the kinara, which holds seven candles. At many Kwanzaa ceremonies, there is also African drumming and dancing. </p>
<p>It is a time of communal self-affirmation – when famous Black heroes and heroines, as well as late family members – are celebrated. </p>
<p>As a scholar who has <a href="http://www.plainviewpress.net/gallery2/pages/Rendered-Invisible.htm">written about racially motivated violence</a> against Blacks, directed Black cultural centers on college campuses and sponsored numerous Kwanzaa celebrations, I understand the importance of this holiday.</p>
<p>For the African-American community, Kwanzaa is not just any “Black holiday.” It is a recognition that knowledge of Black history is worthwhile. </p>
<h2>History of Kwanzaa</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.maulanakarenga.org/">Maulana Karenga</a>, a noted Black American scholar and activist created Kwanzaa in 1966. Its name is derived from the phrase <a href="http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/origins1.shtm">“matunda ya kwanza”</a> which means “first fruits” in Swahili, the most widely spoken African language. However, Kwanzaa, the holiday, did not exist in Africa.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199996/original/file-20171219-5004-1opb431.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199996/original/file-20171219-5004-1opb431.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199996/original/file-20171219-5004-1opb431.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199996/original/file-20171219-5004-1opb431.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199996/original/file-20171219-5004-1opb431.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199996/original/file-20171219-5004-1opb431.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/199996/original/file-20171219-5004-1opb431.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A candle is lit each day to celebrate the seven basic values of African culture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kwanzaa-holiday-concept-decorate-seven-candles-703147627?src=VdfiHqNwle82YCsFWIQaHQ-1-2">Ailisa via Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Each day of Kwanzaa is devoted to celebrating the seven basic values of African culture or the “Nguzo Saba” which in Swahili means the seven principles. Translated these are: unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics (building Black businesses), purpose, creativity and faith. A candle is lit on each day to celebrate each one of these principles. On the last day, a black candle is lit and gifts are shared. </p>
<p>Today, Kwanzaa is quite popular. It is celebrated widely on college campuses, the U.S. Postal Service issues <a href="https://store.usps.com/store/results/_/Ntt-kwanzaa?Dy=1">Kwanzaa stamps</a>, there is at least one <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193845">municipal park named for it</a>, and there are special Kwanzaa greeting cards. </p>
<h2>Kwanzaa’s meaning for black community</h2>
<p>Kwanzaa was created by Karenga out of the turbulent times of the 1960’s in Los Angeles, following the 1965 <a href="http://crdl.usg.edu/events/watts_riots/?Welcome">Watts riots,</a> when a young African-American was pulled over on suspicions of drunk driving, resulting in an outbreak of violence. </p>
<p>Subsequently, Karenga founded an organization called Us – meaning, black people – which promoted black culture. The purpose of the organization was to provide a platform, which would help to rebuild the Watts neighborhood <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Kwanzaa-Black-Power-and-the-Making-of-the-African-American-Holiday-Tradition/Mayes/p/book/9780415998550">through a strong organization rooted in African culture.</a> </p>
<p>Karenga called its creation an act of <a href="http://www.us-organization.org/activities/documents/Kwanzaa44thAnniversary_FINAL.pdf">cultural discovery</a>, which simply meant that he wished to point African-Americans to greater knowledge of their African heritage and past. </p>
<p>Rooted in the struggles and the gains of the civil rights and black power movements of the 1950s and 1960s, it was a way of defining a unique black American identity. As <a href="https://cla.umn.edu/about/directory/profile/mayes">Keith A. Mayes</a>, a scholar of African-American history, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Kwanzaa-Black-Power-and-the-Making-of-the-African-American-Holiday-Tradition/Mayes/p/book/9780415998550">notes in his book,</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>“For Black power activists, Kwanzaa was just as important as the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Kwanzaa was their answer to what they understood as the ubiquity of white cultural practices that oppressed them as thoroughly as had Jim Crow laws.” </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Overturning white definitions</h2>
<p>Today, the holiday has come to occupy a central role, not only in the U.S. but also in the global African diaspora. </p>
<p>A 2008 documentary, <a href="http://mkasante.com/films/the-black-candle/#trailer">“The Black Candle”</a> that filmed Kwanzaa observances in the United States and Europe, shows children not only in the United States, but as far away as France, reciting the principles of the Nguzo Saba. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eNCPr2v8nM4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">‘The Black Candle’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It brings together the Black community not on the basis of their religious faith, but a <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ505909">shared cultural heritage.</a> Explaining the importance of the holiday for African-Americans today, writer <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/amiri-baraka">Amiri Baraka</a>, says during an interview in the documentary, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We looked at Kwanzaa as part of the struggle to overturn white definitions for our lives.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Indeed, since the early years of the holiday, until today, Kwanzaa has provided many black families with <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Kwanzaa-Black-Power-and-the-Making-of-the-African-American-Holiday-Tradition/Mayes/p/book/9780415998550">tools for instructing their children</a> about their African heritage. </p>
<h2>Current activism and Kwanzaa</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200001/original/file-20171219-5004-8vzy31.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200001/original/file-20171219-5004-8vzy31.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200001/original/file-20171219-5004-8vzy31.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200001/original/file-20171219-5004-8vzy31.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200001/original/file-20171219-5004-8vzy31.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200001/original/file-20171219-5004-8vzy31.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200001/original/file-20171219-5004-8vzy31.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students celebrate Kwanzaa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/blackhour/8381590549/in/photolist-dLDQL6-dLKp2E-dLKoYq-dwGRje-q3dcDT-dLDQHa-dwNmNy-dLKoUC-dwNmQu-dLKoXW-dLKoSw-dLDQMH-dwNmT7-dLKoTj-dLDQLa-dLKoPo-dLDQQx-dLKoPU-dLDQVa-dLKoWS-dLKoT1-dwGRh2-dLDQNT-dLDQMk-dLKoYo-dwNmTY-5KPkMX-5KPmqt-5KTyZG-dLKoZ7-5KPjF4-dLKoZG-5KTHdE-5KTDwQ-5KPqYV-q3eR98-dLDQST-GU4rLa-dLDQRT-dLKoMS-5KPqvk-5KPo6p-5KTCU5-5KTJfS-5KPnwv-5KTF2y-5KPoDr-5KTHK9-5KTACq-dLDQVx">Black Hour</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This spirit of activism and pride in the African heritage is evident on college campus Kwanzaa celebrations – one of which I recently attended. (It was done a few days early so that students going on break could participate.)</p>
<p>The speaker, a veteran of the Nashville civil rights movement, spoke about Kwanzaa as a time of memory and celebration. Wearing an African dashiki, he led those in attendance – blacks and whites and those of other ethnicities – in Kwanzaa songs and recitations. On a table decorated in kente cloth, a traditional African fabric, was a kinara, which contains seven holes, to correspond to the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa. There were three red candles on the left side of the kinara, and three green candles on the right side of the kinara. The center candle was black. The colors of the candles represent the red, black and green of the African Liberation flag. </p>
<p>The auditorium was packed. Those in attendance, young and old, black and white, held hands and chanted slogans celebrating black heroes and heroines, as diverse as the civil rights icons, Rosa Parks and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Jamaican musician Bob Marley.</p>
<p>It was a cultural observance that acknowledged solidarity with the struggles of the past and with one another. Like the black power movements, such as today’s <a href="https://blacklivesmatter.com/">Black Lives Matter movement</a>, it is an affirmation of “Black folks’ humanity,” their “contributions to this society” and “resilience in the face of deadly oppression.”</p>
<p>Karenga wanted to “reaffirm the bonds between us” (Black people) and to counter the damage done by the <a href="https://africanholocaust.net/why-kwanzaa/">“holocaust of slavery.” </a> Kwanzaa celebrations are a moment of this awareness and reflection.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88220/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank Dobson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For the African-American community, Kwanzaa is not just any “Black holiday. ” It is a recognition that knowledge of Black history is worthwhile.Frank Dobson, Associate Dean of Students, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/882252017-12-07T18:47:06Z2017-12-07T18:47:06ZHanukkah’s true meaning is about Jewish survival<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198025/original/file-20171206-31532-4wxjt6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/101422984?src=SCgcp5hYcu4pdFCFBZP2cA-1-67&size=huge_jpg">www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every December Jews celebrate the eight-day festival of Hanukkah, perhaps the best-known and certainly the most visible Jewish holiday.</p>
<p>While critics sometimes identify Christmas as promoting the prevalence in America today of what one might refer to as <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/12/hanukkah-sucks-amirite/419649/">Hanukkah kitsch</a>, this assessment misses the social and theological significance of Hanukkah within Judaism itself. </p>
<p>Let’s consider the origin and development of Hanukkah over the past more than 2,000 years.</p>
<h2>Early history</h2>
<p>Though it is 2,200 years old, <a href="http://fortresspress.com/product/jewish-literature-between-bible-and-mishnah-2nd-ed-stand-alone-cd-rom">Hanukkah</a> is one of Judaism’s newest holidays, an annual Jewish celebration that does not even appear in the Hebrew Bible. </p>
<p>The historical event that is the basis for Hanukkah is told, rather, in the post-biblical Books of the Maccabees, which appear in the Catholic biblical canon but are not even considered part of the Bible by Jews and most Protestant denominations. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198027/original/file-20171206-31539-1ehaius.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198027/original/file-20171206-31539-1ehaius.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198027/original/file-20171206-31539-1ehaius.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198027/original/file-20171206-31539-1ehaius.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198027/original/file-20171206-31539-1ehaius.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198027/original/file-20171206-31539-1ehaius.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198027/original/file-20171206-31539-1ehaius.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Maccabees receive their father’s blessing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AThe_Maccabees_receive_their_father's_blessing.jpg">The Story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation via Wikimedia Commons.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Based on the Greco-Roman model of celebrating a military triumph, Hanukkah was instituted in 164 B.C. <a href="http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Jewish-Way/Irving-Greenberg/9780671873035">to celebrate the victory</a> of the Maccabees, a ragtag army of Jews, against the much more powerful army of King Antiochus IV of Syria. </p>
<p>In 168 B.C., Antiochus outlawed Jewish practice and forced Jews to adopt pagan rituals and assimilate into Greek culture. </p>
<p>The Maccabees revolted against this persecution. They captured Jerusalem from Antiochus’s control, removed from the Jerusalem Temple symbols of pagan worship that Antiochus had introduced and restarted the sacrificial worship, ordained by God in the Hebrew Bible, that Antiochus had violated. </p>
<p>Hanukkah, meaning “dedication,” <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/religion/judaism/origins-judaism-canaan-rise-islam?format=HB&isbn=9780521844536#5w0geqHTDUrD7fPj.97">marked this military victory</a>
with a celebration that lasted eight days and was modeled on the festival of Tabernacles (Sukkot) that had been banned by Antiochus.</p>
<h2>How Hanukkah evolved</h2>
<p>The military triumph, however, was short-lived. The Maccabees’ descendants – the Hasmonean dynasty – routinely violated their own Jewish law and tradition. </p>
<p>Even more significantly, the following centuries witnessed the devastation that would be caused when Jews tried again to accomplish what the Maccabees had done. By now, Rome controlled the land of Israel. In A.D. 68-70 and again in A.D. 133-135, the Jews mounted passionate revolts to rid their land of this foreign and oppressing power. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198028/original/file-20171206-31521-139cbfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198028/original/file-20171206-31521-139cbfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198028/original/file-20171206-31521-139cbfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198028/original/file-20171206-31521-139cbfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198028/original/file-20171206-31521-139cbfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198028/original/file-20171206-31521-139cbfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198028/original/file-20171206-31521-139cbfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFrancesco_Hayez_017.jpg">Francesco Hayez, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The first of these revolts ended in the destruction of the Second Jerusalem Temple, the preeminent center of Jewish worship, which had stood for 600 years. As a result of the second revolt, the <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/religion/judaism/origins-judaism-canaan-rise-islam?format=HB&isbn=9780521844536#5w0geqHTDUrD7fPj.97">Jewish homeland was devastated</a> and countless Jews were put to death.</p>
<p>War no longer seemed an effective solution to the Jews’ tribulations on the stage of history.</p>
<p>In response, a new ideology deemphasized the idea that Jews should or could change their destiny through military action. What was required, rabbis asserted, was not battle but perfect observance of God’s moral and ritual law. This would lead to God’s intervention in history to restore the Jewish people’s control over their own land and destiny.</p>
<p>In this context, rabbis rethought Hanukkah’s origins as the celebration of a military victory. Instead, they said, Hanukkah should be seen as commemorating a miracle that occurred during the Maccabees’ rededication of the temple: <a href="http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Jewish-Way/Irving-Greenberg/9780671873035">The story now told</a> was how a jar of temple oil sufficient for only one day had sustained the temple’s eternal lamp for a full eight days, until additional ritually appropriate oil could be produced. </p>
<p>The earliest version of this story <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Shabbat.21b?lang=bi">appears in the Talmud</a>, in a document completed in the sixth century A.D. From that period on, rather than directly commemorating the Maccabees’ victory, Hanukkah celebrated God’s miracle.</p>
<p>This is symbolized by the kindling of an eight-branched candelabra (“Menorah” or “Hanukkiah”), with one candle lit on the holiday’s first night and an additional candle added each night until, on the final night of the festival, all eight branches are lit. The ninth candle in the Hanukkiah is used to light the others.</p>
<p>Throughout the medieval period, however, Hanukkah remained a <a href="http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Jewish-Way/Irving-Greenberg/9780671873035">minor Jewish festival</a>. </p>
<h2>What Hanukkah means today</h2>
<p>How then to understand what happened to Hanukkah in the past hundred years, during which it has achieved prominence in Jewish life, both in America and around the world? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198026/original/file-20171206-31552-1vdc7v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198026/original/file-20171206-31552-1vdc7v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198026/original/file-20171206-31552-1vdc7v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198026/original/file-20171206-31552-1vdc7v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198026/original/file-20171206-31552-1vdc7v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198026/original/file-20171206-31552-1vdc7v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198026/original/file-20171206-31552-1vdc7v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hanukkah today responds to Jews’ desire to see their history as consequential.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/en/candles-menorah-light-hanukkah-897776/">Pixabay.com/en</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The point is that even as the holiday’s prior iterations reflected the distinctive needs of successive ages, so Jews today have reinterpreted Hanukkah in light of contemporary circumstances – a point that is detailed in religion scholar <a href="https://academics.rowan.edu/chss/departments/philosophy/faculty/AshtonDianne.html">Dianne Ashton’s</a> book, <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9780814707395/">“Hanukkah in America.”</a></p>
<p>Ashton demonstrates while Hanukkah has evolved in tandem with the extravagance of the American Christmas season, there is much more to this story. </p>
<p>Hanukkah today <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9780814707395/">responds to Jews’ desire</a> to see their history as consequential, as reflecting the value of religious freedom that Jews share with all other Americans. Hanukkah, with its bright decorations, songs, and family- and community-focused celebrations, also fulfills American Jews’ need to reengage disaffected Jews and to keep Jewish children excited about Judaism. </p>
<p>Poignantly, telling a story of persecution and then redemption, Hanukkah today provides a historical paradigm that can help modern Jews think about the Holocaust and the emergence of Zionism. </p>
<p>[<em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>In short, Hanukkah is as powerful a commemoration as it is today because it responds to a host of factors pertinent to contemporary Jewish history and life. </p>
<p>Over two millennia, Hanukkah has evolved to narrate the story of the Maccabees in ways that meet the distinctive needs of successive generations of Jews. Each generation tells the story as it needs to hear it, in response to the eternal values of Judaism but also as is appropriate to each period’s distinctive cultural forces, ideologies and experiences.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88225/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Avery-Peck does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hanukkah was instituted in 164 B.C. to celebrate military victory, but the meaning has changed over time with the circumstances of the Jewish people.Alan Avery-Peck, Kraft-Hiatt Professor in Judaic Studies, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/875692017-11-17T20:41:11Z2017-11-17T20:41:11ZFeeling guilty about drinking? Well, ask the saints<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195239/original/file-20171117-19305-17d3usa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pious drinking.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AWalter_Dendy_Sadler_(1854_-1923)_The_monks_repast.jpg">Walter Dendy Sadler via Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Each year the holidays bring with them an increase in both the consumption of <a href="http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/sponsor-story/kaiser-permanente/2015/12/03/alcohol-consumption-increases-during-holidays/76744200/">alcohol</a> and <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/christmas-drinking-binge-increase-alcohol-dependence-alcoholism-risk-expert-a7488401.html">concern about drinking’s harmful effects.</a> </p>
<p>Alcohol abuse is no laughing matter, but is it sinful to drink and make merry, moderately and responsibly, during a holy season or at any other time? </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.baylor.edu/great_texts/index.php?id=100028">historical theologian</a>, I <a href="https://www.regnery.com/books/drinking-with-the-saints/">researched</a> the role that pious Christians played in developing and producing alcohol. What I discovered was an astonishing history. </p>
<h2>Religious orders and wine-making</h2>
<p>Wine was invented <a href="https://vinepair.com/booze-news/oldest-winemaking-site/?utm_source=The+Drop+by+VinePair&utm_campaign=508c000821-Oct_7_2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b653fb8c99-508c000821-46572873&goal=0_b653fb8c99-508c000821-46572873&mc_cid=508c000821&mc_eid=044391995d">6,000 years</a> before the birth of Christ, but it was monks who largely preserved viniculture in Europe. Religious orders such as the Benedictines and Jesuits became expert winemakers. They stopped only because their lands were confiscated in the 18th and 19th centuries by anti-Catholic governments such as the French Revolution’s <a href="http://www.historytoday.com/gemma-betros/french-revolution-and-catholic-church">Constituent Assembly</a> and Germany’s <a href="https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=8670">Second Reich</a>.</p>
<p>In order to celebrate the Eucharist, which requires the use of bread and wine, Catholic missionaries brought their knowledge of vine-growing with them to the New World. Wine grapes were first introduced to Alta California in 1779 by Saint Junipero Serra and his Franciscan brethren, laying the foundation for the <a href="http://www.discovercaliforniawines.com/wp-content/files_mf/ecawinehistory.pdf">California wine industry</a>. A similar pattern emerged in <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=tEqx2zwuq-gC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=history+of+argentina+wine+industry+missionaries&source=bl&ots=-4W6L0fLCv&sig=Y6wV24LoRHwUDn7CxzS9OtXnLBU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwivh-SAqsHXAhXhs1QKHT7dCMoQ6AEIPzAD#v=onepage&q=history%20of%20argentina%20wine%20industry%20missionaries&f=false">Argentina</a>, <a href="http://www.chilean-wine.com/chilean-wine-history/">Chile</a> and <a href="https://www.sevenhill.com.au/the-jesuits">Australia</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195241/original/file-20171117-19320-1wdyxh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195241/original/file-20171117-19320-1wdyxh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195241/original/file-20171117-19320-1wdyxh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195241/original/file-20171117-19320-1wdyxh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195241/original/file-20171117-19320-1wdyxh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195241/original/file-20171117-19320-1wdyxh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195241/original/file-20171117-19320-1wdyxh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Monks in a cellar.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AJoseph_Haier_-_Monks_in_a_cellar_1873.jpg">Joseph Haier 1816-1891, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Godly men not only preserved and promulgated oenology, or the study of wines; they also advanced it. One of the pioneers in the “méthode champenoise,” or the “<a href="http://winefolly.com/review/how-sparkling-wine-is-made/">traditional method</a>” of making sparkling wine, was a Benedictine monk whose name now adorns one of the world’s finest champagnes: Dom Pérignon. According to a later legend, when he sampled his first batch in 1715, Pérignon <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=pIdGLlMTsucC&pg=PA59&lpg=PA59&dq=%E2%80%9CBrothers,+come+quickly.+I+am+drinking+stars!%E2%80%9D&source=bl&ots=j1jFQNJvEF&sig=M4aqm9jJ7PTLFwEavwndflQ6DwU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjpyY2ruMHXAhVByVQKHV8RCt0Q6AEISjAM#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9CBrothers%2C%20come%20quickly.%20I%20am%20drinking%20stars!%E2%80%9D&f=false">cried out to his fellow monks</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Brothers, come quickly. I am drinking stars!”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Monks and priests also found new uses for the grape. The Jesuits are credited with improving the process for making <a href="http://www.grappamontanaro.com/storia-della-grappa/?lang=en">grappa</a> in Italy and <a href="https://museodelpisco.org/all-about-pisco/">pisco</a> in South America, both of which are grape brandies.</p>
<h2>Beer in the cloister</h2>
<p>And although beer may have been invented by the ancient Babylonians, it was perfected by the <a href="https://www.alcoholproblemsandsolutions.org/alcohol-in-the-middle-ages/#_ednref3">medieval monasteries</a> that gave us brewing as we know it today. The oldest drawings of a modern brewery are from the Monastery of Saint Gall in Switzerland. The plans, which date back to A.D. 820, show three breweries – one for guests of the monastery, one for pilgrims and the poor, and one for the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/0/20909447">monks</a> themselves.</p>
<p>One saint, Arnold of Soissons, who lived in the 11th century, has even been credited with inventing the <a href="http://allaboutbeer.com/article/beer-saints/">filtration</a> process. To this day and despite the proliferation of many outstanding microbreweries, the world’s finest beer is arguably still made within the cloister – specifically, within the cloister of a <a href="http://ithinkaboutbeer.com/2013/05/09/the-brewing-monks-a-brief-history-of-the-trappist-order-and-monastic-brewing/">Trappist monastery</a>.</p>
<h2>Liquors and liqueurs</h2>
<p>Equally impressive is the religious contribution to distilled spirits. Whiskey was invented by medieval <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=A4EvCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA8&dq=history+of+whiskey+irish+monks&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjL94DAucHXAhVjxlQKHWdXAsQQ6AEIQDAE#v=onepage&q=history%20of%20whiskey%20irish%20monks&f=false">Irish monks</a>, who probably shared their knowledge with the Scots during their missions.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195243/original/file-20171117-19256-1unope6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195243/original/file-20171117-19256-1unope6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195243/original/file-20171117-19256-1unope6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195243/original/file-20171117-19256-1unope6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195243/original/file-20171117-19256-1unope6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195243/original/file-20171117-19256-1unope6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195243/original/file-20171117-19256-1unope6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Monk sneaking a drink.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AMonk_sneaking_a_drink.jpg">Scanned from Den medeltida kokboken, Swedish translation of The Medieval Cookbook by Maggie Black, via Wikimedia Commons.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.chartreuse.fr/en/produits/green-chartreuse/">Chartreuse</a> is widely considered the <a href="http://www.orangecoast.com/booze-blog/green-chartreuse-best-liqueur-ever/">world’s best liqueur</a> because of its extraordinary spectrum of distinct flavors and even medicinal benefits. Perfected by the Carthusian order almost 300 years ago, the recipe is known by only <a href="https://www.chartreuse.fr/en/produits/green-chartreuse/">two monks</a> at a time. The herbal liqueur Bénédictine D.O.M. is reputed to have been invented in 1510 by an Italian Benedictine named Dom Bernardo Vincelli to fortify and restore weary monks. And the cherry brandy known as Maraska liqueur was invented by Dominican apothecaries in the early 16th century.</p>
<p>Nor was ingenuity in alcohol a male-only domain. Carmelite sisters once produced an extract called “<a href="http://www.herbrally.com/monographs/lemon-balm/">Carmelite water</a>” that was used as a herbal tonic. The nuns no longer make this elixir, but another concoction of the convent survived and went on to become one of Mexico’s most popular holiday liqueurs – Rompope. </p>
<p>Made from vanilla, milk and eggs, Rompope was invented by Clarist nuns from the Spanish colonial city of Puebla, located southeast of Mexico City. According to one account, the nuns used egg whites to give the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=JqZkUC_7WQIC&pg=PT423&lpg=PT423&dq=ROMPOPE+nuns+convent+egg+whites+yolks&source=bl&ots=h2JgzxgkHB&sig=_nHVhycm68vYrgWLwNmFZALDVMQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwipiIfNvsHXAhVIrFQKHf_BDckQ6AEIPzAD#v=onepage&q=ROMPOPE%20nuns%20convent%20egg%20whites%20yolks&f=false">sacred art</a> in their chapel a protective coating. Not wishing the leftover yolks to go to waste, they developed the recipe for this festive refreshment.</p>
<h2>Health and community</h2>
<p>So why such an impressive record of alcoholic creativity among the religious? I believe there are two underlying reasons.</p>
<p>First, the conditions were right for it. Monastic communities and similar religious orders possessed all of the <a href="https://www.alcoholproblemsandsolutions.org/alcohol-in-the-middle-ages/#_ednref3">qualities</a> necessary for producing fine alcoholic beverages. They had vast tracts of land for planting grapes or barley, a long institutional memory through which special knowledge could be handed down and perfected, a facility for teamwork and a commitment to excellence in even the smallest of chores as a means of glorifying God.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195244/original/file-20171117-19278-3qcurn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195244/original/file-20171117-19278-3qcurn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=717&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195244/original/file-20171117-19278-3qcurn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=717&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195244/original/file-20171117-19278-3qcurn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=717&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195244/original/file-20171117-19278-3qcurn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195244/original/file-20171117-19278-3qcurn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195244/original/file-20171117-19278-3qcurn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Historically, alcohol was seen to be promoting health.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFritz_Wagner_Ein_guter_Schluck.jpg">Fritz Wagner (1896-1939) (Dorotheum) , via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Second, it is easy to forget in our current age that for much of human history, alcohol was instrumental in promoting <a href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14037.html">health</a>. Water sources often carried dangerous pathogens, and so small amounts of alcohol would be mixed with water to kill the germs therein.</p>
<p>Roman soldiers, for example, were given a daily <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=LfRiXN5hhCUC&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&dq=%22wine+per+day+to+soldiers%22&source=bl&ots=vArw70Tv2k&sig=ML-X9Cg_fJVq7ox571zHYABqLOw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj72ILdv8HXAhVLy1QKHePgCMkQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=%22wine%20per%20day%20to%20soldiers%22&f=false">allowance of wine</a>, not in order to get drunk but to purify whatever water they found on campaign. And two bishops, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=R9i5BgAAQBAJ&pg=PT527&dq=%22Arnulf+of+Metz%22+plague+beer&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwikmY-PwMHXAhUHi1QKHdB2CMsQ6AEILjAB#v=onepage&q=%22Arnulf%20of%20Metz%22%20plague%20beer&f=false">Saint Arnulf of Metz</a> and Saint <a href="https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/10/20/arnold-of-soissons-the-patron-saint-of-beer/">Arnold of Soissons</a>, are credited with saving hundreds from a plague because they admonished their flock to drink beer instead of water. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=A4EvCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA8&dq=history+of+whiskey+irish+monks&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjL94DAucHXAhVjxlQKHWdXAsQQ6AEIQDAE#v=onepage&q=history%20of%20whiskey%20irish%20monks&f=false">Whiskey</a>, herbal liqueurs and even bitters were likewise invented for medicinal reasons. </p>
<p>And if beer can save souls from pestilence, no wonder the Church has a special blessing for it that <a href="http://www.sanctamissa.org/en/resources/books-1962/rituale-romanum/54-blessings-of-things-designated-for-ordinary-use.html">begins</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“O Lord, bless this creature beer, which by Your kindness and power has been produced from kernels of grain, and may it be a health-giving drink for mankind.”</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87569/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Foley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For those wondering whether it is sinful to drink, even moderately, a scholar goes into the history of alcohol and its distillation to show how early monks and priests contributed to it.Michael Foley, Associate Professor of Patristics, Baylor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.