November 19, 2021: Hanukkah Edition

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Happy Hanukkah

A2 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021

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Gratitude

In December of 2019, I lit the Hanukkah candles together we need to stay mentally healthy. When that happens, let’s not with my mother. While in the moment, I realized how special forget the gratitude. this time was. I also vowed to spend at least part of Hanukkah Do I sound preachy? It’s because I’m mostly talking to (at) with her every year; there is such warmth in lighting candles myself. I’m trying to remember this feeling—this sense that together. Luckily, we didn’t know what was coming. happiness is never automatic. We have to work for it. We have My home country is headed into another lockdown (I’ve lost to recognize the good and complain less about the bad. I can count of how many that makes) and at this point, going home still light Hanukkah candles with my mother—we’ll just be in feels like it would take a miracle. Granted, a miracle would be different countries, so what? That’s what we normally do on seasonally appropriate, but I don’t think it’s in the cards and Shabbat anyway, when she lights her candles before I’ve even that needs to be okay. had lunch. And we survive that, too.

When it comes to actual miracles, we often don’t recognize them anyway. Maybe the big lesson through all this is that we need to think about our happiness, our contentment in a different way. There are days when I find myself focusing on all the things I miss and can’t do. That leads to complaining, which tends to make me feel worse, because no matter how much I kvetch, it doesn’t change anything.

And this has all gone on long enough that a simple venting session doesn’t really relieve the pressure either.

We know what makes us unhappy. We know what we hate, what we dislike, what we’re tired of. But how about the things that do make us happy?

The silver linings, the pleasant surprises, the love we still have and the new discoveries we have made about ourselves and others?

A miracle is if we still have our job. If we have food to eat, if the electricity stays on and if we can pay our mortgage. A Credit: Louise Docker licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. miracle is also when the seasons keep changing and the roof So, gratitude. I wish you all a happy Hanukkah, full of gratidoesn’t leak during one of those crazy rainstorms. A miracle tude. Eat an extra donut, lose yourself in the smells, sounds is when little children keep growing and developing. If some- and sights of this holiday. Light every single menorah you own how the world keeps turning as it always has. When we see (even the crooked ones your kids made at the CDC/ELC) and photos from the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home and the Resi- give yourself a hug. And then, repeat after me: It’s going to be dents in those pictures are smiling. An even bigger miracle? okay.

When the nurses and doctors are also smiling.

A miracle is also this community of ours. Just as the weather Happy Hanukkah. gets colder, it seems like we are slowly coming out of our shells. We’ve opened the synagogues, we’re sharing meals ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT again, some of us are able to go on trips. While that last one Jewish Press Editor may sound like a privileged concept, don’t underestimate the power of traveling to see family. It does amazing things for our happiness. A miracle is all the people that make our lives better—and the moment we can hug them again.

But the biggest miracle of all lies in the gratitude many of us feel for things and people we used to take for granted. We’ve all had a stiff lesson in how not to assume we’re always going to be doing as we please. It can all be gone in a second. It’s a sobering thought, for sure, but it’s hardly a new one: our history is rife with examples. So let’s cling to this gratitude. That moment when you are able to wrap your arms around a friend you haven’t seen in ages? Treasure it. Appreciate it. Then appreciate it still the second time, the third. We can hope that soon, we can go back to the level of face-to-face interaction

The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021 | A3

Hannukah 5782

Happy Hanukkah League Offering Volunteers for the Elderly The Rose Blumkin Jewish Home Auxiliary

I had hoped to write this while sampling a serious collection of sufganiyot in Israel.

These delicious holiday treats are one way to celebrate the holiday of Hannukah— that is if you like oily sweetness. I had ALAN POTASH planned to be in Israel Chief Executive the first week of No- Officer, JFO vember on a unique economic trade mission organized by Nebraska’s Governor. There are several Nebraska businesses doing business in Israel and the goal was to find more opportunities for Nebraska businesses to do business in Israel.

JFO President Mike Siegel and I had planned to join the trade mission and following the mission I would take Mike up to meet people in our partnership in the Western Galilee—but that didn’t happen. Israel’s travel restrictions made it difficult for many to meet the requirements so the mission was postponed until a future time.

With that being said, and not being in Israel, I still want to discuss the donut. That oily treat. I know this is not unique to Jewish food. As I was doing my investigation into the history of the donut, it became a natural connection to Hannukah because of the use of oil. The main ingredient for most Hanukkah foods. Most of us are familiar with

the potato latke being the traditional Hanukkah food, but the donut goes way back and made its way to Israel. The donut dates back to the 1500s in Europe, making its way to Israel on one of the waves of Aliyah. According to food historians, the Hebrew name for the donut dates back to Talmudic discussions by describing the feel and texture of the product: spongy soft dough, in Hebrew sofgan or sfogga, which comes out as sufganiya.

Truly, the benefit is in the taste. Who can refuse the deliciousness of dough fried in oil and then covered and filled with more sweetness? I am sharing a photo or two from past trips to Israel during or leading up to Hanukkah, so you can get an idea of what they look like. All in all, it is about enjoying the fact that we are still around and can enjoy this treat. As the old saying goes, “They tried to get rid of us, we survived, we are still here. Let’s eat.”

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Hanukkah celebrates the victory of the Maccabees over the Greek army who invaded the land of Israel to prevent Jews from practicing their traditions. As we know, the Maccabees were overmatched, and MIKE SIEGEL things were looking President, JFO grim. Each day the oil, which was only supposed to last one day, gave them light, and as a result gave the Maccabees hope that they would prevail. It is a classic story of lightness conquering darkness. Today we celebrate Hanukkah by gathering with friends and family to play dreidel, eat latkes, sing songs and exchange gifts. But, let's not lose sight of the responsibility we have to sustain our community just as the Maccabees did centuries ago.

During Hanukkah, we light one additional candle every day until the whole menorah is lit.

The meaning to me is that darkness cannot be destroyed in one fell swoop. Instead, light builds until the strength of many lights removes the

darkness. This step-by-step approach also applies to our community. When faced with a community problem or issue, one person cannot solve it alone. The entire community needs to contribute their knowledge and skills to address it. JFO’s strategic plan needs everyone to participate. Whether you volunteer, attend events or provide financial support, every member of our community plays a role in successfully implementing the plan.

In the story of the Maccabees, light represents hope. Today, each of us is a candle on the menorah. By creating the brightest light, our community will always have hope. I ask you to use your light to make our community better. Whether you are helping a neighbor, defending a cause or just being kind, you are making an impact. The bottom line is that the JFO needs your help to ensure that our community thrives for future generations.

Centuries ago, our ancestors used their hope and light to sustain their society. We need to work together to build our community so when future generations look back at our history, they can also learn the importance of strengthening the Omaha Jewish community.

Happy Hanukkah.

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News

Temple Israel Hanukkah Celebration

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2022 Annual Campaign Donor Profiles: Ron Giller and Darlene Golbitz

CASSANDRA WEISENBURGER Temple Israel Director of Communications Join us for a special, family-friendly Hanukkah service on Friday, Dec. 3, at 5:45 p.m.! We invite you to bring your favorite chanukiyot with candles as we light up the Simon Community Court at 5:45 p.m. Ben Mazur will lead us in some Hanukkah songs as we move into the Schrager Sanctuary for our annual Hanukkah service. Our new six-foot Chanukiah, built by Chris Blake, will also be on display.

After the service, join us for Hanukkah dinner! Our Hanukkah menu includes brisket or salmon, vegetables, latkes with applesauce and sour cream and sufganiyot.

There will be a special craft area and dreidel games with Dani Howell during dinner to help occupy our younger congregants. Adults are $18, children are $9 and there is no charge for ages five and under. Visit TempleIsraelOmaha. com to RSVP online by Friday, Nov. 26. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Mindi Marburg, mmarburg@templeisraelomaha.com.

After such a successful drive last year, we are bringing back our Hanukkah Winter Gear Drive this year as a way to “spread the light” to others in our community. We’re partnering with Together to assist in their outreach to families and See Temple Israel page A6

SAM KRICSFELD Ron Giller and Darlene Golbitz are two integral pieces of Omaha’s Jewish community.

Both have been active in the community for decades, and they continue to serve it into their retirements. They are ardent supporters of the Jewish Federation of Omaha. We sat down to ask them about why they continue to give to the JFO’s Annual Campaigns.

Ron Giller Ron Giller served as principal at Friedel Jewish Academy, and currently serves as its treasurer. He is also on the Beth Israel Synagogue board, the JFO board, and is co-president of the regional ADL. “[These positions have] taught me the closeness of the Jewish community in Omaha and how important it is,” Giller said.

“It taught me that I’m not going to lose it; I’m always going to be Jewish and participate in customs, traditions and music.”

Darlene Golbitz served as a nurse for 32 years at the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home. She was also involved in the National Council for Jewish Women and currently is the go-to person for Beth El Synagogue’s Women’s Book Group. She remains on the board of the RBJH. “Having worked at the Blumkin Home for 32 years, I would like to say that the Jewish community impacted me and my children a lot,” Golbitz said. “It became a part of me.”

Giller is a native Omahan. He became more involved with the Jewish community as he grew up, going to Hebrew school

and participating in Jewish traditions and customs. Golbitz grew up in Pennsylvania and came to Omaha in 1978. Both Giller and Golbitz feel that being a part of Jewish Omaha is immensely important.

“It’s a source of identity and a source of pride, saying you’re from Omaha,” Golbitz said.

“We do amazing things for the Jewish community in Omaha.

I feel it enhances me, too.”

Darlene Golbitz When Golbitz and her family arrived in 1978, they had moved six times since her son was born. “When we got here, we realized that this was the place to bring up a family. There is no better city of this size to bring up a Jewish family and have opportunities for children.”

“For a Jewish population the size of Omaha, it’s amazing what kinds of things we offer to all the age groups, age zero to 100,” Giller said. “The first thing I tell new families moving to Omaha, which I did at Friedel, is that we are a very successful Jewish community.”

The Jewish Federation of Omaha’s fundraising, including this year’s 2022 Annual Campaign, is crucial to maintain and further improve our Jewish community. Both Giller and Golbitz have been giving to the Federation for decades.

“I’ve always found the JFO to be an organization that knows how to distribute its funds to help all the different agencies and Jewish Omaha,” Giller said. “I think it’s just so important See Annual Campaign Donor Profiles page A7

From my family to yours, we wish you a happy Hanukkah.

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A6 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021

News

Temple Israel

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Bringing Akko to Omaha SAM KRICSFELD JFO Philanthropy Assistant Omaha’s shlichah, Sivan Cohen, is busy. She is either leading or participating in nearly 10 different programs while acclimating to life in Omaha and meeting new people. The community is extremely lucky to have her, and we at the Jewish Federation of Omaha are enthusiastically recommending you meet her.

Sivan is from Akko, a city in northwest Israel. Sivan said she brings the feeling of her hometown here to Omaha.

“Akko is a very diverse city. The population contains Jews, Christians, Muslims and Bahá’ís,” Sivan said. “Everyone has representation in the city. Coming from a pluralistic community, I think I bring a new and fresh perspective. The north part of Israel is much more chill and connected to nature than the rest of Israel. We’re represented by the food, the languages, the religions and the way of life.”

Sivan brings Akko to Omaha with her myriad programs. She works with all age groups, from elementary school students at Friedel Jewish Academy to seniors at the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home. Here are just a few of Sivan’s programs: • Eye on Israel is a monthly program in which Sivan hosts a presentation/discussion on topics relating to Israel.

• Opening Minds through Art (OMA) — Sivan goes to the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home to help inspire Residents to create beautiful art.

• Pinat Yisrael — literally “A Corner of Is-

rael.” Sivan goes to Friedel Jewish Academy to teach about a facet of Israel.

• L’Chaim Israeli Spirits Series, in which Sivan, a certified wine and spirit connoisseur, teaches about Israeli alcohol.

Sivan also teaches Sunday school at Temple Israel and does events for GenNOW, Women’s Philanthropy and Jewish holidays. She works with the Institute for Holocaust Education and Partnership2Gether (which promotes relationships between the U.S. and Israel’s Western Galilee), and she brings in speakers from different fields for presentations.

Even with this busy schedule, Sivan has plans for more events in the near future. Ideas include Hebrew over Coffee, a shakshuka night, and “Like Literally,” in which Sivan would highlight the humor in translating literally from Hebrew grammar to English grammar. She also plans on using her training as an aquatic- and

physiotherapist for future programming.

Of course, Sivan is much more than just her programming. Her impressive resumé includes using her fluent French to translate for olim chadashim (recent immigrants) to Israel, serving as an activities organizer for Ethiopian immigrants in Israel, volunteering at the Nature and Park Authority of Israel as a tour guide and guiding Birthright trips. She was a counselor at Camp Ramah Darom in Atlanta, Georgia, two and a half years ago.

Sivan describes herself as funny, friendly, adventurous and outgoing. Her hobbies include swimming, horseback riding, reading and gardening. For this interview, the conversation spanned a wide variety of topics such as her range of programs, her sword collection, and what she wants for her birthday (Dr. Martens shoes and a Gregory Mountain 65liter mochila, by the way). “I enjoy the small things in life,” she said.

Despite Sivan being worried about it getting cold and losing her tan, she is happy to be in Omaha. “I think it’s a cool city,” she said. “Nature is very accessible, and I love the old town/new town differences.”

“I’m very grateful for the families who have welcomed me,” Sivan said. “It’s lovely to meet them. I hope to meet many more soon because Omaha is an amazing and warm community.”

Reach out to Sivan on Facebook or at sco hen@jewishomaha.org to ask about programming, schedule a meetup to hang out, or just say hello.

Continued from page A5 those who are homeless during the winter.

To that end, we would like to ask people to bring the following new or gently-used items as gifts to donate: winter coats, hats, gloves, scarves, hand/foot warmers, sleeping bags and tents.

We have two opportunities for you to donate. You can drop off items on Dec. 3 during our Hanukkah service and dinner and on Dec. 5 during Youth Learning Programs.

We are especially grateful to OTYG Social Action Vice President Hannah Dysico for leading this effort. If you have any questions or would like to help with the drive, please contact Ben Cohen, bcohen@templeisrae lomaha.com.

ORGANIZATIONS B’NAI B’RITH BREADBREAKERS The Monsky Lodge of B’nai B’rith is pleased to announce the resumption of its award-winning speaker program via ZOOM. Although the Home auditorium remains temporarily closed, we’ll continue presenting an outstanding lineup of thought-provoking keynoters. For specific speaker information and/or to be placed on the email list, please contact Breadbreakers chair Gary Javitch at breadbreakersomaha@gmail.com or leave a message at the B’nai B’rith JCC office 402.334.6443.

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From my family to your own, have a wonderful holiday season!

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Hanukkah Extravaganza MAREN ANGUS JFO Israel Engagement and Outreach Coordinator The Jewish Federation of Omaha is set to host its annual Hanukkah Extravaganza at the Jewish Community Center of Omaha on Sunday, Dec. 5 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

New to the event this year is Lego dreidel making with Omaha’s community Shlicha Sivan Cohen. There will also be a toy drive. We will collect new toys and donate them to a local organization that provides holiday gifts to underprivileged children.

Similar to years past, the afternoon will include games provided by FUN Services. The event will be a great social and philanthropic event for families of all ages.

The event will be spread throughout the gallery, CEV and Wiesman Room.

Chairs for the event are Matt and Kalli Taub, Amanda and Ryan Blumkin and Emily and Nick Ray. The Hanukkah Extravaganza is free and open to the entire Jewish community, we just ask that you register your family at https://app. mobilecause.com/f/3kot/n?vid=mwdwp.

and we will be with his family in northwest Iowa. It will be a first for pretty much everyone. Because of that, I decided to ask my fiancé a couple questions about what some of our new

traditions might be.

Q: What are you most excited about when it comes to your first Hanukkah?

A: I don’t know. The presents? I’m just kidding. I’m most excited about starting a new tradition for our family. I never really had a tradition growing up, and I feel like this being ours can be whatever we want it to be.

Q: Are there any specific traditions that you want to create?

A: I want to make sure that we have the traditional food at least one night. We better make latkes!

The questions were pretty basic but for him, he had to think about something completely new.

He grew up Lutheran with a Christmas tree and going to church.

Now, we will fill our home with the light of the candles and the great-smelling foods cooking in the kitchen.

CREATING NEW HANUKKAH TRADITIONS When I officially moved to Omaha in July, Hanukkah wasn’t on my mind. I was busy trying to get acclimated to my new life with my fiancé in a new town where the closest family to me is a two-hour flight or eight-hour drive away.

Growing up in Tennessee, Hanukkah was always different for us. We were typically the only Jewish family in the neighborhood and were greeted to the holiday season by our neighbor’s eight-foot-tall Jesus sign.

My parents would always make sure my brother and I got our annual presents of socks and underwear, but the other nights were always a surprise.

Some years we would take a trip and if the trip was after Hanukkah, we would do a different act of Tikkun Olam each night.

Lighting the menorah was always the same. We would argue about the direction to light and place the candles, someone would Google it, I would say the blessings and my brother would light.

The one consistent thing we did was set aside one night for a family dinner that included brisket, latkes, a green vegetable and a salad.

My dad was the king of latke making. My mom, brother and I would peel the potatoes, drop them in the food processor and then dad would fry them up. Half of the house preferred applesauce while the other half would mix it with sour cream.

Now, I look ahead to what my Hanukkah will look like at the end of November. The first night falls on my fiancé’s birthday

Annual Campaign Donor Profiles

Continued from page A5 that we have this organization and that people support it.”

“I’ve been giving to the Federation probably since I moved here,” Golbitz said. “I think the Federation in Omaha is very unique and encompasses so many important aspects of Jewish life in Omaha and supporting Israel. That’s important to me.”

Giller and Golbitz have been donating for decades, both taking pride in the amazing results caused by Omaha’s giving.

“I would say that we are one of the most giving Jewish communities in the country, per capita... for the number of Jewish families and individuals we have, it’s amazing how much money we can raise. It’s a super group of families that live in our area,” Giller said.

“I think it’s important to support all of these traditions and programs for the families that are coming after me,” Golbitz said. “I do think the programs are enhanced every year, and they wouldn’t be if there wasn’t money [ from donors].”

Looking towards the future, both Giller and Golbitz are very optimistic.

“If things continue in this fashion exponentially... can you imagine?” Golbitz asked, referring to the wide range of programming, improvements to the JCC, and support to the Omaha Jewish community that has resulted from past Annual Campaigns.

“I hope [the Omaha Jewish community] continues to grow in numbers, but it’s quality over quantity,” Giller said. “I want to continue to see all the Jewish organization in Omaha — the synagogues, the Federation — working together for the common cause, which is, of course, Jewish families in the metro area.”

Your support in the JFO Annual Campaign is important for the continuation of our great Jewish community. Thank you to the donors who have supported the campaign.

HAPPY HANUKKAH

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A8 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021

Happy Hanukkah from

The Lincoln Jewish Community Alex Felch, Rabbi Congregation B’nai Jeshurun Congregation Tifereth Israel The Jewish Federation of Lincoln

Dame of Dictionaries: Madeline Kripke Collection donated to Indiana University’s Lilly Library

Chag Urim Sameach!

Happy Holidays

Madeline Kripke in her Greenwich Village apartment in 2013 with part of her vast dictionary collection. “Madeline built a cathedral of the English lexicographic tradition,” an admirer said.

Credit: Emon Hassan

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GABBY BLAIR Staff writer, Jewish Press Thank you to Mr. Gordon Hollis for informing our community of the donation of Madeline Kripke’s important collection of rare dictionaries.

Mr. Hollis shares, “Madeline, of course, was the daughter of Rabbi Kripke. She was very involved

with Omaha Jewish activities until the end of her life. We were close personal friends of the Kripkes during our years in Omaha (until 1968). My brother Dan and father Sidney are both buried at Beth El cemetery. I knew Madeline quite well since I am an antiquarian bookseller and I often saw her at the New York antiquarian book fair.”

See Dame of Dictionaries page A9

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Dame of Dictionaries Continued from page A8 An Oct 15 article published in Fine Books & Collections shared by Mr. Hollis provides details about Madeline’s donated collection which will now reside in Indiana University’s Lilly Library in Bloomington, Indiana. Excerpts from the article are provided below. To read the article in its entirety, please visit https://www.finebooksmagazine.com.

“Kripke, known as the “Dame of Dictionaries,” kept a stockpile in her New York City apartment of more than 20,000 linguistic books and ephemera that was often referred to as the world’s largest and finest dictionary collection. She died in April 2020 without realizing one of her stated aspirations: the establishment of a public dictionary library.”

Provost Professor and English department Chair at IU Bloomington, Dr. Michael Adams, met Madeline Kripke through the Dictionary Society of North America. After her passing, he began collaborating with Lilly Library Director Joel Silver to acquire her collection.

In the article Adams shares, “It was of primary importance to the community of dictionary people that the collection stay together. We knew Madeline would have wanted the collection to end up at a public university, where all the very rarest materials would be available to everyone.”

He continues. “Having successfully acquired the Kripke Collection, the Lilly Library will now spend decades of its own unlocking the connections in the collection. Only about 6,000 volumes have been inventoried, likely less than onethird of the final total. It’s a challenge that librarians and faculty look forward to once the materials arrive in Bloomington.”

Joel Silver is pleased for the opportunity to preserve Madeline Kripke’s remarkable collection. “We’ll always be grateful for her unrivaled knowledge and dedication, which enabled her to assemble this matchless resource. We look forward to making it available to all interested researchers and visitors for many decades to come.”

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Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh - 2000

The Armenian capital Yerevan with Mount Ararat in the distance. Credit: Serouj Ourishian, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

RICH JURO After the trip to Lebanon and Syria, our new friends, the Krans, told us they were going to Armenia. Walter Kran is 100% Armenian, so that made sense for him and his wife, Lisa, to go with the Armenian-American Assembly to the land of his heritage. Of course, Fran and I

said: “Can we go with you?”

Walt said: “Sure, just join the Armenian American Assembly.”

So we paid $100 to join, plus the cost of the trip, and soon found ourselves flying to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. What follows is what we learned about this interesting country, and the semi-au-

tonomous republic of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Genesis, the first book of the Bible, talks about Mount Ararat where Noah landed his ark with two of every creature after the great flood. Mt. Ararat is near Yerevan; on a clear day, you can see it.

Unfortunately, the mountain is located See Armenia and Nagorno page A 10

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Armenia and Nagorno Continued from page A9 in Turkey now. The Christian Bible mentions Armenia several times, probably a transformed word from Ararat. So you can see why the Armenians want Mt. Ararat back in their country.

The Kingdom of Armenia reached its zenith over 2,000 years ago. It was the most powerful nation in this area east of the Roman Empire. The Armenians are proud that their ancestors became the first Christian nation in 301 CE. According to legend, St. Gregory the Illuminator, a devout Christian, was locked in a terrible prison for 13 years. The King of Armenia, Tiridates, suffered from lycanthropy, an unusual psychiatric disorder.

The monarch believed himself to be a wolf, or maybe even a werewolf. The king’s sister heard about Gregory’s knowledge, and summoned him to help the king. Gregory cured King Tiridates, and the king was so grateful that he converted Armenia into the first Christian country. Gregory was appointed bishop to spread the Word. Not only was Armenia a strong nation 2,000 years ago, but it adopted its own alphabet in 405 CE, which it still uses today.

Armenia is located in the Caucasus, kind of between southeast Europe and western Asia, but it has always identified with Europe. Armenia, because of its geography, became subject on and off

This map describes the situation in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region prior to the 2020 war. The region is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but partly governed by the de facto independent Republic of Artsakh.

to the major empires of the day: Byzantines, Sassanian, Seljuk Turks, Mongols, Persians, Ottoman Turks, and the Russian Empire. But the Armenians kept their Eastern Orthodox faith, and reportedly still is the most religious Christian nation. Yet, there is freedom of religion and there are practicing groups of Muslims, Jews, Yazadis, Bahai, Zoroastrians, and others.

During World War I, the Ottoman Empire worried that the Armenians would support their fellow Orthodox Christians, the Russians. Starting in 1915, the Turks subjected the Armenians under their control to a forced deportation; the Turks deprived them of

food and water, and the Armenians were raped, robbed, and massacred.

There were 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 Armenians who died. It was the first genocide of the 20th Century. Turkey still officially denies it.

After WWI, the Republic of Armenia was established, but several years later it became the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. It was under the complete domination of the Soviet Union for 70 years. In 1991, as the USSR broke up, many new independent nations were set up from former satellites, including the new Republic of Armenia. Soon after, Armenia and its neighbor Azerbaijan, See Armenia and Nagorno page A11

ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor “Our lives are over in a blink,” Brett Atlas said. “At the end, we’ll want to know we accomplished what we wanted. If I can inspire anyone to make even the smallest change, my writing will have been worth it.”

That writing came in the form of Three Things Matter Most, which was published this fall.

Bookstores might file Brett’s book under ‘self-help,’ but it is so much more than that. Covering topics like how to say ‘no,’ risking rejection or something called ‘the wireless leash,’ Brett’s book is part psychology, part philosophy, part the voice of an older brother who tells you things you sort of already knew but were unwilling to acknowledge. He talks with the voice of experience and is willing to be vulnerable in doing so. Brett is not speaking from a pedestal; he is in the trenches with the reader and that makes this book remarkably comforting to read.

“This book began as a collection of Post-it notes, journal entries and emails,” he writes in the introduction. “I wanted See Brett Atlas page A13

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Armenia and Nagorno

was. The hotel was ideally located in the main Continued from page A10 started a shooting war over some land owned square of Yerevan. Unfortunately, all the streets

by Armenians who were living in Azerbaijan. were being repaired. Our friend, Lisa Kran, was Every few years the dispute flairs up, the mil- a marathon runner, but the streets being torn itary of both nations fire weapons, and people up prevented her from running. The street fix are killed.

Now Armenia is a small, mountainous, landlocked country. It has about 3 million people. Like many nations, it doesn’t get along with its neighbors. To the west is Turkey, its ancient enemy, the committer of the genocide and holder of Mt. Ararat; Georgia, to the north, which the Armenians consider full of smugglers and thugs (even though Georgians practice the same Orthodox Christianity); to the east, Azerbaijan, Saint Gregory’s cathedral in Yerevan. Credit: Marcin Konsek, liwhich is Moslem and a con- censed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 stant war opponent; and Unported license.

Iran to the south. Armenia seems to get along was being paid for by the MGM magnate and best with Iran, but does so surreptitiously. Ar- man of Armenian descent, Kirk Kerkorian. menians know they depend on the USA and If you see a last name ending in “ian” or “yan,” Armenian-Americans for aid, and don’t want like Kerkorian, chances are excellent that the to jeopardize the friendship of Americans by person’s ancestry is Armenian. Examples are appearing too friendly with Iran. the writer William Saroyan, his kids Aram and Armenia is a quite poor country because of Lucy Saroyan, the Russian composer Aram its landlocked location and topography. Even Khachaturian, and Cher (born Cherilyn Sarkworse, in 1988, a huge earthquake in Armenia isian), the reality TV star Kim Kardashian, and killed 25,000 people. The country is still re- her infamous family. Others Armenian-Amerbuilding from the massive destruction. When icans who have changed their name include we were there, and probably now, there may tennis star Andre Agassi (his father changed it be more Armenians working in Russia than in from Agassian) and our friend, Dr. Walter Armenia.

Kran, who changed it from Krikorian.

The hotel in Yerevan was pretty nice. The Being part of the American Armenian Asmanagement was trying to upgrade it so it sembly group had its benefits. We met with would qualify for a Marriott, and eventually it See Armenia and Nagorno page A12

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In Memoriam: Morris Maline We are saddened to report to you the death on Oct. 22, of Morris Maline z”l. Morris was father to Robert (Karen) and Alan (Mindi), grandfather to Robin and Charlie Maline, and Jeremy and Miles Maline. He is survived by his second wife Harriet Gottlieb, and sister Sue Kasten along with many nieces and nephews.

The funeral took place at Quantico. We appreciate these memories shared by the Maline family: Morris Maline was born in Bridgeport CT on Sept. 1, 1927.

Morris was the second son of Max and Ray Maline. His first job was as a soda jerk at a pharmacy. He often helped his dad with his business delivering baked goods around the Connecticut and New York area. Morris was a corporal in the Army and worked as a pharmacy technician in St. Louis from 1946 through 1948. Morris married his first wife Ruth in 1960. Rob was born in 1962 and Al was born in 1965. The family moved from Connecticut to Framingham, Massachusetts and then to Nebraska where Morris was eventually editor of the Omaha Jewish Press for 19 years. Prior to that, Morris worked in advertising, public relations and for other news publications.

As editor of the Jewish Press, he traveled to Russia, Syria, and Israel. During the Camp David accords, Morris, along with other journalists, was invited to the White House to be briefed

by President Carter.

Morris had several hobbies, and was an avid photographer.

He enjoyed traveling, and had a strong love of family. He especially enjoyed hearing about all his grandchildren.

Morris moved to Del Ray Beach, Florida after Ruth passed away. He was married to his second wife Harriet for almost ten years. Morris will be remembered as a quiet, thoughtful man who was often described as “one of the nicest people I’ve ever met” and described by a family friend as a “light in the darkness for many.”

We know that the Maline family (Alan and Mindi and their children Jeremy and Miles, and Rob and Karen and their children Charlie and Robin) would appreciate your messages of sympathy. May all the generations of Rob and Alan’s extended family be spared any further grief, and be comforted at this time along with all the mourners in Zion and Jerusalem.

Baruch dayan ha-emet.

Armenia and Nagorno Continued from page A11 the Armenian President at the Government offices. That would have been really interesting, but the President spoke with the group in Armenian. That left Fran and me, Lisa Kran, and a couple of other non-Armenian spouses to talk with the other government officials, but those officials didn’t speak English.

We also met with the head of the Armenian Orthodox Church. He had a full beard, flowing black robes, and very impressive Christian jewelry. “Orthodox” translates from its original Greek to “right thinking”. He is called a Metropolitan, which I haven’t figured out why to this day. Other heads of Eastern Orthodox Churches are independent of each other.

They are called Patriarchs, Catholicos, Archbishops, Metropolitans, or even Popes, depending on which country or area.

There are over 200 million Eastern Orthodox adherents in every part of the globe, but less than 3 million in Armenia.

They took us to view and explore ancient churches, monasteries, and other impressive structures in and outside Yerevan. The destruction caused by the earthquake was still to be seen. And, forlornly for the Armenians, we could look at Mt. Ararat on the horizon.

We had a few hours to ourselves one day and went to visit the Jewish Community Center in Yerevan. Accompanying us was Lily, one of the spouses of the Armenian-American men.

She had been born Jewish, but had never practiced Judaism.

Still, Lily was curious about her birth religion as practiced here. The JCC was two large rooms in an old government building. The head of the JCC was Aram. He was a chemist for his regular job. He showed us around.

Aram said: “We don’t have a rabbi, but have Sabbath services. Someone gives Hebrew lessons so young people can have their Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. But there are not many Jews, maybe 500, left in Yerevan.”

Before independence, there were several thousand Jews in Armenia. Because of the very poor economic conditions, most have emigrated to Israel. Others work in Russia. We left a nice donation.

A Chabad was also established several years ago. We called and made an appointment. A caretaker showed us around the small building.

NAGORNO-KARABAKH When Armenia and Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republics got their independence from the USSR in 1991, they soon started a war over areas where Armenians were living in Azerbaijan. The region is called Nagorno-Karabakh, and the conflict has continued on and off for 30 years, including a resumption of hostilities in the fall of 2020. After the initial conflict in 1991, the Armenians gained control over most of it, and set up an autonomous republic. But no countries except Armenia recognize Nagorno-Karabakh (or the Republic of Artsakh, as its officially called) as an independent nation.

When we met with the American Ambassador to Armenia in Yerevan, he told us quietly that neither the USA nor any other countries would give Nagorno Karabakh diplomatic recognition. There are several other quasi-independent countries around the world, including Northern Cyprus (recognized only by Turkey), Western Sahara (claimed by Morocco), Trans-Dneistra (ethnic Russians living between See Armenia and Nagorno page A13

The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021 | A13

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Brett Atlas

Continued from page A10 to develop a repository of generational wisdom for my kids to have. I like solving puzzles and I have always wanted to figure out life, because that is the biggest puzzle of all.

When my father died, I asked myself what was left of what he taught me. I look at my kids now and I want them to benefit from what I learned.

Brett Atlas Also, I wanted to write it to see if I could do it—and I hope it inspires people to think.”

Three major things, time, relationships and money, are what provide the book with its structure; as Brett discussed how we spend each of those assets, he delves deep into what makes them important. “I think their respective levels of importance are not what most people think they are,” he said.

“I also believe the overlaps, how we choose to incorporate all three, are key to happiness.

The true measure of wealth is in the quality of our relationships,” he wrote, but then goes on to say that it all begins with “the relationship we have with ourselves.” The underlying message? We all have work to do, and we need to look inward as well as outside ourselves while doing it.

“Writing this was important to me, because until you understand who you are, you can’t have meaningful relationships,” he said. “However, as we live, who we are is constantly changing, so this is not an easy thing. Sometimes we know ourselves today, but we may not know ourselves in the future.”

He’s fascinated with failure, and the specific type of growth it can produce. He’s also fascinated with what really matters; one of the biggest questions the book asks is what matters most to the reader? The book also includes action exercises to help you answer some of the questions Brett poses.

Read more in Brett Atlas’ Three Things Matter Most, linking time, relationships and money, available from Addicus Books.com and on Amazon.

In February of 2022, Brett will give a book talk as part of the new Author series, a collaboration between Community Engagement and the Jewish Press. Keep an eye out for more details!

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were and inflicting serious damage.

Continued from page A12 Moldova and Ukraine), and the I’ve heard conflicting stories Caucasian breakaway “nations” of whether the drones were from IsSouth Ossetia and Abkhazia. rael or Turkey. Regardless, they inWe flew in an old Russian miliflicted such harm on the Armenian tary helicopter from Yerevan to the military that the Prime Minister of Armenia agreed to a Moscow-brocapital of Stepanakert. Frankly, we kered peace pact where Armenia didn’t know if we’d make it; not beceded three significant areas of cause of the possible military conNagorno-Karabakh. The people of flict below, but because of the age Armenia were so upset that they and condition of the helicopter. protested and demanded the resigNagorno Karabakh is a very poor renation of their prime minister. gion, and Stepanakert looked like it President Joe Biden just officially had been bombed and never rerecognized the Turkish genocide of built. We were told not to walk off the Armenian people. the road for a good reason: there Some people of Armenia excould be live land mines waiting to pressed to us their desire to be like explode. another nation: Israel! Both counSadly, the only decent paying job tries are surrounded by hostile in Stepanakert was working for neighbors, both are small and have HALO, a Dutch non-profit organization. The occupation was to be a Katoghike Holy Mother of God Church in Yerevan, very little natural resources. Both human mine detector! The army Armenia. Credit: Armenak Margarian, licensed under are ancient kingdoms. But Israel mine detectors were not accurate the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 In- has thrived, partly because it borders on the Mediterranean Sea enough, so they had these people ternational license. crawling through fields with long hand-held detection devices. while Armenia is landlocked. Both have well-educated peoWe were told that through good training none of the people ple, but many Armenians have emigrated elsewhere or work with that job had been killed, but I wouldn’t want that job no in Russia. Israel has produced an economic wonder and a strong military. Armenia has neither. matter what the pay.

It was an amazing visit to a wonderful country. At the Update: in late September, 2020, Azerbaijan attacked Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia’s army, supplied with Russian farewell dinner, in Armenian, I got up and said, “Yes Chay Am” weapons, fought back. In six weeks, 5,000 soldiers and 200 (“I am an Armenian”). I meant it.

For more of the journeys, go to: franandrichstravels. com. civilians were killed. The deciding factor was that Azerbaijan had military drones indicating where the Armenian soldiers

98

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We let our kids plan Hanukkah this year — and it taught me so much about the holiday

HANNAH LEBOVITS JTA When I go out with my kids, we often play a homemade game called, “I spy with my little eye something very Yiddish.” The kids pick up on anything related to the practices, laws and symbolism of Jewish tradition.

See two triangles that almost look like they could be a Star of David? You win a point! A mezuzah on someone’s door? Two points! It’s a great way for them to secure their sense of identity and see themselves in the things around them.

In prior years, during Hanukkah, the game reached silly levels. Living in a Jewish community near a major city, there are just so many things to find that relate to our lives. Menorahs in windows after sunset, any random donut shop, even a bag of potatoes in the grocery store.

But last year, with the pandemic making this kind of urban exploration impossible or impractical, I realized something. Playing it outside of our home meant that my kids take the Jewish items inside of our home for granted. And when preparing for Hanukkah, this became especially clear.

Because the truth is, I’ve outsourced the Hanukkah experience more than any other holiday. And many of my fellow parents have done the same. Unlike most major Jewish hol-

A festive Hanukkah banner Credit: Hannah Lebovits

idays, Hanukkah doesn’t require any school vacation days. And though one day of Purim can also be celebrated in school, Hanukkah is eight days long. And those days are some of the most enjoyable. Regular academic practices are replaced with school trips, fun activities and, of course, lots of junk.

Community events are early enough in the day, with menorah lighting happening at around 5 p.m., that even young kids can enjoy public affairs. The spiritual meaning of the holiday and its timing with Christmas make it incredibly visible as well. So it makes sense that many of us end up relying on others to make

Hanukkah fun, meaningful and celebratory.

But last year, our home had become our community. We had to learn how to adapt and bring what we could from our normal communal structures into our homes. We learned a lot along the way about what is most meaningful to our family, about how we want our communal spaces to change in the future, and how we can keep holiday traditions alive even when we aren’t with our families and communities.

But I hadn’t quite figured out how to do that on Hanukkah. Our kids were in school but were restricted in how they could celebrate

there. Communal activities were out of the question. We had previously travelled over Shabbat Hanukkah, which was no longer an option either.

And then it hit me.

We can do anything. The beauty of this holiday — and especially of experiencing it amidst a global pandemic —is that we have the opportunity to make it our own. Eight full days to play as many games of dreidel, eat as many latkes and sing as many songs as we’d like. It’s an incredibly freeing feeling. Like the lights of the menorah, the possibilities can expand what we might have expected.

So, with this newfound knowledge, I turned to my go-to fun advisory board: my kids. They requested a parade, dessert for dinner, dreidel with Hanukkah gelt (instead of just chocolate chips), a game night, and something to put outside of our home to show the world what we’re celebrating.

My kids’ last request gave me pause. The idea of decorating the outside of our home was incredibly foreign to me. While I myself had grown up in an area with many brightly lit homes on the block, in my Orthodox Jewish upbringing I was often taught that the practice was exclusively for those celebrating Christmas, and that we should be proud of our own holiday and its traditions, which did See We let our kids plan Hanukkah page A15

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We let our kids plan Hanukkah Continued from page A14 not include decorating the outside of our home. My husband came from a similar background and understood my discomfort.

So, we made a compromise with the kids — we put something up, but it wouldn’t be lights. And it wouldn’t be a Christmas decoration that’s Jew-ified. It would be something that suited us and our holiday. We settled on a large Hanukkahthemed backdrop to hang across the front of our house. We figured that not only could others admire it, but they could use it as a selfie background, if they so chose (#happy Hanukkah).

I don’t know if we’ll celebrate like this in future years. Most of my list of Hanukkah activities is so candy-filled that they might not be ideal for a year when the kids get donuts in school, chocolate at a public menorah lighting and cake from bubbe over Shabbat.

But I am certain that I’ve experienced a paradigm shift — a different perspective that I couldn’t reach during any other

holiday we’ve experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While preparing for and managing the other holidays, I had intuitively understood that many things inside of our home would not change. That those things that would be done differently revolved around the ways that we engage with others —services, having guests, visiting family. But when it comes to Hanukkah, we realized we didn’t have much inside our home. The small activities we engaged in were dwarfed by the communal and institutional ones.

We now see it as our home’s duty to directly engage with the holiday, in a way we never have. And I know that’s something we’ll try to hold on to for a very long time.

Hannah Lebovits is an incoming assistant professor at the University of Texas- Arlington. Her research and teaching efforts focus on urban policy, public administration, and social sustainability. She is also a freelance writer and has written for local and national publications. She lives in Dallas with her husband and two children.

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A16 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021

Flood Communications expands to Central Nebraska

Flood Communications announced that it purchased Platte River Radio, which owns KHAS, ESPN Tri-Cities, KLIQ-FM The Breeze and KKPR-FM Power 99. The expansion makes Flood Communications the largest broadcast company in the state of Nebraska. The company now owns 15 radio stations and seven TV stations.

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State Senator Rich Pahls Paid for by Friends of Rich Pahls, 15422 Holmes Plaza, Omaha, NE 68137

Wishing your family a Happy Hanukkah.

Congressman Adrian Smith

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Flood Communications is proud to welcome the entire Platte River Radio team to our statewide effort with a total staff of over 150 hardworking Nebraska broadcasters. “You’re not truly a “statewide” media without a significant presence in the Tri-Cities. This grows our company right in the heart of Nebraska.” Said Flood Communications CEO Andy Ruback.

“We believe in bringing people and information together.

This partnership in Central Nebraska allows us to share more local stories on radio, television and in digital media about the people that make the Tri-Cities a great place to live and to do business,” Flood Communications Founder Mike Flood said in a news release.

“We are honored that longtime owners Craig Eckert and Dave Oldfather and his family have the confidence to partner with Flood Communications and News Channel Nebraska to serve the community with important news, weather and sports information,” said Ruback News Channel Nebraska is the only in-state, independent television network of its kind in America. The network provides hyper-local news, weather, sports and live coverage of high school sports and other community events.

Flood Communications’ recent acquisitions build on the media organization’s robust growth. Earlier this year Flood Communications was named to the prestigious, Inc. 5000 fastest growing companies in America list. In 2019 Flood Communications acquired panhandle radio stations KSID AM/FM, and added a western Nebraska news bureau. In 2018, Flood Communications launched Telemundo Nebraska TV affiliates across Nebraska.

Telemundo Nebraska is the state’s first network affiliate to deliver local Spanish news to Nebraska’s 250,000 Hispanic residents.

The deal is expected to close in early 2022, subject to customary regulatory approvals.

‘Sexiest Man Alive’ GABE FRIEDMAN JTA Paul Rudd, the Jewish movie star whose original family name was Rudnitsky, was named People magazine’s “sexiest man alive” in 2021.

He responded to the magazine with the signature sense of humility that has helped endear him to fans — in addition to his good looks — for over two decades of mostly comedic roles.

“When I think about myself, I think of myself as a husband and a father, like I’m that,” he said in the article. “I just hang out with my family when I’m Paul Rudd attends the New not working. That’s what I kind York premiere of The Shrink Next Door at The Morgan of like the most.”

“There are so many people Library, Oct. 28, 2021. that should get this before me,” Credit: Alexi J. Rosenfeld/ Getty Images he added.

Rudd, 52, was born to English Jewish parents, and learned about the antisemitism their ancestors faced on the PBS genealogy series Finding Your Roots in 2017. Rudd said he grew up largely detached from religion but experienced some antisemitism himself as a kid growing up in Missouri and Kansas.

Before he made a name for himself in blockbuster comedies such as Anchorman and Knocked Up, Rudd was briefly a bar and bat mitzvah DJ — he even spun the tunes at the coming-of-age party for former JTA editor Gabrielle Birkner.

Rudd has played a few Jewish roles, notably the former catcher and war spy Moe Berg in a feature film. His next big role is a very Jewish one: he will star as Dr. Isaac “Ike” Herschkopf in the Apple+ TV adaptation of The Shrink Next Door, a 2019 reported podcast about a Jewish psychiatrist plugged into the New York Jewish community who takes over the life of one of his Jewish patients.

The list of famous Jews formerly named “sexiest man alive” is short — pop star Adam Levine was given the honor in 2013, while actor Harrison Ford was given the title in 1998.

The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021 | A17

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Women’s Western Wall service interrupted

of the haredi Shas party, calling on “everyone for whom the PHILISSA CRAMER sanctity of the Western Wall is important to come and pray with JTA Women of the Wall’s monthly prayer service at the Western us, so that, God forbid, the holy place will not be desecrated.”

Wall in Jerusalem was disrupted yet again by protesters, a day Ahead of Friday’s service, after the organization in charge after former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amplified of the Western Wall said that it could not guarantee the site’s the protesters’ cause. safety, Israeli President Women of the Wall, a Isaac Herzog asked memgroup that organizes a bers of the Knesset who women’s prayer service at planned to join the demonthe holy site on the first day strations on both sides to of each Hebrew month, has stay home. All but one of long faced opposition from the Orthodox members Orthodox Jews who seek to who had said they would prevent the service. For join the protest stayed years, the Orthodox proaway. So did Gilad Kariv, the testers have regularly heckfirst Reform rabbi to hold a led and at times physically seat in Knesset, who wrote attacked the group and on Twitter, “Once again it tried to stop them from was made clear which is the bringing in religious items, Security guards confront members of the Women of the Wall move- side that believes in comment during Rosh Hodesh prayers at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, promise and negotiability including Torahs.

An agreement signed in Nov. 5, 2021. Credit: Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90 and which is the forceful 2016 aimed to end the clashes by creating a prayer space for and violent side.” non-Orthodox groups at the site. But Netanyahu, then the On Friday morning, Women of the Wall waited for an exprime minister, suspended the agreement the following year. tended period at the security checkpoint to enter the Kotel Israel’s new government is seen as likely to implement the Plaza while guards inspected the religious paraphernalia they deal, which one activist described as “low-hanging fruit” for sought to bring inside. Once inside, the group held a service the government. So far, however, no action has been taken. at the site.

In 2017, even as he suspended the deal under pressure from “We smuggled in a Torah scroll but were of course not alhis haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, allies, Netanyahu claimed to lowed to bring it into the women’s section,” the group wrote support a compromise solution at the holy site. on Facebook. “Security surrounded them in attempts to take But he was ousted as prime minister earlier this year, and the scroll. A mob surrounded the group and eventually physneeds the support of Israel’s haredi parties to return to power. ically pushed them out from the plaza. We were unable to read This week, he retweeted a message from Aryeh Deri, the leader from the Torah this morning.”

Synagogues

A18 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021

B’NAI ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

618 Mynster Street Council Bluffs, IA 51503-0766 712.322.4705 email: CBsynagogue@hotmail.com

BETH EL SYNAGOGUE

Member of United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism 14506 California Street Omaha, NE 68154-1980 402.492.8550 bethel-omaha.org

BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

Member of Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America 12604 Pacific Street Omaha, NE. 68154 402.556.6288 BethIsrael@OrthodoxOmaha.org

CHABAD HOUSE

An Affiliate of Chabad-Lubavitch 1866 South 120 Street Omaha, NE 68144-1646 402.330.1800 OChabad.com email: chabad@aol.com

LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY: B’NAI JESHURUN

South Street Temple Union for Reform Judaism 2061 South 20th Street Lincoln, NE 68502-2797 402.435.8004 www.southstreettemple.org

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE

Capehart Chapel 2500 Capehart Road Offutt AFB, NE 68123 402.294.6244 email: oafbjsll@icloud.com

ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME

323 South 132 Street Omaha, NE 68154 rbjh.com

TEMPLE ISRAEL

Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) 13111 Sterling Ridge Drive Omaha, NE 68144-1206 402.556.6536 templeisraelomaha.com

LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY: TIFERETH ISRAEL

Member of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism 3219 Sheridan Boulevard Lincoln, NE 68502-5236 402.423.8569 tiferethisraellincoln.org

B’NAI ISRAEL Join us via Zoom on Friday, Dec. 10, 7:30 p.m. for evening services. Our service leader is Larry Blass.

Everyone is always welcome at B’nai Israel!

For information on our historic synagogue, please contact Howard Kutler at hkutler@hotmail.com or any of our other board members: Scott Friedman, Rick Katelman, Janie Kulakofsky, Carole and Wayne Lainof, Mary-Beth Muskin, Debbie Salomon and Sissy Silber.

Handicap Accessible.

BETH EL Virtual services conducted by Rabbi Steven Abraham and Hazzan Michael Krausman.

VIRTUAL AND IN-PERSON MINYAN SCHEDULE: Mornings on Sundays, 9:30 a.m.; Mondays and Thursdays, 7 a.m.; Evenings on Sunday-Thursday, 5:30 p.m.

FRIDAY: Nebraska AIDS Coalition Lunch, 11:30 a.m.; Kabbalat Shabbat, 6 p.m. at Beth El & Live Stream.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Morning Services, 10 a.m. at Beth El & Live Stream; Jr. Congregation (Grades 3-7), 10 a.m.; Havdalah, 5:35 p.m. Zoom only.

SUNDAY: Siddur 101 with Hazzan Krausman following morning minyan; BESTT (Grades K-7), 9:30 a.m.; Torah Study, 10 a.m.; Thanksgiving with St. Luke and Urban Abbey, 6 p.m. at St. Luke.

TUESDAY: Mussar, 11:30 a.m. with Rabbi Abraham at Beth El & Zoom; Board of Trustees Meeting, 7 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: No BESTT or Hebrew High.

FRIDAY-Nov. 26: Kabbalat Shabbat, 6 p.m. at Beth El & Live Stream.

SATURDAY-Nov. 27: Shabbat Morning Services, 10 a.m. at Beth El & Live Stream; Havdalah, 5:40 p.m.

Zoom only.

Please visit bethel-omaha.org for additional information and service links.

BETH ISRAEL Virtual services conducted by Rabbi Ari Dembitzer.

Classes, Kabbalat Shabbat and Havdalah on Zoom, WhatsApp or Facebook Live. On site services held outside in pergola, weather permitting. Physical distancing and masks required.

FRIDAY: Nach Yomi — Daily Prophets, 6:45 a.m. with Rabbi Ari (WhatsApp); Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Deeping Our Prayer, 7:45 a.m. with Rabbi Ari (Zoom); Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbos/Candlelighting, 4:44 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Kollel, 8:30 a.m. with Rabbi Yoni; Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Tot Shabbat, 10:45 a.m. with Shiran Dreyer; Daf Yomi, 4 p.m. with Rabbi Yoni; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 4:40 p.m.; Laws of Shabbos, 5 p.m. with Rabbi Ari; Kids Class, 5:10 p.m. with Rabbi Yoni; Havdalah, 5:46 p.m.

SUNDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Hebrew Café, 10 a.m.; Daf Yomi, 4 p.m. with Rabbi Yoni; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 4:40 p.m.

MONDAY: Nach Yomi — Daily Prophets, 6:45 a.m. with Rabbi Ari (WhatsApp); Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Deeping Our Prayer, 7:45 a.m. with Rabbi Ari (Zoom); Daf Yomi, 4 p.m. with Rabbi Yoni; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 4:40 p.m.

TUESDAY: Nach Yomi — Daily Prophets, 6:45 a.m. with Rabbi Ari (WhatsApp); Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Deeping Our Prayer, 7:45 a.m. with Rabbi Ari (Zoom); Kids Class, 3:45 p.m. with Rabbi Yoni; Daf Yomi, 4 p.m.

with Rabbi Yoni; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 4:40 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Nach Yomi — Daily Prophets, 6:45 a.m. with Rabbi Ari (WhatsApp); Shacharit, 7 a.m.; Deeping Our Prayer, 7:45 a.m. with Rabbi Ari (Zoom); Daf Yomi, 4 p.m. with Rabbi Yoni; Mincha/ Ma’ariv, 4:40 p.m.

THURSDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Daf Yomi, 4 p.m. with Rabbi Yoni; Mincha/Ma’ariv, 4:40 p.m.

FRIDAY-Nov. 26: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbos/Candlelighting, 4:40 p.m.

SATURDAY-Nov. 27: Shabbat Kollel, 8:30 a.m.; Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Tot Shabbat, 10:45 a.m. with Shiran Dreyer; Daf Yomi, 3:50 p.m. with Rabbi Yoni; Mincha/ Ma’ariv, 4:30 p.m.; Laws of Shabbos, 4:50 p.m. with Rabbi Ari; Kids Class, 5 p.m. with Rabbi Yoni; Havdalah, 5:43 p.m.

Please visit orthodoxomaha.org for additional information and Zoom service links.

CHABAD HOUSE All services are in-person. All classes are being offered in-person/Zoom hybrid (Ochabad.com/classroom). For more information or to request help, please visit www.ochabad.com or call the office at 402.330.1800.

FRIDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Inspirational Lechayim, 4:30 p.m. with Rabbi and friends: ochabad.com/Le chayim; Candlelighting, 4:43 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shacharit, 10 a.m. followed by Kiddush and Cholent; Shabbat Ends, 5:45 p.m.

SUNDAY: Shacharit, 9 a.m.; Parsha and Coffee, 9:45 a.m.

MONDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Personal Parsha Class, 9:30 a.m. with Shani Katzman; Advanced Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 10:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen.

TUESDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Virtual Pirkei Avot Women’s Class, 7 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Mystical Thinking (Tanya), 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Katzman; Introductory Biblical Hebrew Grammar, 10:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Introduction to Hebrew Reading, 11:30 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen.

THURSDAY: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Advanced Hebrew Class, 11 a.m. with Prof. David Cohen; Talmud Study (Sanhedrin 18 — No advance experience necessary), noon with Rabbi Katzman.

FRIDAY-Nov. 26: Shacharit, 8 a.m.; Inspirational Lechayim, 4:30 p.m. with Rabbi and friends: ochab ad.com/Lechayim; Candlelighting, 4:39 p.m.

SATURDAY-Nov. 27: Shacharit, 10 a.m. followed by Kiddush and Cholent; Shabbat Ends, 5:41 p.m.

LINCOLN JEWISH COMMUNITY: B’NAI JESHURUN & TIFERETH ISRAEL Services facilitated by Rabbi Alex Felch.

Note: Some of our services, but not all, are now being offered in person.

FRIDAY: Kabbalat Shabbat Service, service leaders/music: Rabbi Alex with LCJS Students, Nathaniel and Steve Kaup, 6:30 p.m. at SST; Candlelighting, 4:47 p.m.

SATURDAY: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Alex at TI; Torah Study on Parashat Vayislach, noon; Havdalah, 5:48 p.m.

SUNDAY: LJCS Classes, 9:30 a.m.; Men's Jewish Bike

Group of Lincoln meets Sundays at 10 a.m. rain or shine to ride to one of The Mill locations from Hanson Ct. (except we drive if its too wet, cold, cloudy, windy, hot or humid) followed by coffee and spirited discussions. No fee to join, no dues, no president, no board or minutes taken. If Interested please email Al Weiss at albertw801@gmail.com to find out where to meet each week; Jewish Book Club, 1:30 p.m. will discuss one of the “ ___day the Rabbi…” book series by Harry Kemelman via Zoom; Come learn and play Pickleball, 7-9 p.m. at Peterson Park. Everyone is welcome; just wear comfortable clothes and tennis or gym shoes. If you need a paddle, contact Miriam Wallick by email at Miriam57 @aol.com or by text at 402.470.2393 before Sunday.

TUESDAY: Tea & Coffee with Pals, 1:30 p.m. via Zoom.

WEDNESDAY: No LJCS Classes THURSDAY: Synagogue Offices Closed for Thanksgiving.

FRIDAY-Nov. 26: Kabbalat Shabbat Service, service leaders/music: Rabbi Alex with Elaine Monnier, 6:30 p.m. at SST; Candlelighting, 4:43 p.m.

SATURDAY-Nov. 27: Shabbat Morning Service, 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Alex at TI; Torah Study on Parashat Vayeshev, noon; Havdalah, 5:45 p.m.

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE

FRIDAY: Virtual Shabbat Service, 7:30 p.m. every first and third of the month at Capehart Chapel. Contact TSgt Jason Rife at OAFBJSLL@icloud.com for more information.

ROSE BLUMKIN JEWISH HOME The Rose Blumkin Jewish Home‘s service is currently closed to visitors.

TEMPLE ISRAEL

In-person and virtual services conducted by Rabbi Brian Stoller, Rabbi Deana Sussman Berezin and Cantor Joanna Alexander.

DAILY VIRTUAL MINYAN: Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. via Zoom.

FRIDAY: Tot Shabbat, 5:45 p.m.; Classic Shabbat Service: Antisemitism: Ancient Plague, Modern Threat, 6 p.m. via Zoom or In-Person.

SATURDAY: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m. via Zoom or InPerson.

SUNDAY: Interfaith Thanksgiving Service, 5 p.m. at at First Christian Church, 6630 Dodge St. Join us InPerson; No Youth Learning Programs.

MONDAY: Jewish Law & the Quest for Meaning, 11 a.m. via Zoom.

WEDNESDAY: No Youth Learning Programs.

THURSDAY: Temple Israel Office Closed for Thanksgiving.

FRIDAY-Nov. 26: Temple Israel Office Closed for Thanksgiving; Shabbat B’yachad: Antisemitism: Ancient Plague, Modern Threat, 6 p.m. via Zoom or InPerson.

SATURDAY-Nov. 27: Torah Study, 9:15 a.m. via Zoom or In-Person.

Please visit templeisraelomaha.com for additional information and Zoom service links.

Israel to speed up evacuations of Ethiopians in midst of civil war SHIRA HANAU AND ANDREW LAPIN JTA Israel is set to speed up its evacuations of some of the relatives of Ethiopian Israelis who remain in the country in the midst of an escalating civil war.

The news comes just a week after Sigd, an Ethiopian Jewish holiday that historically was marked with prayers for God to return the Jewish people to Israel Those who have first-degree relatives in Israel, a category that was approved for evacuation in an agreement made in 2015 will be evacuated more quickly. That group will number at least 3,000, Ynet reported.

But there are thousands more Ethiopian Jews waiting to immigrate. Members of the same family may not be able to get to Israel together if they were not all the on the list approved in 2015.

Over the past year, Ethiopia has been the site of a bloody civil war between fighters in the rebel Tigray Army and Ethiopian nationalist forces, backed by

troops from neighboring Eritrea. More than 10,000 Jewish tribes not recognized by Israel that seek to people have been killed in the fighting, according remain in their country while practicing Judaism.

Most of the remaining Ethiopian Jews are conto estimates from the United Nations and aid groups, and numerous war crimes have been documented on both sides, including frequent rapes of women and children. Recently, the president of Ethiopia encouraged civilians to arm themselves.

In the 30 years since Israel covertly airlifted more than 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to the country as part of Operation Solomon, more than 8,000 Jews officially recognized by the Israeli government have remained stranded in Ethiopia, their pleas for asylum were placed in limbo, even as some have had family Ethiopians are reunited with their families at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, Feb. 4, 2019. Credit: Tomer Neuberg/Flash90 members resettle in Israel.

The war has particularly compounded problems centrated in the capital city of Addis Ababa, which for those Jews stuck in Ethiopia. Activists in Israel is also a major site of the fighting. Many are scared say the actual number of Jews in Ethiopia requiring about a potential total collapse of the country’s asylum is closer to 12,000; there are also Ethiopian government.

Life cycles LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Dear Editor, I was very appreciative of Matthew Cohen’s article titled My Body, My Choice is not a Jewish Value. He spoke very clearly and compassionately from a Hebraic and Biblically inspired perspective on the protection we should provide for unborn human life at all stages. It is hard to get more Jewish about this issue than our brother and patriarch David from Psalm 139: “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the secret places of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.”

Mark Klafter

BIRTH SYLVIE JEAN BARBARA MALASHOCK Michelle and Ryan Malashock of Minneapolis, MN, announce the Oct. 25, 2021 birth of their daughter, Sylvie Jean Barbara.

She is named for her grandmother, Sheryl Burhenn, greatgrandfather, Stanley Malashock, aunt, Jessica Burhenn and great-grandmother, Barbara Malashock.

She has a brother, Foster.

Grandparents are Jody and Neal (Buzz) Malashock of Omaha, Russell Burhenn of Hoisington, KS, and the late Sheryl Burhenn.

The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021 | A19

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A20 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021

Happy Hanukkah LET THE LIGHT SHINE BRIGHT IN OMAHA

B1 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021

Hanukkah SECTION 2

The author of The Matzah Ball, a Hanukkah novel, wants Jews to read more romance PHILISSA CRAMER JTA Jean Meltzer always knew how The Matzah Ball, her first novel, would end.

“The rule of romance is that there has to be a happy ending; the characters have to get together,” Meltzer told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “If they don’t get together, that’s not a romance; that’s literary fiction.”

So (not-really-a-spoiler alert) it was a foregone conclusion that protagonist Rachel RubensteinGoldblatt, a best-selling Christmas-themed romance writer who has kept her career from her observant Jewish parents, would wind up with Jacob Greenberg, her Camp Ahava crush who is now throwing the glitziest Hanukkah party New York City has ever seen.

But while Rachel and Jacob’s love story conforms to the conventions of the romance novel, Meltzer sees it as subverting traditional Jewish stories that more often dwell on the difficulty or danger of being Jewish.

“I wanted to write a book for Jews where the heroes were sexy, where the men were strong, where the women were beautiful, where they got their happy ending,” said Meltzer, a self-proclaimed rabbinical school dropout and Christmas junkie.

Meltzer also wanted to spotlight a character who, like her, struggles with chronic illness. Rachel’s myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, is invisible to those who don’t know her

THIS

but shapes her life in every way, much as it has for Meltzer, who was diagnosed as a young adult and describes herself as “basically homebound.”

novels to shape Jewish identity.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Jean Meltzer aimed to subvert traditional Jewish stories in her debut novel The Matzah Ball. Credit: Lisa Damico/Mira Books; collage and illustration by Grace Yagel

Meltzer spoke to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency from her silver-tinsel-draped home office in Northern Virginia about the impetus behind The Matzah Ball, why she believes the Hanukkah bush has a place in Jewish homes and the power of romance

JTA: Why did you decide to write this book and what are you hoping to achieve with it?

Meltzer: I’ve always been a nice Jewish girl who loves Christmas. And every year I go into, say, See The Matzah Ball page B2

Hanukkah,

be the light IN

Hanukkah brings light into our lives at a dark time of the year. When you make a donation to the

SOMEONE'S LIFE.

Jewish Federation and the Jewish Federation Foundation, you share the light with those who need it most right now. Help a child attend our Early Learning Center or JCC Summer Camp or provide them a Jewish book, deliver hot meals to the homebound, support our seniors staying active and engaged.

Your Campaign gift does that and so much more.

Or consider a permanent endowment at the Foundation to serve as a lasting gift for this and future generations.

Be the light. Please contact us!

Jennifer Tompkins, JFO Executive Director of Community Philanthropy & Engagement 402-334-6435 • jtompkins@jewishomaha.org Howard Epstein, Foundation Executive Director 402-334-6466 • hepstein@jewishomaha.org

MIKE SIEGEL, PRESIDENT

BOB BELGRADE, PRESIDENT

ALAN POTASH, CEO

HOWARD EPSTEIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

B2 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021

The Matzah Ball Continued from page B1 Target, and there’s a holiday display with all of the Christmas books. Year after year, I went looking for a Hanukkah book, and there never was one. I just wanted to see myself represented on that table. I could envision it: a blue and white book in the sea of red and green.

I also had an experience where my 7-year-old niece was sitting on my lap and she looked at me and she goes Auntie Jean, you have a big nose, and big noses are ugly. She goes to Jewish day school, she’s surrounded by strong Jewish women, and I thought, where did she get this message?

So when I sat down to write this book, I wanted to do something different from the stories I had grown up with, which were Holocaust stories, stories where Jews were being taken hostage by terrorists — you never really saw us as the heroes of their own stories. I wanted to write a book for Jews where the heroes were sexy, where the men were strong, where the women were beautiful, where they got their happy ending. I wrote this book primarily for myself, but it was really out of a desire to sort of just create a different type of Jewish story.

I think we all know that antisemitism is a growing problem.

I didn’t want to add to that. I wanted to write the best of my community. I wanted to write the best of Shabbat dinners that I’ve been to, the best of Jewish mothers, the best of Jewish friendships, and all the fun of living in the Jewish world. I wanted people to see Jews in a different light.

In the literary world, the #OwnVoices movement has argued that stories about communities and cultures should be written by people from those communities and cultures. There’s also backlash to this idea from those who say it deprives writers of the power to invent and may cause writers to be pigeonholed. How do you see your work fitting into this debate?

Having worked with non-Jewish editors and seeing how

people have reacted to the book, I can see now that I think in a very Jewish worldview that is very different from how the rest of the world thinks. Things that I sort of take for granted and nuances that I thought everybody would sort of understand, I had to realize and learn that that was not the case.

Listen, I’m a writer. I love writing. Any writer should be able to write any story. But I really think there is something to #OwnVoices. You would have to do years and years and years of research, I think, to write a book like The Matzah Ball, if you didn’t have the experience. I think there’s absolutely something to be said for #OwnVoices.

The book is very thoroughly Jewish — not just the characters and setting but the text, which is peppered with references to the Talmud and other Jewish texts.

Who do you see as the audience?

At the end of the day I don’t know who the audience will be but I will tell you that absolutely non-Jews have picked up the book. Debbie Macomber is the queen of Christmas romance: She fell in love with the book, and not only gave me a blurb but she did my launch event recently.

The first international territory my book sold to was Sweden, which again is a place that you don’t think has a huge Jewish population, and it’s going to be [the publisher’s] Christmas lead in 2022. So, obviously, the book is resonating with non-Jewish readers and I think it’s been resonating with Jewish readers as well, which is the ultimate hope — that it reaches who it needs to reach.

Your story is about a celebration of holiday aesthetics, but there’s also a moment where the characters realize that a bunch of dreidels and menorahs just don’t have a glitzy effect. The Christmas aesthetic is so well developed, and there are so many variations on it. Why do you think the Jewish holiday aesthetic is so much less developed?

See Matzah Ball page B3

American Girl releases Hanukkah outfit and gift set for dolls, part of ‘Cultural Celebration Collection’

SHIRA HANAU JTA For Jewish fans of American Girl dolls, Hanukkah came early this year.

Last week, the popular doll company released a new set of holiday doll outfits and accessories to diversify its holiday outfits. Kids can now dress up their dolls in special outfits for Eid Al-Fitr, Diwali, the Lunar New Year, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah.

The new holiday outfits come with a booklet explaining the significance of each of the holidays.

The Hanukkah outfit includes a sparkly blue dress, silver shoes, a head band, and a Star of David neck- American Girl unveiled a doll lace. In addition to the outfit for Hanukkah complete clothing, priced at $36, fans with a sparkly blue dress, silver of the dolls can also pur- shoes, a head band, and a Star of chase a Hanukkah gift set David necklace. Credit: American that includes a menorah, Girl See American Girl page B3

Wishing the Omaha community

Happy Hanukkah from

Karoline S. Anderson | John Andresen | Marie Belin Thomas M. Byrne | Kimberly Christner | Michael D. Cohen Kurt A. Davey | Mary C. Dek | Elizabeth Larson | Patrick J. Steinauer 18018 Burke Street | Omaha, NE 68022 | Corner of 180th and Burke | 402.573.7337

The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021 | B3

The Matzah Ball

Continued from page B2 I did not grow up in a family that had any type of Christmas or Hanukkah decor, but I love it now. Every year I start sort of scouring for, like, a new Hanukkah inflatable for the lawn, and every year it’s impossible to find something that’s good, that doesn’t look just like a tchotchke on my lawn. Even so, I’m very proud of my outdoor display — we have gone insane. We have giant blow-ups and we put up lights and it’s gotten to a point where people literally drive to see it.

In Jewish law, there are prohibitions against mimicking your foreign neighbors and things like that. So growing up I think that was very strong: There was a fear of assimilation and that having a Christmas tree, we were all going to go off and marry non-Jews and not be Jewish anymore. For me, I feel like I’ve done the work Jewishly, and I am very comfortable in my Judaism. So I don’t feel like the Hanukkah bush is going to be my slippery slope that’s going to push me over the edge and change my belief system.

But there is also a commandment of beautifying your holy objects, and then the commandment for Hanukkah lights is that you’re supposed to publicize the miracle, right? I’m not a rabbi, but you can maybe make an argument [in favor of Hanukkah lawn displays].

I’ve always been a person who likes pretty things, and especially with chronic illness and in the middle of a pandemic, holding on to my joy is such a big part of my life. And when I walk and it’s nighttime and the lights are twinkling, I feel it in my kishkes. It just makes me feel good.

If you were to pick a favorite moment in the book or the writing process, one that felt like a peak moment for you, what would it be and why?

The hardest thing for me to write, or what I think was the most important thing, was the bedazzled wheelchair. [Jacob sends a sparkly wheelchair to Rachel’s apartment after a flareup of her chronic fatigue leaves her unable to leave home.]

The problem of chronic illness is that it’s invisible. Because we’re invisible, our struggles are not fully seen and because they’re not seen, they’re not understood. So this idea that like, again, it’s almost like intersectionality of identity — we think of ourselves as Jewish, but we’re more than just Jewish. A lot of us have multiple identities. By making it visible, by showing that it’s so much more normal than we realize, that’s how we get people to understand that it’s part of our experience.

And when you’re chronically ill, that moment where you want to use a wheelchair is See The Matzah Ball page B4

Happy Hanukkah

American Girl Continued from page B2 Star of David bracelet, dreidel and Hanukkah gelt.

American Girl is known for its lifelike dolls with backstories — and a series of short novels and movies about them — spanning the globe and set throughout history. The company released its first Jewish doll named Rebecca Rubin, whose story was set on the Lower East Side in early 20th century, in 2009. While that doll was recently retired, her own Hanukkah set is still available, along with a Shabbat set that includes a teapot, pastries and a braided challah.

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B4 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021

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The Matzah Ball Continued from page B3 really the moment when you’re like “holy crap, I’m really sick,” and when your disability goes from invisible to visible. So I felt it was incredibly important and powerful that women who were chronically ill and sick could see that they could be loved, even in a wheelchair. And that it’s okay to accept your disability, and then also that a man or a woman or a partner will love you in spite of whatever your disability is, will love you through all the good and bad of your life.

It was the hardest thing to write because I had never seen anything like that in a romance, but I felt like at the end of the day it was the most important scene I wrote in the book.

What else would you want Jewish readers to know about your book?

It was written to create a joyous Jewish story. I know it’s different but I really think everyone should at least pick it up, give it a chance, give it a try. You might find that you actually like romance and romcom more than you realize. I know it’s new

for the Jewish world.

I really think it’s important that young people and all of us see ourselves in stories beyond the lens of victimhood, and I really think that one of the ways we do that is by making ourselves heroes in our own stories. And this is a way to do that.

Romance gives us the ability to become heroes and love interests, and champions of our own narrative.

I hope I’m not the only Jewish romance writer going forward. [Meltzer’s second book, Mr. Perfect on Paper, will come out next year, and she’s at work on a third.] I hope we have lots of Jewish rom coms because there’s a huge gaping hole in the market there. And, you know, I think it’s really important that we start telling stories where we get a happy ending. I know it’s not what we do, but everyone deserves a happy ending, including Jews.

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Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel: A spinning story

SYBIL KAPLAN “I have a little dreidel, I made it out of clay, And when it’s dry and ready, then dreidel I shall play!”* S’veevon, sov, sov, sov (spinning top, turn, turn, turn) Hanukah hu chag tov (Hanukkah is a good holiday).

The origin of the dreidel song was the subject of an interesting article a few years ago in the Hadassah Magazine by Melanie Mitzman, originally from Ohio, who lived in Brooklyn and was marketing manager for a division of Simon & Schuster publishing. She wrote that Professor of Music and Jewish Studies at Northeastern University, Joshua Jacobson, claimed the song was originally in Yiddish and the opening line was “I made it out of lead.”

Just add tape for these easy Hanukkah crafts

Samuel Grossman, a Jewish composer from Massachusetts who died at the age of 90 in March 2019, is said to have penned the English lyrics, and Samuel Goldfarb, a Jewish liturgical composer employed by the Bureau of Jewish Education between 1914 and 1929, wrote the melody for the English version.

Goldfarb’s granddaughter, Susan Wolfe, recalls telling her public school class that her grandfather had written The Dreidel Song, but they did not believe her.

Both of these songs underscore the most popular game for Hanukkah--dreidel (Yiddish) or s’vivon (Hebrew), which means spinning top.

In Hanukah: Eight Nights, Eight Lights, Malka Drucker, a rabbi and author, wrote that the game evolved 2,000 years ago when the See A spinning story page B6

GABBY BLAIR Staff writer, Jewish Press Looking for a fun, easy and fairly inexpensive craft guaranteed to keep your younger kids busy for hours this winter break with little mess? Have a bunch of cardboard boxes let over from your countless Amazon deliveries and trips to Costco? Just add duct and washi tape and a little imagination!

I was shocked how much our youngest enjoyed making cardboard and duct tape creations after a trip to his cousin’s house where they made swords and shields for hours. Perfectly adapted for Hanukkah, adults should

help cut out shapes from thick cardboard and give them a few rolls of different colored duck tape and let them go to town creating their own Maccabee armory. Not into making weapons? No problem. Make a duct tape purse to hold Hanukkah gelt in between games of dreidel. Have younger kids who are perhaps more suited to 2D vs. 3D creations?

Provide blank poster board, cardboard or even a canvas and let them create their own duct and washi tape Menorah. The possibilities are endless and there are many ideas for duct tape creations online.

ZIP-TOP DUCT TAPE GELT PURSE Adapted from https://gluesticksblog.com/diy-duct-tapezipper-pouch-a-great-project-for-kids/ Super cute and super easy, this little pouch only requires a gallon sized zip-top food storage bag and some fun duct tape!

A full tutorial is available at the link above, but essentially a gallon sized zip-top storage bag is folded in half, and then secured with layers of decorative duct tape which will lend structure and support to the pouch. A great place for kids to stash their chocolate gelt over the holiday, Hanukkah money or after the holidays are over, it would make a sturdy pencil case or change purse! May also be a cute gift idea that kids could make themselves for friends and family!

See Easy Hanukkah crafts page B7 for more of our favorites

B6 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021

A spinning story Hanukkah isn’t a major Jewish holiday. This year, maybe it should be.

RABBI SARI LAUFER JTA Allow me to let you in on a little secret: Hanukkah is many things — but Jewish Christmas it is not.

The rabbis of the Talmud have far more than eight answers to the question “What is Hanukkah?” But for all of the answers they give, from the familiar story of the miraculous oil to the victory of the Maccabees over a mighty army, the tradition is clear on one point: Hanukkah is not a major holiday.

Unlike on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover or other familiar holidays, there is no fast and no prescribed feast. There is no cessation from work. Delicious fried goodies aside, Hanukkah was never meant to be a defining holiday of the Jewish calendar.

But whether we like it or not, for American Jews, Hanukkah is in the canon of major Jewish holidays. As a congregational rabbi for almost 15 years, I have participated in countless conversations about Hanukkah. I have discussed Christmas trees with numerous conversion students and the December dilemma with worried parents. And I have shared with many a preschooler the delight of the Rugrats Hanukkah episode (SuperWhy

and Elena of Avalor also have wonderful Hanukkah episodes).

Yes, Hanukkah grew in importance in the American imagination as a response to Christmas. And yes, it has become commercialized — and if the state of my own house is any indication, far too materialistic.

But while I have preached, taught and lived the significance of the Jewish calendar far beyond these eight days, I have never bemoaned See Hanukkah isn’t a major holiday page B8

Michael Halsted, MD Matt Appenzeller, MD Mark Emig, MD Michael Feilmeier, MD Jill Grennan, MD Jesse Himebaugh, MD

David Ingvoldstad, MD Rachel Mercer, MD Martin Mizener, MD Bliss E. O’Bryhim, MD Madeline D. Ripa, MD

Zachary Brown, OD Mindy Dickinson, OD Teri Geist, OD Scott Greder, OD

Abigail Jackson, OD Krystal Wells, OD Matt Willis, OD

Continued from page B5 Hanukkah story took place, at a time when Antiochus ruled over Judea in ancient Israel.

“Groups of boys who had memorized the entire Torah would secretly study together until they heard the footsteps of the Syrian soldiers. Then they would quickly pull out spinning tops... and pretend to be playing games,” she wrote.

Whether this is true or not, we do know that by the Middle Ages, the game became more complicated, as rules were borrowed from a German gambling game. According to the Encyclopedia Judaica, during the long nights of Hanukkah, while the lights were burning, it became customary to pass the time by spinning tops and playing the ancient “put and take” game. This was in fulfillment of the commandment that the Hanukkah lights should not be used for any utilitarian purpose; “they are only to be seen.”

Playing cards and games were prohibited by the rabbis over the years and were deplored as frivolous because they took away from Torah study, however, the custom continued.

In Medieval Germany, dice were used for the game, and they were inscribed with N, G, H, and S. N stood for nichts or nothing; G stood for ganz or all; H was for halb or half; and S meant stell ein or put in. All players would hold an equal number of nuts, raisins or coins. Each player put one in the middle, and the first player would spin the dice. Each letter stood for a move in the game--putting in or taking out nuts, raisins or coins, according to where the dice landed.

Later, boys carved tops or dreidels out of wood or poured hot lead into a form to make a spinning top. The letters were then changed to Hebrew and said to stand for nun, gimmel, hey and shin. The rabbis were less reluctant for boys to play because the let-

ters were interpreted to stand for the phrase, Nes Gadol Hayah Sham--a great miracle happened there.

In modern Israel, the Hebrew letter shin is replaced by a peh, standing for poh, meaning here--a great miracle happened here.

The rabbis felt even more comfortable about the game when it was also realized that when the Hebrew letters, which had numerical value, were added together, they totaled 358, the same number of letters as the word for Messiah. (Nun is 50, gimmel is three, hey is five and shin is 300.) The letters of the word Messiah or mashiach in Hebrew are mem which is 40, shin which is 300, yud which is 10 and chet which is eight. Since the Jews are still waiting for the Messiah, this would show the way for a miracle.

Another mystical interpretation of the Hebrew letters is described by Philip Goodman in The Hanukkah Anthology. He writes that nun stood for nefesh (Hebrew for soul); gimmel stood for guf (Hebrew for body); shin stood for sechal (Hebrew for mind); and hey stood for hakol (all) implying all the characteristics of man.

Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, lecturer, book reviewer, food writer and author (Witness to History: Ten Years as a Woman Journalist in Israel), nine cookbooks (including What’s Cooking at Hadassah College.) She lived in Israel from 1970-1980; she and her late husband, Barry, came to live in Jerusalem in 2008, where she works as a foreign correspondent for North American Jewish publications, lectures to senior citizen residences, leads walks in English in Machaneh Yehudah, the Jewish produce market and wrote stories about kosher restaurants on Janglo.net from 2014 to 2020 for which Barry photographed.

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Easy Hanukkah crafts Continued from page B5

COLORFUL TAPE MENORAH

From www.creeksidelearning.com Cute and easy, kids create a 2D menorah from duct and washi tape on a flat surface. Make them small to use as Hanukkah cards for friends and family, or give them a large flat piece of cardboard to make a big Hanukkah poster to make a festive decoration for the house - they can even add a tape ‘flame’ for each night! They will be proud of their creation and best of all, very little mess for their grown-ups!

MACCABEE SWORD AND SHIELD

Wishes our community a Happy Hanukkah!

Adapted from www.30min utecrafts.com and www.pin terest.com Calling all Maccabees! Prepare for battle with this cute sword and shield made of duct tape and cardboard! The possibilities are endless- make a shield that is round, rectangular or star shaped. Use tape in different colors and patterns.

Be sure to have a grown up help supervise or cut through thick cardboard!

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Hanukkah isn’t a major holiday

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Continued from page B6 the significance of Hanukkah in the American Jewish imagination.

Hanukkah has its own story to tell, its own miracles to celebrate and its own light to shine.

Major festival or not, who am I to begrudge a festival of light and joy at a time of year and in history when both seem in short supply?

Here’s three reasons why, especially now, I think Hanukkah deserves to be celebrated in a “major” way.

THE STORY For all of the deeply problematic elements of the Maccabee story, there is at heart a battle for religious freedom and for the maintenance of a minority religious identity. War on Christmas or not, there is something Maccabean about my then 6-year-old proudly telling the lady at See’s candy that he doesn’t celebrate Christmas when she wished him a merry one.

I am heartened each year by stories of kids proudly showing off their hanukkiyot and dreidels when the (public school) teacher asks about the Elf on the Shelf, and of parents who bring sufganiyot to the PTA cookie sale, setting them down next to the Santas and the trees.

While I can recognize the irony of copying the majority culture as a celebration of our own unique religious identity, I am cognizant of the pride and the privilege involved in placing an inflatable dreidel or menorah in your front yard. In 2020 especially, as we have watched a growing acceptance and even embrace of overt anti-Semitism in our country and the world, maybe it is not so bad to publicly acknowledge our strength, our persistence, and our unique symbols and celebrations.

THE MIRACLE As they are wont to do, the rabbis of the Talmud spend considerable ink delving into the various considerations of the hanukkiyah.

How many candles do we use, they ask? In

which direction do we light it? And where do we put it? Each answer reveals a focus of the holiday, but perhaps none more than the question of placement.

Anyone who has been in Israel during the festival has seen the cities illuminated by hanukkiyot, glowing in their Lucite boxes outside of most of the homes. As set forth in the Talmud, the ideal placement for the hanukkiyah is outside one’s front door, facing the courtyard or the street. It must, the rabbis teach, shed light toward the public domain.

Here in America, we often see the lights shining in the window, shedding light both on the faces within the home and the street, city and community outside. In fact, scholars suggest that the original custom of lighting the hanukkiah was meant FOR the public; today, the placement of hanukkiyot in the public square mirrors this practice. More than a sweet family ritual, the illumination of the city streets with the lights of Hanukkah was a fulfillment of the responsibility of “pirsum hanes,” of publicizing the miracle.

Whether the miracle you are celebrating is the defeat of the Greeks by the Maccabees, the perseverance of a tiny jug of oil or the survival See Not a major Jewish holiday page B9

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Not a major Jewish holiday Continued from page B8 (and thriving) of a small religious minority, we want you to shout it loud and spread it wide. Then, as now, the candles in the window or a Lucite box proclaimed “We are here, we are still here and we are joyous.” If that is not a timely message for 2021, I don’t know what is.

THE LIGHT Perhaps my favorite of all of the rabbinic stories of Hanukkah is the one that has nothing to do with the Maccabees, the Temple or the oil. It is the story of Adam, the first human, encountering darkness and the shortening days of winter for the first time.

Fearful at the setting of the sun, Adam wonders if he has done something wrong and if the light will ever return. For eight days, we read, he wonders and he worries — and then the days begin to lengthen, and he understands that for all the darkness in the world, the light will always prevail.

It is no coincidence that nearly all of the world’s traditions and cultures celebrate a festival of light. Even the rabbis of the Talmud suggested that Hanukkah was an adaptation of Saturnalia, a pagan solstice festival.

Whether the diyas of Diwali, the Star of Bethlehem, the kinara of Kwanzaa, Shab-yYalda in Iran or the Hanukkah lights — these winter days bring a shared need and a shared message: Light can shine through the darkness, and you — each and every one of us — can kindle a light to shine forth.

In the darkness of 2021, I think we’ll take any light that we can get.

Rabbi Sari Laufer is the Director of Congregational Engagement at Stephen Wise Temple in Los Angeles.

Hanukkah holiday songs’ origins SYBIL KAPLAN What do we have every year at Hanukkah but rarely think about in terms of their origins?

THE SONGS. In a Hadassah Magazine article of some years ago, Melanie Mitzman, the marketing manager at Simon & Schuster publishers, quotes the late Velvel Pasternak (z”l), a musicologist, conductor, arranger, producer and publisher specializing in Jewish music on this subject. He said Hanukkah songs are no more than a century old, because Hanukkah is a post-biblical holiday.

Pasternak, who died in June of 2019 at the age of 86, was described as “an expert on the music of the Chassidic sect and probably the largest publisher of Jewish music anywhere, although he was quick to note that publishing Jewish music is a business that attracts few rivals.”

The founder of Tara Publications, Pasternak was responsible for the publication of 26 recordings and more than 150 books of Jewish music since 1971, spanning the gamut of Israeli, Yiddish, Ladino, Cantorial, Chassidic and Holocaust music.

Most Hanukkah songs, he told Mitzman, were adapted from old folk melodies, had more than one set of lyrics and/or had been translated from language to language.

So I started researching the songs we know so well.

MAOZ TZUR Maoz Tzur, for example, is called Rock of Ages

in English. As Ariela Pelaia, a web designer from Vermont, explains on thoughtco.com, it was a hymn composed in the 13th century, during the Crusades by a poet named Mordechai.

The first letters of the first five stanzas form an acrostic of the composer’s name,

Mordechai (the five Hebrew letters ‫)יכדרמ‬.

He may have been the Mordecai ben Isaac haLevi who wrote the Sabbath table-hymn Mah Yafit, or even the scholar referred to in the Tosafoth (the medieval commentaries on the See Hanukkah songs page B10

B10 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021

Hanukkah songs Good Hanukkah shows and movies for kids are hard to find — but these few were worth the search

JAY DEITCHER JTA Arthur’s Perfect Christmas, the 2000 TV movie, begins with Arthur sitting at the piano in his jammies singing about how this Christmas is going to be magical — the best one yet. It’s clear what holiday is center stage in Arthur’s world.

But it’s the B plot about the show’s Jewish character Francine that speaks to a legitimate Jewish experience — truer than any current kids’ Hanukkah specials on TV. Francine’s best friend, Muffy, refuses to accept that Francine can’t attend her Christmas party. Francine tells Muffy 28 times, literally 28 times, that it’s on the same night as her family’s Hanukkah party, but Muffy ignores her, buying her a Christmas gift.

Muffy storms from her party to scream at Francine through the phone.

“But you can see your family any old day,” she says. “Besides, it’s not like Hanukkah is as important as Christmas.”

Before my kids were born, I shrugged when people complained about how suffocating Christmas was. I thought they should just get over it: We live in a

Hanukkah specials typically feature guest characters educating the stars and nonJewish audience about menorahs and dreidels. Credit: Getty Images/JTA Montage

Christian world. But this year, I realized the influence that television would wield over holidays when my 2 1/2-year-old son Avishai became obsessed with costumes because Mickey Mouse loves Halloween. Suddenly I realized Christmas was racing toward us with a ho, ho, ho.

The problem isn’t the lack of Hanukkah programming — it’s the programming itself. Hanukkah specials fea-

ture guest characters educating the stars and non-Jewish audience about menorahs and dreidels. Christmas specials feature stars getting presents and chillin’ with Santa and reindeer. Joy! Avishai’s favorite channel is Disney Junior. Three of the past four years, the main show to tackle Hanukkah has been Puppy Dog Pals, which juxtaposed segments See Hanukkah shows for kids page B13

Continued from page B9 Talmud to Talmud (Bavli) Niddah 36a. Or, to judge from the appeal in the closing verse, he may have been the Mordecai whose father-in-law was martyred at Mayence (now Mainz, Germany) in 1096.

It is a Jewish liturgical poem or piyyut, written in Hebrew originally, about “Jewish deliverance from four ancient enemies, Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Haman and Antiochus.”

Malchut eglah denotes Egypt; noges is Nebuchadnezzar; y’mini is Mordechai; v’vanim is Antiochus; shoshanim is the Jewish people; b’nei vinah are the rabbinic sages; and shir refers to the Hallel psalms.

A second acrostic is found in the first letters of the opening words of the final stanza, the acrostic contains the word hazak (meaning, “be strong”).

The first and last stanzas are written in the present tense.

Most of us only know about its connection to Hanukkah.

The poem recalls the many times when Jewish communities were saved from the people around them. The first stanza expresses hope for the rebuilding of the Temple and for the defeat of enemies, who are metaphorically referred to as barking (menabe’ah).

The second stanza tells of the exodus from Egypt. The third stanza tells of the end of the Babylonian captivity. The fourth retells the miracle of the holiday of Purim.

Only the fifth tells of the Hasmonean victory that is commemorated by Hanukkah.

The final stanza once again calls for divine retribution against the enemies of the Jewish people. The term Admon, meaning “the red one,” was understood by some to refer to the emperor, Friedrich Barbarossa, whose name means Frederick “Redbeard,” but this reading is inaccurate, since the last stanza is generally believed to have been composed around the turn of the 16th century, some three hundred years after Frederick I died or together with the other five verses.

Maoz Tzur is usually sung after lighting the chanukiyah.

Its six stanzas correspond to the five events of Jewish history that I mentioned and a hope for the future. Of its six stanzas, often only the first stanza is sung (or the first and fifth), as this is what directly pertains to Hanukkah.

See Hanukkah songs page B12

The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021 | B11

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Hanukkah songs

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Continued from page B10 OY HANUKKAH The authorship of the Yiddish song Oy Hanukkah, or Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah, in English, is unknown. According to the Freedman Jewish Music Archive at the University of Pennsylvania Library, alternate names of the Yiddish version of this song have been recorded as Khanike Days, Khanike Khag Yafe, Khanike Li Yesh, Latke Song (Khanike, Oy Khanike), Yemi Khanike and Chanike, Oy Chanike. The standard transliteration of Hanukkah in Yiddish, according to the YIVO system, is Khanike.

The Society for Jewish Folk Music in St. Petersburg published two classical compositions that make extensive use of this tune: Freylekhs for solo piano by Hirsch Kopyt, published in 1912 but performed as early as 1909; and Dance Improvisation for violin and piano by Joseph Achron, published in 1914 (composed in December 1914 in Kharkov, Ukraine).

The lyrics of the Hebrew version, which has the same melody, were penned by Avraham Avronin. The words correspond roughly to the original (more so than the English version), with slight variations for rhyme and rhythm’s sake. Thus, the first line names the holiday; the second calls for joy and happiness (using two synonyms); in the third, the speakers say they’ll spin dreidels all night; in the fourth, they will eat latkes; in the fifth, the speaker calls everyone to light the Hanukkah candles; the sixth mentions the prayer Al Hanissim (On the Miracles).

The only big change is in the last line. Whereas the original calls us to praise God for the miracles He performed, the Hebrew one praises the miracles and wonders performed by the Maccabees. This reflects the anti-religious attitude of early Zionism, evident in many other Israeli Hanukkah songs. In Israel, it’s still a very popular song, but, since the country has a rich inventory of Hanukkah repertoire, it is not as popular as the English or Yiddish versions in North America.

The Yiddish version of Oh, Hanukkah was originally written by Mordkhe Rivesman (1868 – 1924), who was born in Lithuania.

I HAVE A LITTLE DREIDL I Have a Little Dreydl, also known as the Dreidel Song, is very famous in the English-speaking world. It also has a Yiddish version. The Yiddish version is Ich Bin a Kleyner Dreydl, I Am a Little Dreidel. The lyrics are simple and are, not surprisingly, given its title, about making a dreidel and playing with it.

The writer of the English lyrics is Samuel S. Grossman and the composer is listed as Samuel E. Goldfarb. The Yiddish version apparently was both written and composed by Mikhl Gelbart, known as Ben Arn, the Son of Aaron. Therefore, there is a question about who composed this music, as the melody for both the Yiddish and the English versions are precisely the same and the meaning of the lyrics in both versions is largely the same. However, in English, the song is about a dreidel made out of clay, which would be hard to spin, whereas in the Yiddish, the four-sided spinning top is made out of blay, which is lead.

SEVIVON Another popular dreidel song is Sevivon, with sevivon, sivivon or s’vivon being Hebrew for dreidel, which is the Yiddish word for a spinning top. Sevivon is very popular in Israel and with others familiar with Hebrew.

AL HANASIM Al Hanasim is another popular Hebrew song for Hanukkah.

It is taken from the liturgy, but it is also an Israeli folk dance.

The song is about thanking God for saving the Jewish people.

The most popular tune, however, is relatively recent, having been composed by Rabbi Dr. Dov Frimer, a Jerusalem lawyer, in 1975.

MI Y’MALEL The Hanukkah song Mi Y’malel opens with the line, “Who can retell the mighty feats of Israel,” which is a secular rewording of Psalms 106:2, which reads “Who can retell the mighty feats of God.” NER LI Ner Li translates as I Have a Candle. This is a simple Hebrew Hanukkah song that is more popular in Israel than in the Diaspora. The words are by Levin Kipnis and the music is by Daniel Samburski.

See Hanukkah songs page B13

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Hanukkah shows for kids

Continued from page B10 of Christmas jolliness and Hanukkah blah back to back. On Christmas segments, Bingo and Rolly zip off on adventures with elves. The stories never explain why gold shoots out the backs of sleighs, the magic just is, so it’s straight into the fun: making and searching for toys. Meanwhile, on their first Hanukkah segment, The Latke Kerfuffle, the pups hunt for eggs and potatoes for latkes, which they find out are “those potato pancakes... a special Hanukkah food.” Their Jewish neighbors appear only to explain everything to them. They are barely characters, so you have no reason to invest in them.

On the second Puppy Dog Pals Hanukkah halfan-episode, The Dreidel Dilemma, the pups search for a dreidel, which they learn is a “spinny top toy that families play with during the holiday of Hanukkah.” This year’s segment, Nine Lights Tonight! is about the pups being called upon by Mrs. Claus — yes, that Mrs. Claus — to save Hanukkah. You see, Mrs. Claus has a best friend named Miriam, who we barely meet, and she needs bulbs for her hanukkiyah. The pups team with Randy the reindeer in training, searching for bulbs in a flying sled.

Elsewhere in the Disney Junior universe, last year, Elena of Avalor did slightly better with its episode Festival of Lights.

Unlike Puppy Dog Pals, the Elena episode portrays Hanukkah as cool, featuring delicious food and tons of gold stuff. Plus, Princess Rebecca of Galonia has an amazing tiara that seconds as a crowbar.

The episode introduces the royal family of Galonia, who halt the plot to teach Elena and her family about menorahs and gelt. These are all Latin American characters, but the episode shows only a couple cultural similarities. Instead, the Galonians act as tour guides through the foreign Jewish

world. There’s an emphasis on the Galonians’ language, with Elena and her family confused by their weird Yiddish words.

While it’s true that many Latin American Jews are Ashkenazim, the constant definitions emphasized the culture gap between the Galonians and Avalorans.

To find decent Hanukkah programming you need to search. So my family is making our own playlist, watching Jewish characters worth investing in.

They may feel alien within the greater culture, but they aren’t portrayed as aliens. They don’t lecture because they are also figuring things out. Each episode is an adventure my kids love. It’s not available on current channels, so your kids’ non-Jewish friends won’t be in tune with it. Good programming features Jewish protagonists. It isn’t aimed at non-Jewish audiences. It portrays Jewish life, uncensored.

The best blueprint is A Rugrats Hanukkah, which debuted in 1996. It features the Rugrats crew finding the “meanie” of Hanukkah at the Pickles family’s temple. The temple’s Hanukkah party resembles every temple Hanukkah party I’ve attended, with multiple activity tables and a play starring people named Boris and Shlomo, who can’t stand each other.

Jewish characters butcher aspects of Judaism, babies wonder what’s going on, everyone kvetches, all to traditional tunes.

Chuckie’s dad, the inquisitive non-Jewish character, wonders, “What’s a Shlomo?”

Another household fave is Shalom Sesame Hanukkah: The Missing Menorah, released in 2010, featuring Grover, The Count, Baby Bear and Israeli children visiting Israel landmarks, practicing Hebrew and making olive oil.

The Hanukkah Shaboom! Special by BimBam, a defunct YouTube channel that used “digital storytelling to spark See Hanukkah shows for kids page B14

Hanukkah songs

Continued from page B12 LIGHT ONE CANDLE Light One Candle is a 1983 Hanukkah song written by Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul, and Mary. It is a very popular song and it was sung by the trio at their concerts. It is a song that encourages the Jewish people to remember the history of the holiday and continue their heritage.

OCHO KANDELIKAS Last but certainly not the only remaining Hanukkah song, is Ocho Kandelikas. This Ladino ( Judeo-Spanish) song was written by Jewish-American composer Flory Jagoda in 1983, explains Ariela Pelaia, a web designer from Vermont. She adds that its lyrics describe “a child joyfully lighting the menorah candles,” saying that “beautiful Hanukkah is here,” and describing all the wonderful things that will happen this time of year. The song counts out the eight candles for the eight days of Hanukkah.

Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, lecturer, book reviewer, food writer and author (Witness to History: Ten Years as a Woman Journalist in Israel), nine cookbooks (including What’s Cooking at Hadassah College.) She lived in Israel from 1970-1980; she and her husband, Barry, came to live in Jerusalem in 2008, where she works as a foreign correspondent for North American Jewish publications, lectures to senior citizen residences, leads walks in English in Machaneh Yehudah, the Jewish produce market and wrote stories about kosher restaurants on Janglo.net from 2014 to 2020 with photographs by her late husband, Barry.

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Light the chanukiya not the menorah

Hanukkah shows for kids

Continued from page B13 connections to Judaism,” is a recent gem. The main characters, the Plony family, attempt to impress their non-Jewish guests, the Baloneys, by making Hanukkah seem cool.

Like Rugrats, it features traditional songs.

With animation clearly inspired by The Fairly OddParents, characters come from diverse racial backgrounds, resembling my own household (I’m Ashkenazi and my wife is Nigerian and Jamaican). Unlike Elana’s attempt at showing the diversity of Jewish and Latin American communities while having the Jewish characters explain themselves, the Shaboom! Special normalizes diversity within the Jewish community as something that simply exists, no explanation needed.

At the end of Arthur’s Perfect Christmas, most everyone is disappointed. Christmas didn’t live up to Arthur’s expectations.

The self-proclaimed Princess of Christmas Muffy received 37 gifts, but has no one to brag to because she and Francine are no longer friends. Muffy realizes it’s all her fault. On Christmas Day, her family appears at

Francine’s door bearing ham, which Francine’s dad dubiously accepts, saying “uh, thanks.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you,” Muffy says, followed by the buts.

“Come with me,” Francine says, grabbing her friend by her wrist and pulling her to a menorah that her great-grandmother brought from Poland. She explains that once a year her family gathers for a potluck, lighting the candles and placing the menorah in the window for the world to see.

“Do you understand why that’s really important to me?” Francine asks her friend.

Muffy pauses and blinks.

“I’m sorry. I should have listened to you,” she says and puts her hand on Francine’s shoulder.

Jay Deitcher is a part-time writer, former social worker, full-time stay-at-home dad from Albany, NY. His writing has been featured in The Washington Post, Tablet, The Forward and The Cut. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

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Happy Hanukkah

SYBIL KAPLAN In the Temple of Jerusalem stood a sevenbranched candelabrum or menorah, which was lit each day by the High Priest. There were also other candelabra for ornamental purposes. When Antiochus removed the Temple menorah, Judah Maccabee had a duplicate built (called a candlestick with lamps upon it, in one Apocrypha translation), and he lit it, although there is no mention of oil to light it.

One reference says because the candelabrum was defiled, the Hasmoneans took seven iron spits, covered them with zinc and used them as a candelabrum.

When the Second Temple was destroyed, the menorah was said to have been carried to Rome, and a replica, being carried by Jewish slaves, was carved on the inside of the Arch of Titus.

Lighting a chanukiya or eight-branched candelabrum with one to serve as the shamash (one who lights the others) is a popular Hanukkah custom. Originally, eight individual ceramic or stone lamps with wicks were lit with olive oil.

Jews from Yemen and Morocco also used rough stone lamps with scooped-out places for the wicks and the higher one for the shamash. At some point, people began the custom of hanging their lamps on the left side of the door, opposite the mezuzah because Jews were commanded to affirm the miracle in public. When it became dangerous to display the chanukiya out of doors,

people began lighting them inside the house, frequently by a window.

A wide variety of those chanukiyot, in diverse decorative styles and materials, have been preserved throughout the years.

As early as the 12th century, replicas of the Hanukkah menorah with the two additional holders were found in synagogues, so that poor people and strangers could still benefit from lighting.

Eventually, this design was used for home chanukiyot, but some people criticized the custom of lighting in the home. At some point, discussions ensued on which wall to place the synagogue chanukiya; by the 16th century, lighting in the synagogue became established as an addition to lighting at home.

According to Michael Kaniel in A Guide to Jewish Art, in Morocco in the 11th century, the chanukiya was the most widely used ritual object, and it was often made of gold, silver, brass, bronze, iron, lead, glass, wood, See Light the chanukiya page B17

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Hanukkah in Australia: Celebrating perseverance and visibility in the summertime As an adult, I relocated to this city and began to navigate ROZ BELLAMY my own Hanukkah observance with my wife, Rachel. At first MELBOURNE, Australia | JTA Growing up in Australia, Hanukkah symbolized the end of we mainly celebrated Hanukkah with family, not creating our the school year and the start of the long, lazy summer holi- own traditions. We attended events in the Melbourne Jewish days. We lit the candles at around 8 p.m., when the sun set in community, like Hanukkah in the Park and the beachside Sydney in the late spring or early summer, and enjoyed latkes Hanukkah festivals. Just like our Purim festivals, it’s usually and sufganiyot despite the fact that the grease felt extra heavy very warm outside and the smell of the barbecue is pervasive. on a hot night.

I often spent the first night of Hanukkah with my immediate family and grandparents. My British grandparents amused me and my younger sister during the singing of Maoz Tzur with the lyrics “Maoz tzur yeshuati, the cat’s in the cupboard and you can’t catch me.”

My Russian grandparents didn’t share much about their past experiences of Hanukkah. I knew they had experienced discrimination and persecution around being Jewish, but I was caught up in my own expe- Melbourne, Australia Credit: Getty Images riences of Jewish holidays and traditions, including those of There are arcade games, loud Jewish music and cotton candy, the Conservative synagogue my family attended. known here as “fairy floss.”

More recently, I’ve been thinking more about them. I realize But Rachel grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family from the that for my mother and her family, who migrated to Australia United States who loved Hanukkah and continued many of from Odessa in the 1970s, arrival in Australia had to have their traditions when they moved to Australia. This included come as a shock. They were suddenly plunged into summer decking out their entire house with Hanukkah decorations, in the Southern Hemisphere, their pale skin probably as playing holiday music I’d never heard of, and displaying mulshocked as they were. They were also plunged into their own tiple menorahs and a lineup of Hanukkah bears with gelt for religion, which must have seemed foreign to them. In Sydney, each of the family’s eight children. Everything was on a larger a Jewish organization provided some support. They saw fam- scale than I had experienced, and that’s what she hoped for ilies openly celebrating festivals and observing Shabbat, when in our home. in Russia, any outward symbols of being Jewish were not safe. See Hanukkah in Australia page B16

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Continued from page B15 After we moved to a suburb that is across the city from the majority of the Jewish community, we decided to put up menorah stickers on our front window. It may have been that living away from the Jewish community for the first time made us want to be more expressive of our Jewish culture.

The gel stickers glistened in the summer sunlight. I realized that putting up those stickers terrified me and I wanted to take them down. The open display of being Jewish brought back many fears.

Some of those fears, I figured, must stem from family stories I heard as a child about what it was like to be Jewish in the former Soviet Union. Some family members still had copies of their official documents, which listed “Jew” under nationality. These papers served as a visual symbol to me of their past experience of Jewishness.

I also knew that even as Australia is a generally safe place to be openly Jewish, anti-Semitism exists here, too. As has been the case worldwide, there has been an increase in anti-Semitic incidents here this year. In our own neighborhood this month, our local council posted a Happy Hanukkah message and was bombarded with angry comments and questions like “What about Christmas?” and “Is this even Australia?” until they deleted the post.

But despite the discomfort and fear I felt about advertising our Jewish identity, I decided that observing Hanukkah – in whatever form – was important, and we kept the stickers up.

The following year, Rachel and I bought stuffed dreidel dog toys ( from North America) and Hanukkah collars for our rescue greyhounds. We walked the dogs around our neighborhood, and when people asked if they were wearing Christmas collars, we told them about Hanukkah. I began to feel more confident expressing my identity as a Jewish person.

I am seeing change in the community as well — small steps that to me augur exciting developments for a Jewish community that is less than 1% of the Australian population. While sufganiyot in Sydney and Melbourne bakeries used to come filled with jam only, followed by an upgrade to chocolate, this year my in-laws ordered their treats from a kosher bakery offering flavors like dulce de leche, passion fruit, Ferrero Rocher, and cookies and cream.

Last year, a month after visiting Argentina as part of JDC Entwine’s trip for LGBTQ+ young professionals, I attended a Hanukkah picnic here for LGBTQ Jews. I felt more proud, visible and “out” – as a Jewish and queer person – than I could ever remember feeling before.

A Jewish American at the picnic told me, “It’s so strange to be celebrating Hanukkah in the summer. I’ve only ever experienced it as a winter holiday.”

Here the summer sun brings more than warmth to a holiday celebrated by many Jews during the winter. It also adds even more light that enables us to have conversations with colleagues and neighbors about Jewish traditions, to correct (or, indeed, report) misinformation online, and to be open and proud of being Australian Jews.

This Hanukkah, I thought often of my family members. I realized that while I had given their journeys, literal and figurative, short shrift as a child, as an adult I am inspired by their sacrifices and their love. And as we lit our candles – not on a snowy winter’s night but during a swelteringly hot evening with cicadas chirping outside our windows – I remembered to be visible and proud.

Roz Bellamy is a PhD candidate at La Trobe University and the online editor at Archer Magazine. Their writing has appeared in the Guardian, Huffington Post, The Big Issue and the Sydney Morning Herald, and in anthologies including Growing Up Queer in Australia (Black Inc.).

The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021 | B17

Austrian government unveils memorial wall with 64,440 names Germany, rather than a willing collaborator.

CNAAN LIPSHIZ But amid criticism on this attitude, AusJTA The Austrian government inaugurated a $7 trian leaders have since acknowledged their million Holocaust memorial monument on nation and society’s active role in the murder the recent anniversary of the 1938 Kristall- of about 65,000 Austrian Jews, the vast manacht pogroms.

The “Shoah Wall of Names” that city and central government officials unveiled Tuesday in Vienna lists 64,440 Holocaust victims on 160 granite slabs, and is the result of years of lobbying by commemoration activists for a major monument that reflects both the scope of the Holocaust and its individual victims.

Kurt Yakov Tutter, a Holo- A man takes a picture at the Shoah Name Wall Memorial in caust survivor of Austrian de- Vienna, Austria on November 9, 2021. Credit: Hherbert scent, initiated the idea for the Neubauer/APA/AFP via Getty Images monument, which in 2018 received govern- jority of the country’s Jewish population in ment funding and the go-ahead to be built at 1938. About 50,000 of the victims came from Ostarrichi Park near the National Bank, an Vienna. Austria had a Jewish population of Austrian news outlet reported. more than 170,000 before the annexation; “The Republic of Austria is sending out a vis- most escaped, but around 12,000 were murible sign of its responsibility,” Karoline Edt- dered in other Nazi-controlled countries. stadler, a cabinet minister in charge of the Only 58,000 Jews remained in Austria, and Chancellor’s office, said in a statement ahead only 6,000 of them survived the Holocaust. of the unveiling ceremony Tuesday. “The vicAustrian soldiers fighting in Hitler’s militims are given their names and thus at least tary forces were involved in the murder of part of their dignity. And we realize that behind thousands of non-Austrian Holocaust and the 64,440 names there are individual people war crimes victims.

– children, mothers, fathers and neighbors – The Kristallnacht pogroms of 1938 were parwith individual stories and human fates.” ticularly violent in Austria, where hundreds of Austrian governments had maintained until Jews were made to clean sidewalks as crowds the early 2000s that the country, which Nazi cheered at their humiliation. Many historians Germany in 1938 annexed without bloodshed see the pogroms, which Nazi Germany initiamid mass displays of enthusiasm by the pop- ated, as both a trial balloon and opening shot ulation, was primarily a victim of Adolf Hitler’s of the genocidal violence of the Holocaust.

Happy Hanukkah

Light the chanukiya Continued from page B14 glazed ceramics, terra cotta, bone, pomegranate shells, walnut shells and bark.

Then the brass style became popular with North African Arab designs using flowers, foliage, fruits and animals. Those from Iraq often used the khamsa, the open hand symbol against the evil eye.

Chanukiyot, dating back to 13th century Spain and southern France, display a straight row of holders with a back plate. One can also find chanukiyot made of bronze, from the time of the Renaissance (14th century), depicting Judith and the head of Holofernes.

European chanukiyot, mostly after the 17th century, were made in brass with animals symbolic of Jewish folk art. Later on, they appear in silver and were commissioned from silversmiths.

European artisans often created chanukiyot from silver, using plant designs.

An 18th century lamp from Germany depicts the prayers for lighting the candles. A 19th century lamp, either from Libya or Morocco, is made of ceramics. Twentieth century designs in Morocco were of silver and used animals and plants in the design.

Originally, wicks and oil were used, but in the 18th and 19th centuries, many people re-

placed these with candles. Traditional Jews, particularly in Jerusalem, still use wicks and oil and hang the chanukiya outside the home in a glass-enclosed container.

Electric chanukiyot atop public buildings are also customary in Israel as are home-style chanukiyot of all varieties lit in stores, offices and public places.

The primary rule for a “kosher” chanukiya is that all eight holders should be at the same level, and the shamash should be higher than the others.

Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, lecturer, book reviewer, food writer and author (Witness to History: Ten Years as a Woman Journalist in Israel), nine cookbooks (including What’s Cooking at Hadassah College.) She lived in Israel from 1970-1980; she and her late husband, Barry, came to live in Jerusalem in 2008, where she works as a foreign correspondent for North American Jewish publications, lectures to senior citizen residences, leads walks in English in Machaneh Yehudah, the Jewish produce market and wrote stories about kosher restaurants in Janglo.net, from 2014 to 2020 for which Barry photographed. She has been book reviewing for 40 years.

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Bobble Menorah and Dreidel ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT Jewish Press Editor Earlier this month, the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum unveiled the first Bobble Menorah and Bobble Dreidel. The Bobble Menorah features nine bobbling flames and comes in three color patterns.

The dreidel is on a gelt-shaped base, each side inscribed with the dreidel’s Hebrew letters—nun, gimel, hey and shin, in a different color. The limited-edition bobbles were produced by the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum.

Each bobble is individually numbered to 5,782 to commemorate the current year. They are only available through the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum’s online store.

The bobbles, which will ship out to customers the third week of November, are $25 each plus a flat-rate shipping charge of $8 per order.

“We’re thrilled to be releasing the very first Bobble Menorah and Bobble Dreidel just in time for Hanukkah,” National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum co-founder and CEO Phil Sklar said. “Hanukkah has always been one of my favorite holidays, and it has been exciting watching this concept come to life over the past year. I hope people proudly display

their Bobble Menorah and Bobble Dreidel to celebrate the Festival of Lights every year.”

Phil Sklar, coincidentally, has an Omaha connection. His aunt, Deborah Kronick, has

taught at the JCC Early Learning Center for many years. Phil is originally from Rockford, Illinois, but has lived in Milwaukee for close to 20 years now.

“Debbie is my mom’s sister—they grew up in Sioux City, Iowa,” he said. “My mom met my dad when they both attended the University of Iowa and moved to Rockford, Illinois (where my dad grew up) shortly after that.

Debbie and Larry moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where we visited them quite a bit when I was growing up. They’ve probably been in Omaha for close to 15 years now and we started visiting them annually with the trip

Happy Hanukkah

usually timed with the College World Series and a trip to Sioux City either before or after.”

He said his dad got him into into collecting sports cards growing up: “That passion for collecting shifted to bobbleheads in 2003, when the co-founder, Brad Novak, was working for the minor league Rockford Riverhawks baseball team and they gave away a bobblehead for the first time. We were going to schools at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at the time, and as big sports fans, we decided to start going to bobbleheads games to grow a collection. Before we knew it, the collection had grown a bit out of control—by 2014, we had close to 3,000 unique bobbleheads and nowhere to put them.”

“Around the same time, while driving from Milwaukee to Omaha and Sioux City in June 2013, they started researching the process of having a bobblehead produced to honor a friend, Michael Poll, who is the manager for all of the Wisconsin-Milwaukee sports teams and a long-time Special Olympian.

“We reached out to several existing manufacturers,” he said, “and during that research process we realized that there was no company actively producing and marketing new, unique bobbleheads. Most of the companies were producing bobbleheads for stadium giveaways, but we had already identified several great opportunities. We ended up having a great experience with Michael bobblehead(he’s Jewish as well and his family goes to the same congregation as me) bobblehead

About the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum: The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum, which is located at 170 S. 1st St. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, opened to the public on February 1, 2019. The HOF and Museum also produces high quality, customized bobbleheads for retail sale as well as organizations, individuals, and teams across the country.

and we soon thought of the idea to have a one-of-a-kind museum dedicated to bobbleheads. We announced the concept in November of 2014, and it was very well received. We had a preview exhibit in 2016 and opened the permanent location on February 1, 2019. The museum has about 7,000 unique bobbleheads on display from all genres and periods. We’ve had visitors from all 50 states and about 25 different countries since opening. We also have a virtual tour available here and several pictures that are available here as well.”

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The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021 | B19

From the archives: Hanukkah in 1949 JTA Hanukkah this year marks the commencement of a new chapter in Jewish immigration with Israel now counting 1,008,000 Jews, Itzhak Raphael, Jewish Agency immigration chief, revealed today. He announced that 90,000 immigrants are expected to arrive here within the next six months.

Mr. Raphael added that prospects for the immigration to Israel of self-supporting pioneer immigrants from North and South America, South Africa and Eastern Europe were improving. Thirty thousand Jews have already come to Israel from Turkey.

Asserting that the Jewish communities of Benghazi and Derma in Libya have been “liquidated,” Mr. Raphael said that “20,000 Jews remaining in Libya are ready with their luggage for the journey to Israel.” Fifty thousand Jews are awaiting transportation to Israel in 18 transit camps, he said, while 200 immigration officers are secretly supervising Israelbound immigration from many countries.

More than 1,500 Los Angeles Jews turned out last night to welcome Israel Ambassador Eliahu Elath at the 15th an-

nual Hanukkah banquet of the Jewish National Fund here. The dinner marked the formal launching of an effort to redeem a tract of land in the Negev in honor of Theodore Strimling, veteran Los Angeles Zionist leader.

Declaring that Jerusalem is “the capital of our people and the state of Israel,” Reuven Schreihman, Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, tonight pledged, in the name of the citizens of Jerusalem: “We will not yield to a decision, which lacks all moral basis and will not accept any government except that of Israel.”

Mr. Schreihman, who is in this country on a mission for the Histadrut, spoke before and overflow audience of 2,000 persons who attended a “Save Jerusalem” Hanukkah festival held here under the auspices of the American Jewish Congress.

A group of 55 Polish Jews, the first to arrive since the institution of the new Polish Government policy facilitating emigration of Israel-bound Jews, landed at Haifa this morning where they were greeted by a large crowd of relatives, friends and representatives of various institutions in Israel. Some of the immigrants declared that half of the Jews in

Poland are preparing to come to Israel.

Another 260 Polish Jews are expected.

The Jewish Agency estimates that beginning in January approximately 1,500 men, women and children will arrive here from Poland each month.

The immigration movement of Yemenite Jews is expected to be completed by the end of January or the middle of February, Itzhak Raphael, Agency immigration official, declared in Jerusalem last night. He estimated that there are only about 6,000 Yemenite Jews left in Yemen or Aden.

The entire country will celebrate the passing of the 1,000,000-populationmark on Dec. 19, midway through the Hanukkah festival. The day has been designated “In-Gathering of the Exiles Day” and the festivities will include the traditional Hanukkah torch-hearing marathon from Nodin, birthplace of the Maccabee revolution against the Syrians, to Jerusalem.

The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.

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B’nai Israel Synagogue Wishes the Community a Happy Hanukkah!

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B20 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021

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FOOD T H E

H A N U K K A H

E D I T I O N

A supplement to The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021

C2 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021

Tenenbaum’s Favorite Cheese Latkes

Food

Latkes: It’s a tradition SYBIL KAPLAN They’re sometimes greasy, sometimes salty and soggy, and they are fried in oil. They’re high in calories-sometimes; high fat sometimes; high cholesterol sometimes. But they’re oh, so good!

What are they?

They are Hanukkah potato pancakes, otherwise known as latkes, in what we think is Yiddish, or as levivot in Hebrew.

With all the oil used for frying, latkes may be considered an unhealthy food. Yet, each Hanukkah, many of us, who are staunch-hearted and old-fashioned, spend time grating potatoes by hand, always accidentally suffering at least one scraped finger. The more modern among us risk coming out with liquid mush by using a food processor or blender.

Why do we keep making these little pancakes year after year? Why do we eat them for Hanukkah in the first place? As Tevye says, “It’s tradition!”

But there are some real origins.

An old folk proverb does say: “Hanukkah latkes teach us that one cannot live by miracles alone.”

Joan Nathan, Jewish food writer and cookbook author, contends the word latke is not Yiddish as everyone presumes but stems from “a Russian word, latka, and a pastry, from obsolete Russian oladka or flat cake of leavened wheat dough.” This, in turn, probably came from a Middle Greek word, eladion, or oil cake, stemming from elaion, meaning olive oil.

Potato pancakes do seem to have originated among poor

Eastern European Jews, but potatoes did not become a staple until mid-19th century. John Cooper, in Eat and Be Satisfied--A Social History of Jewish Food, comments that Jews from Lithuania ate pancakes made from potato flour for Hanukkah and had borrowed the idea from the Ukrainians who made a potato pancake dish with goose fat called kartoflani platske, which they ate for Christmas. Since Hanukkah fell about the same time, and there were plenty of geese to provide goose fat or schmaltz, we could conclude that schmaltz became a substitute for oil. Jews living in the Pale of Settlement in the 17th century probably adapted it for Hanukkah as a way to dress potatoes differently for the holiday. Cooper also states that many Eastern European Jews ate buckwheat latkes for Hanukkah, while Polish Jews made placki, pancakes, from potato flour and fried them in oil.

Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, lecturer, book reviewer, food writer and author (Witness to History: Ten Years as a Woman Journalist in Israel), nine cookbooks (including What’s Cooking at Hadassah College.) She lived in Israel from 1970-1980; she and her late husband, Barry, came to live in Jerusalem in 2008, where she works as a foreign correspondent for North American Jewish publications, lectures to senior citizen residences, leads walks in English in Machaneh Yehudah, the Jewish produce market and writes stories about kosher restaurants on Janglo.net from 2014 to 2020 for which Barry photographed.

GABBY BLAIR Staff writer, Jewish Press Ready to try a little something different with your latkes this year? Why not try out the Tenenbaum’s fabulous cheese latkes?

These sweet treats are all pancake and no potato! Thank you to Rabbi Eli and Mushka Credit: chabad.org Tenenbaum at Chabad of Nebraska for sharing this delicious cheese latke recipe!

Mushka shares, “Our family enjoys making and eating these cheese latkes each year on Hanukkah as it commemorates and combines both the miracle of the oil and the heroic woman, Yehudis. For a fun filling add blueberries or chocolate chips to batter before frying. For a fun twist replace sugar with maple syrup or brown sugar!”

TENENBAUM’S FAVORITE CHEESE LATKES Ingredients: 6 eggs 16 oz. farmers cheese (can substitute with cottage cheese) 8 oz. plain yogurt 1 Tbsp. sugar 1 tsp. real vanilla extract 1/2 cup flour - about a half cup Pinch of salt Oil for frying Directions: In a large bowl mix all ingredients except flour and then add enough flour to get to ‘waffle batter’ consistency (slightly thinner than pancake batter).

Coat bottom of heated skillet with oil.

Add large spoonfuls of cheese mixture and fry 2-3 minutes on each side or until golden brown.

Serve hot.

Make a Brocha and enjoy!

Have a Happy Hanukkah!

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The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021 | C3

Padma Lakshmi heads to the Lower East Side for a Hanukkah edition of Hulu’s Taste the Nation

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Lakshmi lights a menorah on her visit to New York Central Synagogue during the Happy Challah Days episode of her Hulu show, Taste the Nation. Credit: Craig Blankenhorn/Hulu

JULIA GERGELY New York Jewish Week via JTA Padma Lakshmi’s Taste the Nation, the acclaimed food docuseries, returned to Hulu this week — with schmaltz and pickles.

In a special, four-part holiday edition, Lakshmi highlights traditional holiday foods from locations around the U.S. — she visits Los Angeles to celebrate the Korean New Year, Miami to learn about Cuban Christmas and Cape Cod to learn about food traditions of the Wampanoag Nation, and to deconstruct the holiday narrative of Thanksgiving.

To learn about Hanukkah? Lakshmi only needed to travel around the corner from her East Village apartment. In the episode, titled Happy Challah Days, she visits the Lower East Side, where hundreds of thousands of Jews lived after immigrating from Eastern Europe around the turn of the 20th century.

The episode is a New York Jewish food lover’s dream. Lakshmi — the author, model and food mogul who’s been nominated for 11 Emmys for her hosting/judging work on Bravo’s Top Chef (her Jewish co-host Gail Simmons has been nominated for two) — makes her first stop at Russ and Daughters appetizing shop on Houston Street, a Lower East Side landmark since 1914. The shop is run by Josh Russ Tupper and Niki Russ Federman, greatgrandchildren of the store’s original owner, Joel Russ.

At Russ and Daughters, Lakshmi learns to make latkes and samples many of the store’s signature Ashkenazi offerings: caviar, schmaltz, herring and liver. Lakshmi next visits the Tenement Museum, the Pickle Guys — an Essex Street mainstay

since 2010 — and New York’s Central Synagogue, where she discusses the history of Hanukkah with Rabbi Ari Lorge.

After speaking with Ruth Zimbler, a Holocaust survivor, she learns how to make holishkes (stuffed cabbage) with the creators of the artisanal gefilte-fish brand Gefilteria. She also brings her daughter Krishna along to share a brisket and kugel meal with Deb Perelman, the food blogger behind Smitten Kitchen.

The episode tells viewers the Yiddish name for each of the foods Lakshmi tastes, and celebrates the freedom Jewish communities have to practice their religion in America. Throughout, Lakshmi compares the Jewish immigrant and family experience with her own experience immigrating to the U.S. from India as a child.

Lakshmi also takes care to de-emphasize the role Hanukkah has traditionally played in Jewish culture — she knows the holiday is not as religiously important as Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and even Passover. She tells her non-Jewish audience members that, contrary to popular gentile belief, the holiday is not “Jewish Christmas.”

Instead, Lakshmi uses Hanukkah as a way to explore how Jewish-American culture came to be — its resilience, its community, its assimilation, its struggle, with food at the core of it all. She also explores her own relationship to the oil-drenched foods that play an important symbolic role during Hanukkah.

“Personally,” she said, “I’ve never needed an excuse to eat anything fried.”

The Taste the Nation episode, Happy Challah Days, is streaming now on Hulu.

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C4 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021

Eight tipsy nights: A beer drinker’s guide to Hanukkah CHAD BRODSKY In most Jewish holidays, wine gets the spotlight. Hanukkah is not one of those holidays!

When it comes to Hanukkah, it’s all about the fried foods like latkes and Jelly donuts. Sure, wine enthusiasts might say “I can pair latkes with Champagne,” but can they really? As a Certified Cicerone, the beer version of a wine sommelier, all I want with my oily golden potato pancakes is a crisp Vienna Lager, Hazy Pale Ale, or to crack open any of the beers in my Hoppy Drink your way through the 8 nights of Hanukkah with the Hoppy Hanukkah Craft Beer-a-Day Hanukkah Craft Beer-a-day Box from Brewvana. You’ll find a new beer for each night! Credit: Chad Brodsky

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Box from Brewvana. What I really love about this box is that every beer includes a nightly invitation to a virtual tasting to meet the Jews behind the brews!

And this brings up the question, is beer kosher?

Why yes, beer is kosher! ... hypothetically speaking, but it’s a bit more nuanced.

In order for beer to be kosher, it must be inspected and certified by one of the many certifying agencies (Star-K is the largest in the beer industry). But let’s be real, certifying something kosher has to be expensive. However, if your beer is brewed following Reinheitsgebot (pronounced “Rine Heights Ge-Boat”), a Bavarian beer purity law of 1516, then it can only be brewed with water, barley, hops, and yeast. Luckily, these raw ingredients are considered pareve, as they do not contain dairy or meat. If beer is produced adhering to this typical method, which a lot of beer styles do, it doesn’t violate Jewish dietary law. L’Chaim!

If you want to guarantee that your beer is kosher, you’ll want to look for a kosher certification. Not many American breweries can claim this distinction, but those that do include Samuel Adams, Shmaltz Brewing’s “He’Brew” line, Uinta Brewing, and everything from Leikam Brewing in Portland, Oregon (see the rest below). Why aren’t more breweries certified kosher? Like I mentioned above, food certification, whether it’s certified organic or kosher, is a costly process.

Craft Breweries that produce at least one kosher beer.

Samuel Adams Beer Co (MA) Schmaltz Brewing (He’Brew Line) (NY) Uinta Brewing (UT) Leikam Brewing (OR) Seven Sons Brewing (NJ) Brooklyn Brewery (NY) Lakefront Brewery (WI) Anchor Brewing (CA) Oskar Blues (CO) Ommegang Brewing (NY) Shillow Beer (CAN) When is a beer not kosher?

Even though many American craft beers meet the Bavarian purity standard—and most others are kosher—some brews don’t make the cut. The use of certain additives, undomesticated yeasts, fruit purees and some filtration and clarification methods pose potential obstacles that you may want to discuss with your rabbi.

These can include extracts or concentrates of barley and hops, but also fruits, herbs, and other flavorings. While they are technically pareve in their whole form, extracts and concentrates are processed. Other common additives may include lactose, a milk sugar, and therefore a dairy product.

Sorry, that super dank milkshake double IPA is not kosher.

Lactose is also commonly found in milk or cream stouts and fruited IPAs. What about sour beer? Unfortunately not. While most beer is brewed with traditional, domesticated brewer’s yeasts, some brewers will go the funky route and incorporate partially domesticated or wild yeasts and naturally occurring bacteria to create tart flavors. As such, you’ll find them in wild ales, brett ales, and just about any sour-tasting beer.

Most American craft beer is unfiltered, and any clarity in its visual appearance is a natural consequence of the brewing process. Occasionally though, you will find a beer that has been filtered or clarified through isinglass (made from fish bladders) or gelatin (made from collagen). Despite general rabbinical acceptance of these ingredients being used in the filtration of beverages, their inclusion in the process may not meet your own kosher standards.

For those still unsure about whether a beer was brewed only with pareve ingredients, contact the brewery and inquire about how that beer was made and what ingredients were used in the brewing process. If you are trying to play it safe, a good rule of thumb is to look for German-style lagers. If these beers are brewed true-to-style, you are good to go!

Another way to ensure your beer has no additives is to brew it yourself. Yes, there are kits out there that use certified kosher ingredients (Beer Making kits make a great Hanukkah gift).

Brewvana.com offers an IPA and Brown ale recipe who’s ingredients are either pareve or certified kosher. Their kits are great because they include a live online class where an experienced homebrewer brews alongside you, taking first-time brewers step by step through the brewing process over Zoom.

To conclude, Hanukkah should be called the festival of (F)lights. Next time Bubbe serves you some of her famous latkes, offer her a Czech pilsner to complement that fried goodness. If she likes it, maybe get her the Hoppy Hanukkah Beer Box I mentioned earlier. Brewvana did the work for us and while the box itself is not certified kosher, you’ll find 8 amazing beers and other surprises from breweries across the country, some certified kosher and the rest brewed adhering to Reinheitsgebot.

This is a paid post. JTA’s editorial team had no role in its production.

The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021 | C5

From My Kosher Jerusalem Kitchen Hanukkah Doughnuts SYBIL KAPLAN One of the things I have enjoyed the most as a food writer is learning the food customs of Jews from around the world.

When it comes to doughnuts, all of the communities make a dough dessert fried in oil. If you, too, want to celebrate Hanukkah with food, try some of these interesting doughnuts.

Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, book review, and lecturer in Jerusalem. She has compiled nine kosher cookbooks.

She created and leads weekly walks in English in Jerusalem’s Machaneh Yehudah, Jewish produce market.

She wrote features on Jerusalem’s kosher restaurants for Janglo.net from 2014 to 2020 and her late husband, Barry, photographed the dishes.

Food

TALIA’S SUFGANIYOT FOR JUNIOR COOKS Dov Noy (z”l), renowned Israel folklorist and ethnologist, relates a Bukhharian fable, which says the first sufganiya was a sweet given to Adam and Eve as compensation after their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. He says the word sufganiya comes from the Hebrew word, sof (meaning end), gan (meaning garden) and Ya (meaning G-d). Thus the word means, the end of G-d’s garden.

According to Noy, this fable was created at the beginning of the 20th century, since sufganiya was a new Hebrew word coined by pioneers.

TALIA’S SUFGANIYOT FOR JUNIOR COOKS

MOROCCAN SHVINZE

A few months ago, I happened to stop at a bread vendor in Machaneh Yehudah, the Jewish produce market where I shop and lead weekly walks, to ask what was a pastry he was selling. He told me it was shvinze. Many years ago, a neighbor had given me her mother’s receipt for Hanukkah Shvinze.

Ingredients: 3 1/2 cps flour 1 1/2 cups plain yogurt 2 eggs 2 Tbsp. sugar pinch salt 1/2 tsp. vanilla oil Directions: In a mixing bowl, supervised by an adult, combine flour, yogurt, sugar and salt. Add eggs and vanilla and blend.

Heat oil in a deep pot (with an adult’s help). Drop dough by tablespoon into oil. Fry until brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels. When cool to the touch, fill, using a tube or a large syringe, with your favorite jelly. Roll in confectioners’ sugar.

Ingredients: 1 2/3 Tbsp. yeast 1/4 cup lukewarm water pinch salt 4 cups flour oil honey or confectioners’ sugar Directions: Place yeast in a small bowl with water. Place flour in another bowl. After the yeast swells, add to the flour, add salt and knead into an elastic dough.

Place oil in a deep pot. Wet hands, take a piece of dough and shape it into a circle, Punch a hole in the center then drop the dough into oil. Brown it on both sides. Drain on paper towels.

Serve with honey or confectioners’ sugar.

Some say sufganiyot, which means sponge like, are reminiscent of the sweet, spongy cookie popular along the Mediterranean since the time of the Maccabees. Hebrew dictionaries say the word actually comes from the Greek word, sufgan, meaning puffed and fried.

These are the traditional Israeli doughnuts which can be filled or left plain. Talia was 5 1/2 years old when she gave me this recipe. Today she is grown, a mother of four, a tour guide married to a photographer and living in—the scene of the Hanukah story, Modiin.

See Hanukkah Doughnuts more recipes page C7

C6 | The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021

Food

Expand your palate this Hanukkah

GABBY BLAIR Staff writer, Jewish Press When considering Hanukkah foods, I bet the first thing that comes to mind are crispy potato latkes followed by deep fried jelly filled sufganiyot dusted with sugar (or glazed a la Krispy Kreme, for us Omahans.)

While the latke will always reign supreme as the THE quin-

KEFTES DE PRASA

Iberian in origin, this traditional food spread through Greece and Turkey becoming a Hanukkah favorite. Similar to our beloved potato latke, the Sephardic Keftes de Prasa are leek fritters. Light, sweet and nutty in flavor, these savory fritters are less dense than their latke cousin.

Here is the recipe for Keftes de Prasa from the one and only Gil Marks, renowned historian of Jewish cuisines and author of The Encyclopedia of Jewish Food.

tessential Hanukkah food for the majority of American Jews, Jewish communities around the world have their own traditional Hanukkah dishes- ranging from sweet to savory- all fried in the symbolic oil whose miracle we celebrate.

What better time than now to expand your Hanukkah palate? Try out a new recipe and let us know what you think!

BUNUELOS/BIMUELOS

Similar in taste to a funnel cake, bunuelos (known as bimuelos in Ladino) is an old recipe. How old you ask? Apparently, bunuelos or bimuelos may be biblically old. The first translation of the Torah into Ladino took place in 1547 Istanbul and describes the G-d given manna that sustained the Israelites through their journey through the desert as tasting like bunuelos in honey.

Originating in Spain and Portugal, bunuelos became covertly known as a food of Marranos- those Jews who were-

forced to outwardly convert to Christianity by crusaders yet found ways to covertly partake in small bits of traditions until the meanings behind them were obscured to future generations. Long popular around Hanukkah before the realization that Hanukkah was the reason behind that tradition, Bimuelos are a popular Hanukkah recipe throughout Jewish communities in Latin America. Consisting of flour, sugar, yeast, water and salt with oil for frying, this simple recipe may just be the great great-great-grandparent of today’s modern sufganiyot.

BIMUELOS WITH HONEY WITH ORANGE DRIZZLE Recipe adapted from Adeena Sussman. See https://www.myjewishlearning.com/recipe/bimuelos-with-honey-orange-drizzle/

Ingredients: 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil, plus more for frying 1 Tbsp. active dry yeast 1 1/2 cups warm water, divided juice of 1 large orange, strained of pulp (about 1/3 cup), divided 1 tsp. finely grated orange zest 3/4 tsp. salt 1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. sugar 1 cup honey 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions: Combine flour, 1 tablespoon sugar and salt in a large bowl. Reserve.

Pour 1/2 cup water into a large bowl. Sprinkle sugar and yeast over water and wait until mixture become foamy, about 10 minutes.

Add flour mixture, remaining water, 3 tablespoons orange juice, orange zest, and 2 tablespoons oil to yeast mixture and stir with a wooden spoon to combine, about 30 seconds.

Using your hands, knead dough in bowl until smooth, adding 1 tablespoon of additional flour at a time to reduce stickiness, for about 1-2 minutes.

Remove dough and place in a clean, lightly oiled bowl. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rest until dough has doubled in volume, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Credit: Francesc Fort Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Heat about 4 inches of oil in a large, tall pot to about 350-360F (very hot but not smoking, or when a pea-sized piece of dough turns brown immediately when dropped into oil).

Lightly oil hands, form dough into walnut-sized balls, and drop into oil in batches. Fry until golden brown on both sides, about 3-4 minutes total. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.

Place honey and remaining orange juice in a small saucepan and simmer 3-4 minutes until warm. Drizzle honey over doughnuts and serve.

Credit: toriavey.com

Ingredients: 2 lbs leeks (6-10 medium sized, white and green parts only) 1 cup mashed potatoes 1/3 cup ground walnuts 1/2 cup bread crumbs 2 large eggs, lightly beaten 1 tbsp olive or vegetable oil 2-4 cloves garlic, mashed 1 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. pepper, or more to taste 1/4-1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg, chili flakes, or cayenne (optional) Lemon wedges (optional)

Directions: Halve the leeks lengthwise.

Slice the halved leeks thinly.

Rinse the sliced leeks thoroughly.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the leeks, cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer until very tender, about 20 minutes.

Drain the leeks and let cool. Squeeze out excess liquid.

In a large bowl, combine the leeks, potatoes, and breadcrumbs.

Add the eggs, 1 teaspoon. of oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and additional seasoning (if using). If the mixture is too soft to form patties, add a little more bread crumbs or form the loose mixture into clumps and dredge them in bread crumbs to flatten.

For each patty, shape 3-4 tablespoon of leek mixture into an oval 2 1/2 inches long, 1 inch wide, and 1/2 inch thick, with tapered ends (like a football).

In a large skillet, heat about 1/2 inch oil over medium-high heat till hot enough for frying. Fry the patties in batches, turning once, until golden brown on both sides-- about 3 minutes per side.

Drain the fried patties on paper towels.

Serve hot or at room temperature, accompanied, if desired, with the lemon wedges.

Happy Hanukkah Dr. James Wax

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The Jewish Press | November 19, 2021 | C7

Hanukkah Doughnuts Continued from page C5

SYRIAN ZINGOLE

Another neighbor at the same time made these desserts which she learned from her mother who came from Syria.

Place flour in another bowl. Add yeast and then more water to make a liquidy batter.

Heat oil in a deep pot. Spoon batter around pan like pancakes. Fry until brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels.

Combine sugar, water and lemon juice in a saucepan. Cook until sugar dissolves.

Dip each pancake in sauce, then place on a serving platter.

Ingredients: 2 tsp. yeast few spoons warm water 2 cups flour 1 1/2 cup water oil Sauce 1 cup sugar 1 cup water 1 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice Directions: Place yeast in a small bowl. Add a few spoons of warm water to dissolve.

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