NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS
JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER METROWEST NJ
Vol. LXVIII No. 50 | 19 Kislev, 5775 December 11, 2014 | njjewishnews.com
4
State&Local
39
Opinion
HanukkaGreetings 42
Life&Times
45
Calendar
45
Candlelighting
48
Community
49
LifeCycle
52
Classifieds
NEED AN EXTRA HAND DURING THE HOLIDAYS? If you are caring for a loved one and need some extra support during the holidays, CareOne may be able to help. CareOne at Livingston and CareOne at Livingston Assisted Living offer short term respite stays. Our respite programs allow seniors a safe and comfortable setting where they get the assistance they need and families get the piece of mind they deserve. If you are going out of town, have guests coming into town, have an aid that is going away, or simply need to time during the holidays, give CareOne a call.
Happy Holidays!
CareOne at Livingston Skilled Nursing 973-758-9000
CareOne at Livingston Assisted Living 973-758-4100
68 Passaic Ave • Livingston, NJ 07039
76 Passaic Ave • Livingston, NJ 07039
HanukkaGreetings Beyond latkes Hanukka around the world
East Hanover Diner
Ruth Abusch Magder MyJewishLearning.com
275 Route 10 East, East Hanover, NJ (973) 884-8840
SAN FRANCISCO — Hanukka is observed with joy and celebration in Jewish communities around the world. There are eight nights of lights and blessings the world over, but there are also many ways that different communities make the holiday uniquely their own. Here are several customs and ideas to help you make your celebration just a little more global.
And visit our other location
In Santa Marta, Colombia, the new Jewish community Chavurah Shirat Hayyam has started its own traditional Hanukka recipe: Instead of eating fried potato latkes, they eat patacones, or fried plantains. The Jewish communities in Ethiopia and parts of India split off from the larger Jewish community in ancient time before Hanukka was established as a Jewish holiday. They only began celebrating Hanukka in modern times, when their communities were reunited with other Jewish communities.
In Alsace, a region of France, double-decker Hanukka menoras were common with space for 16 lights. The two levels, each with spots for eight lights, allowed fathers and sons to join together as they each lit their In 1839, thousands of Jews fled own lights in one single menora. Persia, where the Muslim authoriThere is a custom of placing your ties began forcibly converting them, menora in a place where people will and settled in Afghanistan. While some of them lived openly as be able to view Jews, others hid the lights burntheir Jewish ing and appreciidentity. When ate the miracle Hanukka time of the holiday. came around, In some Jeruthey would not salem neighlight a special borhoods, menorah for spaces are cut fear it would into the sides attract the of buildings notice of Musso people can lim neighbors. display them Instead they outside. Hiswould fill little torically in counplates with oil and tries like Morroco and Algeria, and even some communities in India, it set them near each other. If neighbors was customary to hang a menora on stopped by, they could simply make a hook on a wall near the doorway on the menorah disappear by spreading the side of the door across from the the plates around the house. mezuza. The rich culinary traditions of the In Yemenite and North African Moroccan Jewish community know Jewish communities, the seventh not of potato latkes or jelly doughnight of Hanukka is set aside as a par- nuts. Rather they favor the citrusy ticular women’s holiday commemo- flavors of the sfenj doughnut, which rating Hannah, who sacrificed seven was made with the juice and zest of sons rather than give in to the Greek an orange. Notably, from the early pressure to abandon Jewish practice, days of nation building in Israel, the and in honor or Judith, whose seduc- orange came to be associated with tion and assassination of Holofernes, the holiday of Hanukka as the famed the Assyrian emperor Nebuchadnez- Jaffa oranges came into season in zar’s top general, led to Jewish mili- time for the holiday celebrations. n tary victory. Gift giving at Hanukka time is primarily a North American custom, but it is easy to make it global by gifting Jewish items made around the world like handmade necklaces from Uganda, hallah covers from Ghana, or kipot from China.
Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder PhD is the rabbi in residence at Be’chol Lashon and the editor of the blog Jewish&. A culinary historian and mother of two, she lives and meditates in San Francisco. Follow her on Twitter @rabbiruth.
29 December 11, 2014
Brookside Diner - Restaurant Owned & Operated by Karsos Brothers 699 Rt. 10 East Whippany, NJ (973) 515-4433 www.brooksidediner.com
Now taking holiday baking orders!
r
Wishing you a
Happy Hanukka
Affiliates in Gastroenterology, P.A. Diplomates American Board Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology Zalman R. Schrader, M.D. William C. Sloan, M.D. Lawrence B. Stein, M.D. Michael A. Samach, M.D. Carl B. Wallach, M.D. Robert W. Schuman, M.D. Ellen J. Rosen, M.D. Matthew P. Askin, M.D. John D. Morton, M.D. Lawrence S. Rosenthal, MD 101 Madison Ave, Suite 100 Morristown, NJ 07960 (973) 455-0404 Fax (973) 540-8788
101 Madison Ave, Suite 102 Morristown, NJ 07960 (973) 410-0960 Fax (973) 455-1671
101 Old Short Hills Rd Suite 217 West Orange, NJ 07052 (973) 731-4600 Fax (973) 731-1477 J N JJN
HanukkaGreetings
Happy Hanukka Your Friends at
Getting gelt was good as gold
Best Wishes for a Happy Hanukka
Edmon J. Rodman JTA
Edward M. Decter, M.D. Andrew M. Hutter, M.D. Steven G. Robbins, M.D. Kevin J. Egan, M.D. Neil Kahanovitz, M.D. Matthew H. Zornitzer, M.D. David M. Loya, M.D. Announcing our newest associate Kristen A. Herbst, D.O.
CENTER FOR ORTHOPAEDICS 1500 Pleasant Valley Way Suite 101 West Orange, NJ 07052 (973) 669-5600
Visit us online @ njjewishnews.com.
LOS ANGELES — What can a buck get you on Hanukka? Maybe a gold mesh bag of chocolate coins or a lighter for your menora. But Jewish continuity? At Hanukka time, when we get so wrapped up in gift giving, I propose that it’s a single dollar of gelt (Yiddish for money) that has the power to keep on giving beyond eight nights. Hanukka gelt referred originally in Europe and later America to coins given as gifts to children and adults. Today, gelt brings to mind the chocolate coins wrapped in gold and silver foil that come in a small mesh bag. But lately, gelt-wise, I’ve been thinking outside the bag and wondering why of all the Hanukka gifts that I received as a child, it is the shiny silver dollars given by my parents that I remember best. I never even spent them. Was something more than a dollar being given? When I was a teenager, and the silver dollars stopped and were replaced by clothes and books, I was surprised by how much I missed the holiday ritual of being handed a dollar. It wasn’t until I was engaged that someone gave me one again. I had been invited to a family Hanukka party at the home of my fiance Brenda’s Sephardi grandmother, Grace Hasson, or as everyone called her, “Vava.” Some three dozen relatives — aunts and uncles, cousins and their spouses — crowded into a small living room. We said blessings for the candle
30 December 11, 2014
J N JJN
lighting and sang songs before moving on to dinner. The feeling was nice, warm; nothing unusual. After dinner and some bunuelos — sugar-powdered fried balls of dough — someone said it was time for “gelt.” Gelt? For whom? I watched as four dining room chairs were lined up at one end of the room and four uncles seated. One by one, with the oldest going first, the name of each grandchild was called, and each came forward to pass down the “gelt line.” My future mother-in-law, Shirley, knowing everyone’s birthday, kept the chronology straight, and when the time came for Brenda, I was surprised to be included with her. In my late 20s, I thought myself beyond getting gelt. But as I passed down the line, each uncle pressed a crisp $1 bill into my hand (Stanley Berko, my future father-in-law, gave me a $2 bill), and as I shook their hands and wished each a “Happy Hanukka,” I felt like a million bucks. When Brenda reached the end of the line, her grandmother handed her a white envelope. At Hanukka, “You got a dollar from each uncle, two from your own parents and two from Vava, plus a birthday bond,” explained Joe Hasson, my wife’s brother. Hasson recalls using the $7 to buy record albums or gas for his car. “We also used the bills to play liar’s
Continued on next page
HanukkaGreetings Gelt from previous page poker,” he added. “I would bring girlfriends, and they would get a big kick out of it. It made you feel good to continue the tradition,” said Hasson, who is married and has two children who also went through the line. He remembers the line as a kind of roll call. “It was the only time you would see all the cousins,” he said. However, I soon realized, one didn’t even need to be present to be counted. If for some reason you couldn’t make it, someone would be designated to go through the line for you. One of the uncles, Lou Hasson, remembers the tradition beginning in the mid-1960s. “There are four branches of our family. It was wonderful to have them together,” he said. Another of the uncles, Gene Levey, said that “before we gave
After some 40 years, however, “It didn’t matter to me if it was $100 bill or a dollar, I really wouldn’t when she was 25, those moments have cared,” wrote Beau Karabel, stopped with Vava’s passing in 2008 one of the great-grandchildren, in at 104. a text. “I just loved these guys and “I miss it so much,” Petruzzi said. For Rachel’s mother, Ellen Petruzzi, the line was a means of family continuity. Even with the untimely deaths of several of the aunts and ‘Going through the gelt line, you would uncles, including her mother’s, she get a special moment with each uncle noted that the family carried on with its Hanukka tradition. and my grandfather. I miss it so much.’ “We have strong feelings for each other,” Ellen Petruzzi said of her extended family, who continue to get together at Passover and Rosh Hashana — a dinner that Brenda ters doubled to approximately 40. wanted to be them one day.” R a c h e l P e t r u z z i , a n o t h e r and I now host that is flavored with Berko, who remembers going to the bank to get about $75, recalled that great-grandchild, said she remem- a dish from each family. “We are n his first gelt line was also the year he b e r s “ g e t t i n g t o g e t h e r a s t h i s strongly connected.” married into the family. humungous unit” at Hanukka. “I didn’t even know everyone’s “Going through the gelt line, you Edmon J. Rodman is a JTA colname, but I wanted to be part of it, would get a special moment with umnist who writes on Jewish life too,” he said, as did the next gener- each uncle and my grandfather,” from Los Angeles. Contact him at edmojace@gmail.com. she said. ation. gelt, each family would pick another family and give them gifts, but it was hard to know what to buy.” As the cousins married and had children, the number of gelt get-
Happy Hanukkah May the Spirit and Warmth of the Festival of Lights shine brightly for you and yours.
From Our Jewish Home To Yours
To Our Residents, Family Members, Staff and Friends in the Community
Best Personal Wishes, Congressman Leonard Lance
Paid for by Leonard Lance For Congress
31 December 11, 2014
Wishing You and Your Family a
1155 Pleasant Valley Way, West Orange, NJ 07052
973-731-5100 J N JJN
www.DaughtersofIsrael.org
Happy Hanukka
J&S
designer flooring
Javid & Sima HaKaKiaN & STaFF
12 Mt. Kemble Avenue, Morristown, NJ 07960 973-605-5225 www.jsdesignerflooring.com
With our warmest wishes at Hanukka The Dangler Family
600 Speedwell Avenue Morris Plains, NJ 07950 973-539-3300 Kip Dangler, Dir • N.J. Lic. No. 3992 Christine M. Dangler, Mgr • N.J. Lic. No. 4706
James E. Dangler 1948 – 2005
Happy Hanukka
100 Eagle Rock Avenue, Suite 200 East Hanover, NJ 07936 (973) 929-3500 NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS is printed on recycled paper. Please read & recycle.
HanukkaGreetings What the shmita year can teach us about Hanukka Dasee Berkowitz JTA
JERUSALEM — When the Maccabees climbed the stairs of the Temple in Jerusalem, they lit the menora with the knowledge that there was only enough oil to last for one day. Only a miracle could turn oil into a renewable resource. And the future of the planet urges us not to depend on miracles. The faith and initiative shown by the Maccabees can inspire us this year to take greater action, especially during a Hanukka that falls during the shmita year. Shmita is the biblically ordained law that has roots in agriculture and building a just society. It’s a call for the land of Israel to rest every seventh year, for debts to be forgiven, and for slaves to be released. Jewish environmental activists, communal leaders and educators (from Hazon, Siah, Teva Ivri, among others) have created robust platforms (conferences, papers, websites, and synagogue task forces) to help us consider what shmita can mean for us today living in a mainly nonagrarian society. They have confronted us to think about our mission as a people and how caring for God’s earth is central to that mission. They have developed practical ideas that range from the personal and communal to the national. On the personal and communal levels, they encourage us to create more energy-efficient homes and institutions, to place recycling centers at the entrance to our institutions that serve as eco-mezuzahs, and to get outside more (even in winter) to appreciate the majesty of the natural world. On a national level in Israel, Knesset Member Ruth Calderon and the minister for social welfare have created a financial recovery program to help needy families settle their debts, and others have created on-line time banks that give volunteers an opportunity to contribute their time and skill to the needy in our community. All of these are a part of an initiative to infuse new life into an ancient (and sometimes seemingly antiquated) law. How can a shmita consciousness this Hanukka help open up another dimension of the holiday? Here are some ideas: • Use less electricity: Different from Shabbat candles, we are not meant to use the light of the Hanukka candles for practical purposes. Encouraged to “l’rotam bilvad” (literally, “only see them”), we slow down and are fully present to remind ourselves of the miracle of the oil that lasted longer than it naturally should. While the Hanukka candles are burning, turn off all the lights in your home and think about renewable energy sources as you view the small flame. Save electricity for those thirty minutes, and when the candles burn down and you turn on the artificial lights, have a greater consciousness about the kinds of energy you use and think about switching to the miracle of solar power. • Consume less and celebrate more: Many analysts agree that one of the major problems with our ecological crisis is overconsumption. Americans make up only 5 percent of the population of the world but consume 20 percent of its resources (food, water and energy.) In the Jewish community, our affluence contributes to this trend. Instead of placing our emphasis on the material — presents and more presents — let’s think about how we can celebrate in a more creative way. Songs, games, gestures of
32 December 11, 2014
N JJN
love and friendship are free. Make these things the center of your Hanukka celebration this year; it can be a model for moderation in consumption that we exercise for the rest of the year. • Forgive debts: Whether you have actually lent money to someone in the last three months, this is the year to forgive these debts. But on a more spiritual level, consider how you can be more forgiving this Hanukka. If there is anyone you hold a grudge against or think you are owed something from, forgive them. • Appreciate nature more: Especially in the winter, it is harder to appreciate nature when we are cooped up inside. This Hanukka, make a point to go for a walk (just dress warmly), breathe the air, take delight in a small part of your garden or a tree on the street. • Buy fair trade chocolate gelt: A shmita consciousness considers what “releasing slaves” can mean for us in our day-to-day lives. And while we might have a Pavlovian reaction to those golden coins in a mesh yellow bag, the chocolate industry is known to use child labor in their production of chocolate. This year, think about purchasing fair trade chocolate. • Rest: The shmita year calls for the land to rest and can inspire us to think about what rest means for us on a personal level. Consider the difference between how we spend the holiday — rushing from party to party while balancing work/family/friends/ volunteer commitments. At the end of the day, all we want to do is “tune out” (with Facebook, e-mail, and TV). Think about “tuning in” to the kind of rest that will replenish you as shmita will replenish the earth. At candle-lighting, offer a short meditation that reflects on your day and sets an intention for the hours ahead, eat healthier food (bake your latkes, don’t fry them), read, and sleep. • Share: When land lies fallow during the shmita year, the fields are open for the needy to partake. This mitzva is as countercultural as it gets for westerners living in a capitalist society as it confronts us with the notion that nothing really belongs to us. This Hanukka, share with others who really need it. Cut down on your gift budget by half and increase your tzedaka budget by the same. • Publicize: One of the Hanukka mitzvot is “persumei d’nisa,” to make the miracle of Hanukka public by placing your hanukkiyah in your window (or even outside your home.) This Hanukka, take your environmental awareness to the streets and share what you are doing with others to have a shmita consciousness. So as the days get shorter and the nights grow longer, as we spend more time huddled indoors disconnected from the natural world that surrounds us, and as artificial light masks the darkness, let’s not forget about the majesty of the created world. When we strike the match to light our Hanukka candles this year, we are inspired by the spirit of the Maccabees to renew our energy to create positive ■ change for our planet. Dasee Berkowitz is a Jewish educational consultant and writer living in Jerusalem. She is a frequent contributor to JTA, the Forward, and Kveller.com.
HanukkaGreetings Music hath charms to soothe the ‘December dilemma’ Hillel Kuttler JTA
PHILADELPHIA — In text accompanying a It also encapsulates the theme of the exhibition, new exhibition at this city’s National Museum which carries the provocative title of “’Twas the Night Before Hanukka.” of American Jewish History, Sammy Davis Jr. is quoted on why he conThe exhibition, which highlights the music of Hanukka and Christmas, verted to Judaism. “I became a Jew because I was and the people behind some of the holidays’ songs, is auditory ready and willing to understand the rather than visual, homey rather plight of a people who fought for thousands of years for a homeland,” than museumy. No documents the late entertainer said. or objects are displayed. Words What immediately follows is a are mostly absent from the walls. curator’s observation: “Davis knew Standing is implicitly discouraged. The atmosphere in the small that becoming a Jew also meant recording Christmas songs.” exhibition area better resembles The comment, while someone’s family room: comfy couches, what facetious, has a ring of truth upholstered chairs, carpeting, and to it: Some of the most popular floor-to-ceiling windows; shelves Christmas tunes were written containing books about the holidays and/or sung by American Jews (like on how Jewish teenagers can cope — notably the children of immigrants, like with Christmas pressures); record players for adults and children along with Irving Berlin, who composed the iconic “White Christmas,” or, in Davis’s case, those who were holiday albums; Legos from a hanukkiya kit. “It’s more of an experience than a traditional new to Judaism.
museum exhibit that’s artifact-heavy,” co-curator Ivy Weingram said. “I like to think of the songs as the artifacts.” Indeed, the main attractions are the iPads resting on the blue plastic-block end tables. Visitors can get cozy on the sofas and select a song to lose themselves in through the provided earphones. Enjoying the music while watching snow fall on Independence Hall this winter — all a visitor would seem to lack to complete the indoor Americana ideal is a mug of hot cocoa. The iPads offer the Jewishly numerically significant 18 Hanukka songs and 18 Christmas songs; nearly all the singers and songwriters featured were Jews. Debbie Friedman’s “The Latke Song” and Sol See
Music page 37
Wishes you a
Happy Hanukkah
Happy Hanukkah!
VizcayaNJ.com
Wishing you a very Happy Hanukka
Learn more about us at
www.goldaochacademy.org 33 December 11, 2014
N JJN
roosevelt plaza 2 west northfield road • livingston (973) 994-1384 • (973) 994-0291
Happy Hanukka from our family to yours.
Happy Hanukka
Hanukka Greetings Fun ideas for Hanukka nights
West Orange
Pleasantdale Center, 653 Eagle Rock Ave. (973) 731-3155
Union
1350 Galloping Hill Road at Five Points (908) 687-4437
Nina Badzin Kveller.com
Short Hills
MINNEAPOLIS — The Hanukka I see in children’s books demonstrates families playing dreidel and eating latkes while the menora shines brilliantly in the window. Then there’s the inevitable illustration of the kids’ utter elation when the parents unveil a bag of gelt night after night. The scene sounds delightful, but I can’t imagine it’s realistic in all Jewish homes. Let’s be honest: Starting in October, lots of Jewish kids obsess over the “holiday” (aka Christmas) catalogs that arrive daily in mailboxes across the country. Right or wrong, at some point this tradition of eight nights of gifts as influenced by Christmas has become part of the Hanukka many of us know and love. And yes, yes, yes, I know that letting Hanukka resemble Christmas undermines the main message of Hanukka. I don’t need the lecture. My kids go to Chabad every Shabbat morning. They love Shabbat dinners, decorating the sukka and attending ice cream parties for Shavuot. They even know that Hanukka celebrates the war story of the Maccabees’ unlikely defeat of the Greeks (and not just the oil lasting for eight days). Nobody would accuse my husband and me of neglecting to pass on a healthy dose of serious Jewish tradition to our children. Nevertheless, instead of completely trying to fight this Christmas imitation during Hanukka, I’ve come to embrace it by adding my own practical and reasonable twist to the nightly celebrations. I mean, just because I let my kids open gifts during every night of Hanukka, it doesn’t mean that the toy section of Target needs to take up temporary residence in my living room. Trust me, you can do eight nights of gifts without creating spoiled brats, even if it seems like on a couple of the nights the only thing missing is the eggnog and the tree. Here are some ideas for a festive but practical Hanukka. Use any of them any night you need to throw in something different:
734 Morris Turnpike, Next to Panera’s (973) 376-0036
Clifton Commons
Route 3, next to Staples (973) 574-7555
Shop online at: www.walterbauman.com
New Jersey Jewish News Staff
THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES AND MANAGEMENT STAFF OF THE OSCAR AND ELLA WILF CAMPUS FOR SENIOR LIVING
WISH YOU AND YOUR FAMILY A
HAPPY CHANUKAH Stein Assisted Living Residence Stein Hospice Wilentz Senior Residence Wilf Transport Wilf at Home The Foundation
Games and puzzles night Use the holiday as a time to take stock of the games and puzzles it’s time to retire due to the kids’ increased skill level or their propensity to misplace essential pieces.
Book night Give the kids all those books you were guilted into buying at the school’s Scholastic book fair. This is also the perfect opportunity to sign up for PJ Library to get a free Jewish book in the mail every month.
34 December 11, 2014
J N JJN
HanukkaGreetings grandparents or aunts and uncles that live out of Wardrobe renewal night Clothes you would have bought anyway can make town and like to send gifts. great gifts — think pajamas or fun socks and Creative practicality/memory night: tights. Another idea is hats and gloves that they already lost in early November. (I live in Minne- My kids are packrats. This year I’m trying to teach them the art of keeping only their favorite projects sota.) and other junk — I mean memories — which is why each of the kids will receive a plastic box with Family party night! If at any point during Hanukka we’re having a their name and the word “memories” on the cover. party with members of our extended family, I do A night of giving back not give the kids anything from us. They seem to get their toy fix on this night. This can also work At the end of Hanukka we discuss where we want to with friends or neighbors if you don’t have family donate money and time as a family in the upcomnearby. Just be sure to clarify the parameters on ing fiscal year. Or you can make a ‘donation credit gifts so it works out for everyone relatively equally. card’ for each child and go online that evening and make a donation to the charity of their choice in the amount on the ‘credit card.’ It’s also a great Replenishment night night for siblings to exchange presents and to give Construction paper running low? Markers are dry? something to Mom and Dad (maybe using the art It’s the perfect time to restock the art supplies. n supplies they got earlier in the week).
Gift in the mail night Gifts from out-of-town family can be a great night of Hanukka; hopefully the kids get gifts they love, you don’t have to buy them, and saying thank you is a great excuse to call the family and also wish them a happy holiday. Hopefully you have some
Nina Badzin is a columnist for The HerStories Project and for Tcjewfolk.com. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband and four children. She tweets at @NinaBadzin, blogs regularly at ninabadzin.com and is on Facebook at facebook.com/NinaBadzinBlog.
Wishing You a Happy Chanukah Wishingfrom You aall Happy of us Chanukah at from all of at P.C. Meisel, Tuteur & us Lewis, Meisel, Tuteur & Lewis, P.C.
Accounting Tax Planning Estate and Wealth Planning Family Business Consulting Realand Estate Consulting Accounting Tax Planning Estate Wealth Planning Litigation Support Forensic Accounting Management Consulting Family Business Consulting Real Estate Consulting Litigation Support Forensic Accounting Management Consulting 101 Eisenhower Parkway Roseland, NJ 07068 Phone: 973.228.4600 www.mtlcpa.com 101 Eisenhower Parkway Roseland, NJ 07068 Phone: 973.228.4600 www.mtlcpa.com
35 December 11, 2014
J N JJN
Happy Hanukka from
Didi Rosen
& Audrey Katz
35 No. Livingston Ave. Livingston, NJ 07089 Office: (973) 994-4884 ext. 1235 or 1246 Didi Rosen 973-495-4801 Audrey Katz 973-476-3021
Happy Chanukah!
And best wishes for a happy, prosperous New Year!
800.448.PROV ProvidentNJ.com
Tell our advertisers you saw them in the Jewish News.
HanukkaGreetings Thoughts of Hanukka applesauce and a bygone era Hillel Kuttler JTA BALTIMORE — Beyond the rusty orange leaves, the sky hugging the orchard flourished in pastel blue — a hue that surprisingly didn’t define my mood while stretched out upon the grass, head nestled in interlocked palms that sweet October day. Surprisingly because the Sunday afternoon outing marked a jarring wrinkle in a cherished autumnal tradition. With one son serving in the Israeli army and another participating in a post-high-school one-year program in Jerusalem, this apple-picking foray would be my first as an empty nester. I’d dreaded it — and even with Hanukka seemingly way off, holiday implications would surely be felt. Every apple-picking venture, after all, concluded thus: Having driven us the 45 minutes home, I’d promptly lay the three bulging bags of Granny Smiths on the kitchen floor; peel, core, and slice most of the apples; and drop the bounty into a pot until the brew of fruit, water, sugar, and cinnamon reached a pungent boil. With a serving fork, I’d trap apple solids against the pot’s side until the
crushed remnants descended and dissolved into the thickening goo. Then, even before the beige-yellow yumminess cooled, I’d spoon it into justwashed jars that had previously held tomato sauce or salsa. Before twisting the lids tight, I’d stretch plastic wrap across the jar mouths to preserve the contents. By Hanukka, we’d be rewarded. When it comes to latkes, we are an applesauce family. In the decades since graduating college, I’ve become ever-more proficient in the kitchen, creating an expanding array of soups, main courses, breads and desserts. My family has always eaten well, as have Shabbat and holiday guests. The apple-picking outings leading to applesauce eatings were different, though. No Kuttler had harvested, slaughtered and picked the wheat, meat, and produce that became meals — but our own hands had plucked
We Would Like To Wish You And Yours A Happy Hanukka
www.yanina-co.com 451-455 PomPton avenue / cedar grove, nj 07009 973-857-5544 665 martinsville road / basking ridge, nj 07920 908-607-1800
each green apple. And cooking up 25 pounds of the fruit every October proved surprisingly easy and eminently, edibly popular, as our Ratner’s cookbook with the tattered cover attests. Up to 10 jars of applesauce resulted from an outing, which doesn’t seem like much, considering the quantity of fruit with which we began. But vacuum-packed, they last surprisingly long. Each Hanukka, a few jars would be consumed with homemade latkes. We’d also bring a jar here or there to lunch hosts; anyone can present a bottle of wine or a loaf of challah (and I have), but applesauce is different, special. The rest of our picking bounty went for fruit munching and pies. Eventually the supply ran out; we’d have to bide our time for the next autumn harvest. Autumn Sundays are best lived with country drives, small-town lingering, and apple picking. But on this drive west, I felt a pit in my stomach. My sons had left home each of the past two Labor Days. Each transition hurt, but defense mechanisms readily kicked in: Yossi’s bed sat unmade because he’d return in a few months to visit; the history books on Gil’s floor still remain where he’d prefer them. I convinced myself I could adjust to their long-term absence because for so many years, they had spent part of each week at their mother’s, anyway. Going to Larriland Farm this time would be different because the two hours we used to spend at the Howard County orchard were so wonderful. The open fields always beckoned with football-catch opportunities. One son would snag a rotted apple
36 December 11, 2014
J N JJN
to heave at a tree to see how gross the splattering might be; the other offered an apple distance-throwing challenge. We’d chomp on Granny Smiths while meandering down a line of the low-hanging, vine-like branches, juice dripping down mouths and onto sweatshirts. We’d pose for pictures, one year’s portrait evolving into the next, and we could still match each image with the football game that had been broadcast on the car radio driving home. Now there was no catch, no splatters, no portraits. The family’s moments in that place and time had passed. More than 15 years — vanished. It’d be painful to return. This time, there weren’t even Granny Smiths, the boys’ favorite — they wouldn’t be ripe for another week, the woman at the cash register said. So I snagged some reddish Staymans, a tart alternative, and ate my way down the 300-yard-long row. On this first day following Sukkot, the harvest holiday, my plastic bag gradually filled and bulged with apples. This year the one bag sufficed. I photographed some hanging clusters of Staymans. At row’s end, the comforting sun couldn’t be ignored. There, at the property’s fence, I lay down and stared up, reveling in nature’s glorious setting. The branches above rustled loudly, and an acorn fell nearby. I smiled and, after 10 minutes, arose comforted. The orchard’s row remained devoid of people, as if the agricultural ghost town were all mine. I turned a corner to follow another row out. Two young women held hands, stretched out on the lawn beside their bags of pickings, basking in the warmth I’d just devoured. “A day doesn’t get more perfect than this,” I said. “That is so true,” one woman responded, wishing me a pleasant day. The orchard felt far less lonely and ghostly, less bittersweet — just sweet. A hay ride filled with children rolled on nearby. On the drive home, my Ravens were demolishing the Falcons. By mid-November, the apples remained refrigerated, having not yet been peeled, cored, sliced, diced, cooked, scooped, and jarred. Before Hanukka comes, though, the fresh batch will have been made. By then, the remaining two containers of 2013 vintage will be gone. n
HanukkaGreetings Music from page 33 Zim’s “Maoz Tsur” are among the 36, but far more fascinating are the crossovers. Eddie Cantor (born Edward Israel Iskowitz) sings “The Only Thing I Want for Christmas.” Benny Goodman performs “Santa Claus Came in the Spring.” Opera great Richard Tucker, trained as a cantor at a Brooklyn synagogue, has “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” And the non-Jews doing Hanukka? Try Woody Guthrie (“Hanukka Dance”), The Indigo Girls (“Happy Joyous Hanukka”), and Don McLean (“Dreidel”). What in the name of assimilation is going on here? “All holidays, in many ways, are cultural constructions,” explained Josh Kun, a University of Southern California professor and co-curator of the exhibition with Weingram. The exhibition grew out of the 2012 release by the Jewish organization Kun cofounded, the Idelsohn Society for Musical Preservation, of a two-CD set from which the museum exhibition takes its name. The CD is subtitled “The Musical Battle between Christmas and the Festival of Lights.” As if to underscore the point, the society’s website describes the CD set as the first effort at presenting 20th-century American music that’s most closely identified with the two holidays’ dual role. The CD’s cover, also displayed on an exhibition wall, shows a circa-1940s photograph of a teenage girl lighting a hanukkiya while her presumed sister and mother exchange wrapped gifts beside a Christmas tree topped by a star — a star of David. The exhibition’s goal is “to raise the big questions of Jewish American pop culture: questions of identity and of assimilation,” Kun said by telephone from Los Angeles. “Hanukka grew in power alongside the dominance of Christmas.” To Kun, the Jews putting their musical talents to work in this manner were neither surrendering to nor fighting America’s overwhelming Christmas tide but rather riding it. In so doing, he said, they were embracing their new American identities. To them, Christmas was a national holiday, not a Christian one. That’s why, Kun said, their songs tended to celebrate the seasonal nature of Christmas: the chestnuts, reindeer, and snow, but not the manger. That approach echoed Hollywood’s Jewish moguls churning out films high on mainstream and not ethnic — and certainly not Jewish — America. “One of the great Jewish tactics in American life,” Kun said, “is that Jews do America better than anyone: ‘You want Christmas? We’ll give you Christmas.’ ” Along with the musical offerings and the CDs’ liner notes, from whence the Davis quotation comes, the iPads provide holiday-centric YouTube clips like Adam Sandler performing “The Hanukka Song,” Joel Fleischman bringing home a Christmas tree in the television series “Northern Exposure” and the Ramones onstage belting out “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight).” Not that the museum’s traditional offerings are ignored in the exhibition, which runs until March 1. Printed pamphlets and the iPads offer a guided
tour of all Hanukka-related artifacts elsewhere in the building, like a hanukkiya brought to America in 1881 by an immigrant from Lodz, Poland; a 1948 photograph showing Rabbi Chaim Lipschitz teaching Philadelphia children the Hanukka bless-
ings; a 1962 letter explaining Saks Fifth Avenue’s lack of Hanukka decorations. Naturally, too, visitors can see Irving Berlin’s piano — and the sheet music for “White Christn mas.”
Happy Chanukah!
Your friends at Valley National Bank 800-522-4100 valleynationalbank.com
® © 2014 Valley National Bank®. Member FDIC. Equal Opportunity Lender. All Rights Reserved. VCS-5504
37 December 11, 2014
J N JJN
HanukkaGreetings
Happy Hanukka
Embrace the season Nina Badzin Kveller.com
and the RENTzIS FAmILy
817 Bloomfield Ave. West Caldwell, NJ 07006 (973) 575-9161 OPEN TIL 8:00 pm
Pine Plaza 831 Rt. 10 EAST Whippany, NJ 07981 (973) 515-8552
It just makes cents! Advertise in New Jersey Jewish News
1638 Schlosser St. Fort Lee, NJ (201) 585-0905
!ʧʔ ʮʒ ˈ ʔ ʢʔʧ HappyHappy Chanukah! Chanukah! Rabbi Matthew D. Gewirtz Cantor Howard M. Stahl Rabbi Rabbi Matthew Matthew D. A. Gewirtz Reimer Cantor Howard M. Stahl Cantor Norman Summers Rabbi R. Perolman Eric S. Karen Sellinger, President Rabbi Joshua M.Z. Stanton Charles Oransky, President
MINNEAPOLIS — We Jews have two choices in our approach to the Christmas season: resent it or embrace it. I for one vote for a big, sloppy embrace. In the name of love thy neighbor and tolerance, I say we hug it out with Christmas already. Why? We expect our non-Jewish coworkers, friends, and neighbors to show heaps of interest and concern in all things Jewish. During the High Holy Days we ask our kids’ teachers not to assign big tests after those long days at shul. We offer unsolicited explanations about why Hanukka is not, despite unfortunate evidence to the contrary, the most important event on our calendar. For the week of Passover we tell everyone we know the reasons we’re eating matza and other weird stuff. Tolerance is a two-way street. It would be chutzpadik and a bad example to our kids not to muster up some genuine interest in a holiday celebrated by a significant majority of our fellow citizens. So with that being said…. Stop lecturing everyone who says Merry Christmas. “Merry Christmas” doesn’t mean “We want to convert you.” Get yourself invited to a Christmas party. Growing up in a heavily Jewish-populated suburb of Chicago, I was unaware of the Christmas happenings sprinkled throughout the month. Now that I’m raising my family in a neighborhood where we are among the few Jews, I love that we get invited
to Christmas teas, tree-decorating parties, open houses, cocktail parties, and more. Show that you’re open to experiencing someone else’s traditions. It works both ways. I, for one, feel personally responsible for exposing many of my neighbors to Sukkot, or as they affectionately call it, “the holiday when you put that big fort in your yard.” Participate in a cookie exchange. If you’re not aware of the frenetic cookie baking and eating that happens during the month of December, then you’re missing out. Get thee to a cookie exchange pronto. We’re talking infinite varieties of cookies and an atmosphere subtly laced with the taste of competition. This is a tradition that speaks our language. Drive around and look at Christmas lights. It’s dark at 5 o’clock. What’s not to like about added light for the month of December? Cozy up at home and watch classic Christmas movies. Half of those scripts and scores were written by Jews. Consider it an ironic exercise in Jewish pride. n Nina Badzin is a columnist for The HerStories Project and for Tcjewfolk.com. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband and four children. She tweets at @NinaBadzin, blogs regularly at ninabadzin.com and is on Facebook at facebook. com/NinaBadzinBlog.
1025 South Orange Avenue Short Hills, NJ 07078 973-379-1555 www.tbj.org info@tbj.org
Wishing You and Your Family A Happy Hanukkah 1025 South Orange Avenue, Short Hills, NJ 07078 973-379-1555 www.tbj.org info@tbj.org
May this season of beauty and light fill your heart and home with happiness.
Brad Denning
23 Springfield Ave., Springfield, NJ 07081 973-376-3535 - Fax 973-376-8087 NJ Lic. #03537A
®
www.dobbsauto.com
38 December 11, 2014
J N JJN