A Rejoinder to “Hanukkah Sucks”

When Emma Green of The Atlantic magazine contacted me to discuss Hanukkah for an upcoming article in the on-line magazine, I was initially excited by the prospect. She approached our discussion, which was quite enjoyable, with an open mind. We talked at length about the holiday’s symbolism and underpinnings. What struck me at the time was a statement made by Emma that Hanukkah was “theologically thin.” While I agree that Hanukkah is based on an historical foundation that later on incorporated a theological concept of a miracle, I should have been more attuned perhaps to Emma’s preconceived stance. The result of our conversation was my pop-in inclusion in an article in The Atlantic online that attacks American Jews’ celebration of the holiday while ignoring the thrust of my interview. [See Green’s Hanukkah, Why? Cultural Critics Often Blame Christmas for the Festival of Lights’ Commercialized Kitsch. The Real Story is Much More Complicated.]

Green’s article is deeply flawed.  I certainly did not fare as poorly as other scholars cited in the article; however, I am dismayed that the article failed to discuss the duel underpinning for Hanukkah’s ascension in the American vernacular. In my interview with Green, I repeatedly emphasized that the singular way to understand Hanukkah in America today is in connection with its juxtaposition to Christmas and its contemporary connection with religious liberty. In writing about and discussing Hanukkah, it is imperative to compare and contrast Hanukkah and Christmas on both a particular and a general level. I emphasized to Green that Hanukkah is the festival of light during what has been characterized as the season of light. Hanukkah is a holiday that has come to symbolize the fight for religious freedom, which coalesces with an important American value. Green chose to disregard this. Instead Green chose to highlight Hanukkah as a holiday of kitsch and “celebratory of violent nationalism.”

Perhaps the internet citation for the article signals the author’s preconceived perceptions:(http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/12/hanukkah-sucks-amirite/419649/) An interesting corollary is the search heading, which reads “How American Jews Ruined Hanukkah.” Perhaps these are merely attention-grabbing devices. Perhaps they are a reflection of the subversive irony of hipsterism. The Atlantic magazine article fails to portray the individual perceptions and behaviors of American Jews vis-a-vis Hanukkah.

I have written a direct email response to Green. It reads as follows:

I read your article again just now. To me it seems that while your reasoning is interesting, it is also flawed. As I write in my book, A Kosher Christmas: ‘Tis the Season to Be Jewish (Rutgers University Press, 2012), Hanukkah (in America) can only be considered and analyzed with respect to its contextual relationship to both Christmas and the December holiday season, both generally and particularly. Hanukkah, in fact, is certainly one of the strategies American Jews employ to respond to (and mitigate the effects of) Christmas. This is Hanukkah’s true importance to the American Jew. Your article avoids a discussion of the juxtaposition, correlation and interaction of the two holidays. If you read (or reread) my book, each chapter represents a different strategy of response, all of which are interconnected. Basically, your treatment of Hanukkah is in isolation of its historical and contemporary context to (and its magnification because of) the December holidays.  Lastly, for most American Jews, Hanukkah connotes a joyous affirmation of Jewish identity and religious liberty (as I mentioned to you in our recent discussion) during the month of December.

 

No Maccabee Ever Saw A Latke !

Photo: Russ & Daughters, Lower East Side, New York City

So what actually makes a potato pancake a latke? To us, American Jews, it is more than a pancake that we make from potatoes—it is a pancake imbued with symbolism, a pancake layered with the flavor of both tradition and history.  Latkes, so central to the celebration of Hanukah (which began this year last night on Sunday evening, December 6^th), have a multi-faceted origin, one not necessarily rooted in Hanukkah cuisine.

Hanukkah commemorates, and in fact celebrates, the triumph of the Maccabees over the capture of the Israelites by the Syrian-Greek King Antiochus in 168 BC, who had plundered and defiled the holiest site of the Jewish people, the Temple in Jerusalem. The term “Maccabees” derives from an acrostic of the Hebrew “Mi Kamocha B’Elim Adonai” (Who among the mighty is like you, God?).

After the battle, the Maccabees purged the temple of idols and, finding a small amount of purified olive oil, lit the golden menorah. The oil, ostensibly enough to burn for just one day, lasted for eight days. According to tradition, this was a miracle. To commemorate the Miracle of the Oil,  Jews throughout the world eat foods fried in oil on Hanukkah.

Over the centuries, a spectrum of recipes has been developed using local ingredients reflective of local cuisines. Jews living in Mediterranean countries or in the Middle East had freshly-pressed olive oil available to fry their holiday foods, which coincided with the end of the olive-pressing season. Greek, North African and Turkish Jews also developed several kinds of olive oil-fried dough-based desserts.

Food historian Gil Marks credits the origin of latkes to somewhat modern times: “The Maccabees never saw a potato, much less a potato pancake.” Potatoes were brought from South America to Europe, where they were slow to be adopted as a food into the various cuisines. According to Marks, the concept of a pancake began with Italy, where Italian Jews fried pancakes in olive oil. They were later associated with Hanukkah by Rabbi Kalonymus ben Kalonymus in the thirteenth century. Pancakes at the time were ricotta cheese-based. After the expulsion of the Jews from Sicily in 1492, the pancake travelled to other locales, and, along the way, became firmly associated with Hanukkah because of its successful combination of two traditional food types—dairy and fried. Because of the reluctance to fry cheese in the traditional animal fat and, during winter months the scarcity of milk products in northeastern Europe, substitutions for the cheese were made. Most involved local grains. In the meantime, the potato was slowly gaining in popularity and reach. Eventually, the potato became incorporated into German cooking and, later, after crop failures in Eastern Europe in the early 1800’s, into the local cooking of that region.

The word “latke” is Yiddish in derivation, a German-based language fused with Hebrew and Aramaic, oft-spoken by East European Jews. For the Jews of the shtetl villages in Eastern European countries such as Russia and Poland, potatoes comprised the most abundant of crops. Grating and frying the potatoes, often in chicken fat (schmaltz) was the culinary vernacular. According to Tel Aviv-based food writer Phyllis Glazer, who researched the word “latke,” certain sources “claim it derives from the Old Russian oladka, and is a diminutive of olad’ya, from Greek eladia, the plural of eladion, which means ‘a little oily thing’ and comes from elaia, which means ‘olive’.”

Let’s face it, everyone has their own recipe, idea or version of what a latke should be. Family history and food traditions come into play here. Latkes can take form from coarsely or finely grated potatoes. Flour or matzah meal can be the binding agent. As creativity prevails, latkes can be made from potatoes with a bit of onion, or may take form from sweet potatoes, beets, carrots or even zucchini and feta cheese.

It is the method of cooking, the frying in oil, that renders a latke a latke!

Hanukkah Goes Mainstream!

Merriam-Webster’s word of the day today: Menorah! Hanukkah is in the public consciousness of America! How and why?!

Two significant historical events facilitated the growing awareness for Americans that Hanukkah was a major holiday for Jewish people and that it was fast becoming attendant to Christmas festivities. The first was the formal recognition of Hanukkah by the White House that was accompanied by a menorah lighting ceremony. On December 17, 1979, President Jimmy Carter became the first sitting American President to participate in the lighting of a public menorah, located across the street from the White House in Lafayette Park. Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Abraham Shemtov attended the presidential lighting ceremony and presented President Carter with a small menorah as a keepsake.

In 1982, the menorah lit in Lafayette Park was publicly referred to as the National Menorah by President Reagan, thereby equating its lighting with the National Christmas tree lighting. The first display of a menorah in the White House is ascribed to President George H.W. Bush in 1989, upon receiving it as gift from Synagogue Council of America. By 1993, the menorah lighting rite had officially moved into the White House when President Bill Clinton hosted a small ceremony for school children in the Oval Office. The first President to hold a White House Hanukkah party at which he actually lit a menorah was George W. Bush in 2001. This tradition has continued to the present.

The second historical factor that contributed to the presence of Hanukkah in the public domain was the campaign waged by Chabad-Lubavitch to place menorahs in as many public venues throughout the United States, from malls to city parks and halls. The drive was initiated by the late Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson in the 1970s. In 1980, Rabbi Schneerson issued a directive encouraging menorah lightings in public places and initiated a movement by sending rabbinic emissaries to cities throughout the United States with the express mission of publicizing the miracle of Hanukkah to inspire pride in Jewish onlookers.

At first, public displays of menorahs began appearing in cities with large Jewish populations, such as Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York.  Media coverage of the menorah lighting ceremonies in these cities often showed the local mayor and prominent government officials helping Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbis to light menorahs. The first such lighting, in 1974, occurred in front of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia and involved a small group of Jews holding a small menorah. The following year, in San Francisco, the local Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi, Chaim Drizin, and public radio station KQED program director Zev Putterman, arranged for concert promoter Bill Graham to sponsor the creation of a twenty-two foot high mahogany menorah to be erected in Union Square. The menorah, affectionately called Mama Menorah, was erected next to Macy’s ornate Christmas tree, the largest public tree in the city. Bill Graham also underwrote an attendant festival, now called the Bill Graham Menorah Day Festival, which includes musical performances, arts and crafts, food, and is capped off by the Chabad-Lubavitch sponsored menorah lighting.

Perhaps the largest menorah lighting to take place in this early period was at Dolphins Stadium in Miami in 1987, when Florida Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Tennenhaus lit a menorah in front of 70,000 people. In this same year, Rabbi Schneerson launched a global Hanukkah menorah lighting campaign.

The lighting of public menorahs was not without controversy. Challenges to the constitutionality of the menorahs in the public square paralleled challenges to crèches and other Christological symbols.

Check out Hanukkah lightings all over New York City and throughout America tonight (and throughout Hanukkah). One in particular is at 35th and Park Avenue in Manhattan,where I will be leading the lighting!

 

CHOCOLATE COINS ON HANUKKAH: How Hanukkah Gift-Giving Began In The 17th Century

Starting on Thanksgiving and continuing through most of the month of December, our neighborhood Trader Joe’s store in Manhattan sets out harvest baskets near the check-out line that are filled with mesh bags containing “coins of the world.” These bags sell for $1.99 each and contain milk chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil. Anyone in the know would recognize that these generic “Coins of the World” are, in actuality, Hanukkah gelt in disguise. Hanukkah gelt, an American Jewish tradition, has entered popular culture.  For one hundred years, Jewish children have associated Hanukkah in America with receiving gifts on each of the eight nights of the holiday. The roots of this gift-giving tradition date back to the Middle Ages, to a more simple time in which coins were given at Hanukkah as a means to support Jewish teachers and dispense charity in the Jewish community.

Chocolate Hanukkah coins date to 1920 in America when the item first became commercialized. And yet, the giving of Hanukkah coins is often attributed to a legend connected to the miraculous victory of the Maccabees over the ancient Greeks. During the Hasmonean dynasty, when independence was brought to Judea, the Hasmoneans celebrated their freedom by minting the first Jewish coins in history. In 1 Maccabees 15:6 King Antiochus declared to Simon “I turn over to you the right to make your own stamp for coinage for your country.” Yet, it was only in 1958, two thousand years later, that the Bank of Israel started issuing annually special commemorative coins to be used as Chanukah gelt. The first coin portrayed the same menorah that had appeared on the last Maccabean coins of Antigonus.

Legend aside, the origin for giving gifts of Hanukkah coins dates back to Europe. Traditionally called Chanukah gelt in Yiddish or maot Chanukah or damai Chanukah (Hanukkah money) in Hebrew, this Askenazi custom of giving money or gifts at Chanukah is not mentioned in the Bible, Talmud or Shulhan Aruch. The custom of giving money as a gift developed in the seventeenth century among Polish Jews. The giving of Chanukah gelt originally pertained to charitable giving of money for the holy objects in the synagogue (klai kodesh) and to the poor. Beggars would stop by the homes of Jewish kinfolk to collect their Chanukah gelt gift. Even though begging door-to-door was generally prohibited by Jewish communities, Chanukah time was considered an exception to the rule.

Gelt giving to teachers (melamdim) became an important component of Chanukah during the Middle Ages. After dinner, during the nights of Chanukah, parents would give their children several coins to take to school the next day to distribute to their teachers in the schools (hedarim). These monetary gifts (or Chanukah gelt) were spread throughout the week of Chanukah. They were deemed to be bonuses and actually counted among the teachers’ primary means of support. The giving of Chanukah gelt was also a way to emphasize and model the dignity of Torah learning. The tradition later broadened to include gifts to Jewish communal workers. Eventually, the custom expanded to the giving of coins to children for their own account and then to students during the holiday, to sweeten the process of Jewish learning and reward Torah study.

It was also the custom during Chanukah for poor Yeshivah students to visit the homes of Jews who would dispense Chanukah money. The rabbis approved such Chanukah dispensations to publicize the story of the miracle of the oil. The tradition of giving Chanukah gelt to students and children ultimately supplied money for children’s dreidel games and students’ card games. In days of extensive Jewish poverty in Eastern Europe and, later on in the Lower East Side of Manhattan at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century, Chanukah gelt provided children mired in poverty with greater opportunities and relief.

Similar customs existed amongst the Sephardim of Turkey and Greece. The synagogue leaders distributed potato pancakes to families in their homes in exchange for monetary donations designated for community needs. Among the Sephardim of Salonica, during Chanukah, children were given money and candy while newlyweds were given household items and new clothes.

Perhaps American Jews, in the late twentieth century, expanded upon the European Jewish practice of supporting the poor in the Jewish community as part of the Chanukah gelt tradition. The propensity for Jews acting charitably during Jewish holidays, notably Chanukah, may have made it easier, ultimately, for American Jews to embrace volunteering at Christmas-time. American Jews, acting in the spirit of Chanukah, have broadened the gelt-giving practice to acts of tzedakah outside of the Jewish community. Furthermore, Jewish institutions have used the tradition of Chanukah gelt as a theme for fundraising.

 

 

 

 

Hanukkah Reflects America’s Religious Liberty

In 1974 in Philadelphia, a small menorah was lit in front of Independence Hall, home to the iconic Liberty Bell. The menorah was crude and made of wood. Five people attended what is now considered to be the first Chabad-Lubavitch public-menorah lighting. Regardless of the constitutional implications of this action, the idea of religious freedom embodied by the Hanukkah holiday deeply resonates with the core principles of American democracy. The attention currently lavished by American Jews on Hanukkah makes it difficult to imagine that there was once a time when it was a minor holiday. Yet, across America, Hanukkah’s magnification as a Jewish holiday now has broader implications.

In recent years, Hanukkah has evolved into a symbol of religious liberty for all Americans. In 165 BCE, after the Maccabees, a minority, successfully revolted against the majority – the Syrian kingdom led by Antiochus Epiphanes IV – there was a rededication of the Jerusalem Temple and the rekindling of its golden menorah for eight miraculous days. This origin story naturally translates into contemporary American motifs of religious liberty and survival represented by a Hanukkah festival of lights. The story of Hanukkah also recalls the first pilgrims who arrived on America’s shores after fleeing religious oppression in Europe.

Three vignettes from Montana, Idaho, and Utah exemplify how the holiday’s underlying Jewish message of religious freedom is now embraced for its strong American values.

Consider this: the largely non-Jewish residents of Billings, MT, used the menorah as a means to fight the anti-Semitism and bigotry that surfaced in the town in 1993. In December of that year, Isaac and Tami Schnitzer placed a Hanukkah menorah in their window. A town resident hurled a cinder block through the Schnitzers’ window and threatened other families and institutions displaying menorahs. The townspeople decided to take a collective stand against bigotry. Through a campaign waged by the Billings Gazette and the town’s sheriff, families and businesses were asked to display pictures of menorahs in their homes and jobs. People responded so enthusiastically that by the time the campaign concluded, an estimated 10,000 people had answered the call. This community-wide protest dramatically decreased the incident of hate crimes in Billings.

Indicative of Hanukkah’s mainstream popularity, even in states with small Jewish populations like Idaho, then-Governor Dirk Kempthorne signed a symbolic proclamation on December 1, 2004, naming December 7, 2004, National Menorah Day in the State of Idaho. The governor declared, “the message of Chanukah resonates quite powerfully with the fundamental principles of American life, as this nation was founded on the principles of hope and religious freedom.” The proclamation reads, in part:

WHEREAS, This year [2004] marks the 25th anniversary of the National Menorah which was first lit in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter and given its name by President Ronald Reagan in 1982; and

WHEREAS, Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, is among the most widely celebrated of Jewish holidays;

NOW THEREFORE, I DIRK KEMPTHORNE, Governor of the State of Idaho, do hereby proclaim, December 7, 2004, to be national Menorah Day in Idaho.

Finally, the Americanization of Hanukkah is evidenced by the popularity of “Eight Days of Hanukkah,” a song written by Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, a Mormon with an affection for Jews and a love of Barbra Streisand. A video of the song debuted via Tablet, an online Jewish cultural magazine, just prior to Hanukkah in 2009.

The production of this song was a multicultural endeavor. The writing was inspired by a challenge to Senator Hatch from journalist Jeffrey Goldberg. Hatch’s collaborator was Jewish songwriter Madeline Stone, who hails from the Upper West of Manhattan and now writes Christian music in Nashville. She said, “I’m a pretty liberal Democrat. But it became more about the music and the friendship for me and Orrin.” The song was performed by Rasheeda Azar, a Syrian-American vocalist from Indiana. [According to Goldberg, “Rasheeda’s participation closes a circle of sorts, since the Syrian King Antiochus was, of course, the antagonist in the story of the Maccabean revolt.”]

Senator Hatch calls “Eight Days of Hanukkah” a “gift to the Jewish people.” He said his ultimate goal would be for Streisand to perform one of his songs. “It would be good for her and good for me,” Hatch said, while acknowledging that given her outspoken liberalism, “that union might require another miracle.”

And So It Begins….!

Tonight is Halloween! This not only marks the beginning of what NPR has termed the “annual holiday mash-up now on garish display” but also of our seasonal blog! Here in New York City, Halloween costumes are crammed in right next to decorative turkey napkins (does anyone really need those?) and simulated Christmas trees. It is still a bit early for real evergreen tree markets to pop up on every corner; however, with the temperatures on the slow decline, the crispness in the air denotes the beginning of a wide array of festivities!
The fact that tonight is also Shabbat complicates things a bit. In other words, what’s a Jew to do on Halloween?! For an interesting essay on that topic, take a look at: “Tricks, Treats, and Tradition: Being an American Jew on Halloween,” by Rabbi Rebecca Einstein Schorr and posted today at
http://www.reformjudaism.org/blog/2014/10/31/tricks-treats-and-tradition-being-american-jew-halloween?
And for anyone interested in humming a tune about this so—called holiday mash-up, check out Hap Palmer (http://www.songlyrics.com/hap-palmer/halloween-hanukkah-christmas-ghost):
Who’s been creeping ’round the Christmas tree
Shaking branches and lights?
And who’s been peeking in the packages
You just wrapped last night?
Oooh- I know you won’t believe me
Oooh- My eyes have not deceived me
Oooh- It’s just a spooky kook with a silly streak

Chorus:
It’s the Halloween Hanukkah Christmas Ghost
Hanging ’round haunting us with his jokes
It’s the Halloween Hanukkah Christmas Ghost
He just had to stay, for the holidays

Does your new dreidel keep on spinning ’round
When it should be falling down ?
When you try to stop it does it float away
Carried on a long white gown ?
Oooh- I know it’s not October
Oooh- But there’s a ghost left over
Oooh- It’s just a spooky kook with a silly streak

Repeat Chorus

Who scared Santa and his eight reindeer
Making poor Blixen cry ?
And who’s that riding up on Rudolph’s back
Streaking across the sky?
Oooh- It’s just a playful spirit
Oooh- And Santa need not fear it
Oooh- It’s just a spooky kook with a silly streak

Repeat Chorus

And now….the Menorah Tree!

We recently received a comment from Alex about a tradition in his family’s unique Hanukkah celebration and the commercial offshoot of that tradition. Alex and his brother, Mike, have developed “Menorah Tree,” the result of a family project conceived in his very own New York apartment. According to Alex: “The Menorah Tree is a 6 foot tall metal and garland menorah that provides the first true alternative for Jewish and interfaith families who want to celebrate Hanukkah with something as big and festive as a Christmas tree but would prefer to do it with an iconic Jewish design.”  The tree awaits adornment and personalization by anyone who purchases it!

We’ve Got Crackers in the House!!!

We’ve Got Crackers in the House!!!

As some of you may recall, last December, my family and I were in England over our son’s winter break from school. While I participated in Limmud U.K. (the British Jewish response to Christmas), my wife and son joined with various members of our British family in London for several holiday meals. This was my family’s first exposure to the holiday miracle that is the “cracker!” (Not wanting to be repetitive, scroll over to my previous blog post entitled “Post-Christmas Post” for a full description of the cracker and how it is used!) One family of  British cousins opened crackers at the end of Shabbat dinner! Let’s just say, for our son, it was ‘love at first sight!’ Well…I have great news! The cracker apparently has crossed the Atlantic and has entered into the Jewish vernacular!

It’s Hanukkah time! Where’s the party?

Last night marked the first night of Hanukkah! Menorah lightings will abound in homes and in public places. I presided over the menorah lighting at 35th and Park at 5:00. We were crammed onto the median with cars whizzing by! Exciting but a bit on the dangerous side!

Just overhead was the ethereal spire of the Empire State Building glowingly lit in blue and white and wrapped in mist! As with everything of import, there is a story surrounding the Hanukkah lighting of the Empire State Building! In 1997, nine-year old Mallory Blair Greitzer and her father wrote repeated letters to the management of the Empire State Building in Manhattan requesting that the color of the building’s tower lights be changed in honor of Hannukah. This request was steadfastly rejected on the basis that the management’s policy limited the lights to honor each religion on one day per year. (The landmark’s lights are blue and white for Israel Independence Day.) Mallory’s father then wrote to Leona Helmsley, the management company’s owner. Against the advice of her staff, Helmsley granted Mallory’s request. In celebration of Chanukah in 1997, the Empire State Building was (and each year thereafter has been) set alight with the colors blue and white. Grass roots campaigning at its best!

In homes and apartments everywhere, the wafting smell of latkes cooking in oil will flood kitchens and hallways and sufganyot will be plentiful! If you are looking for new and exciting events for Hanukkah, check out the following:

Joshua Nelson, the Prince of Kosher Gospel will perform a Hanukkah concert at the Metropolitan Synagogue at 7:00 pm tonight (40 East 35th Street, www.metropolitansynagogue.org)! For those not in the know, “Kosher gospel” is the union of Jewish religious lyrics and meanings with the soulful sounds of American gospel music. Not to be missed!!!!!!!! You’ll be dancing in the aisles!!!!!!!!

What else is there to do? Check out Major League Dreidel/Target Tops Tournament on December 13th at 8:00 pm! (This one I have written about in my book, “A Kosher Christmas: ‘Tis the Season to be Jewish.”) Created in 2007, Major League Dreidel has been described as an “amped-up Hanukkah party and battle royale.” Players compete for the longest dreidel spin. This year hosts the first doubles tournament. So register at info@majorleaguedreidel.com by Wednesday, December 12th. Proceeds of the event will benefit Playworks, a nonprofit whose mission is to end playground bullying. Even if you don’t register, take a look at the website and then head to Full Circle Bar, 318 Grand Street (between Havemeyer Street and Marcy Avenue), Williamsburg, Brooklyn (347 725 4588).
Matisyahu Festival of Light. Matisyahu, formerly Hasidic but always remaining a reggae star, performs his annual Hanukkah concert on December 15 at 9:00 pm. Spark Seeker Terminal 5, 610 West 56th Street (11th Avenue).

We also want to give a shout out to Jewmongous is Sean Altman! Fabulously funny, Jewmongous is irreverently comedy song concert taking place on December 15th at 8:30, Towne Crier, 130 Route 22, Pawling, New York. NOTE: This should not be mistaken for the Jewmongous show at City Winery on December 25th (more to follow on that one!) www.jewmongous.com

Menorah Horah! A Hanukkah burlesque show tonight, Sunday December 9th at 8:00 pm at the Highline Ballroom, 431 West 16th Street (8th/9th).

Don’t dismiss Santacon! There are always a few Hanukkah Harry(s) and Mrs. Hanukkah Harry(s) amongst the thousands of Santas that throng and cavort around New York City. According to the website (http.//santacon), the New York happening is on December 15th with information to be revealed the night before.

A Chanukah Charol. Comedian Jackie Hoffman reenacts her one-woman retelling of Dickens’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ using a semiautobiographical and very Jewish lens. December 8th-December 29th at 8:00 pm, New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street (8th/9th).

Fourth Annual Latke Festival. Chefs from 16 local restaurants—including A Voce, Balaboosta and Veselka—compete for first place latke on Monday December 10, 6:30 pm at BAM Peter Jay Sharp Building, 30 Lafayette Avenue (Ashland Place/ St. Felix Street). Taste and judge for yourself! Profits from ticket sales will be donated to the Sylvia Center for childhood nutrition.

Gail Simmons: Latke Sizzle. Chef Gail Simmons talks with James Beard Foundation executive vice president Mitchell Davis about Latkes and other types of Jewish food to be followed by a latke tasting and vodka pairing. 8:15 pm, December 11, 92nd Street Y 1395 Lexington Ave (91st and 92nd).

The Big Quiz Thing’s Christmahanukwanzayear Spectacular. Noah Tarnow is host at this holiday-themed multimedia quiz show, 7:00 pm, Tuesday, December 11 – Wednesday December 12, Littlefield 622 DeGraw Street (Third and Fourth Avenues)

Delancey to Doughnuts: A Lower East Side Chanukah 2.5 hours Walking Tour at 10:45 this morning! see nycjewishtours.org