Hanukkah, Judaism’s eight-day Competition of Lights, begins this 12 months on Christmas Day, which has occurred solely 4 occasions since 1900.
For some rabbis, the intersection of the 2 non secular holidays offers an auspicious event for interfaith engagement.
“This can be a profound opportunity for learning and collaboration and togetherness,” mentioned Rabbi Josh Stanton, a vp of the Jewish Federations of North America. He oversees interfaith initiatives involving the 146 native and regional Jewish federations that his group represents.
“The goal is not proselytizing; it’s learning deeply from each other,” he mentioned. “It’s others seeing you as you see yourself.”
One instance of togetherness: a Chicanukah social gathering hosted Thursday night by a number of Jewish organizations in Houston, bringing collectively members of the town’s Latino and Jewish communities for a “cross cultural holiday celebration.” The venue: Houston’s Holocaust museum.
The meals on supply was a mix of the 2 cultures — for instance, a latke bar that includes guacamole, chili con queso and pico de gallo, in addition to applesauce and bitter cream. The doughnut-like pastries had been sufganiyot — a Hanukkah specialty — and buñuelos. And the mariachi band took a crack at taking part in the Jewish people music “Hava Nagila.”
“What really brings us together is our shared values — our faith, our families, our heritage,” mentioned Erica Winsor, public affairs officer for the Jewish Federation of Higher Houston.
Rabbi Peter Tarlow, govt director of the Houston-based Heart for Latino-Jewish Relations, mentioned the primary Chicanukah occasion 12 years in the past drew 20 individuals, whereas this 12 months the group numbered about 300 and will have been bigger had not attendance been capped. He mentioned the party-goers had been a roughly even mixture of Latinos — a few of them Jews with Latin American origins — and “Anglo” Jews.
“There’s too much hate, too much separation against both Jews and Latinos,” Tarlow mentioned. “This is a way we can come together and show we support each other.”
Whereas Hanukkah is meant as an upbeat, celebratory vacation, rabbis word that it’s going down this 12 months amid persevering with conflicts involving Israeli forces within the Center East and apprehension over widespread incidents of antisemitism.
Rabbi Moshe Hauer, govt vp of the Orthodox Union, acknowledged that many Jews could also be feeling anxious heading into Hanukkah this 12 months. However he voiced confidence that the majority would preserve the important thing custom: the lighting of candles on menorah candelabras and displaying the place they’re seen by means of family home windows and in public areas.
“The posture of our community — without stridency, just with determination — is that the menorah should be in our windows, in a place where the public sees it,” Hauer mentioned.
“It is less for us, the Jewish community, than for the world,” he added. “We have to share that light. Putting the menorah in the window is our expression of working to be a light among the nations.”
Hauer concurred with Stanton that this 12 months’s overlap of Hanukkah and Christmas is “an exceptional opportunity to see and experience the diversity of America and the diversity of its communities of faith.”
Rabbi Motti Seligson, public relations director for the Hasidic motion Chabad-Lubavitch, famous that this 12 months marks the fiftieth anniversary of a milestone within the public lightings of menorahs. It was on Dec. 8, 1974 — as a part of an initiative launched by the Lubavitcher chief, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson — {that a} menorah was lit outdoors Philadelphia’s Independence Corridor, the place the Liberty Bell was housed on the time.
“Hanukkah is a celebration of religious liberty, so that it’s not taken for granted,” Seligson mentioned. “One of the ways of doing that is by celebrating it publicly.”
He mentioned Chabad was organizing about 15,000 public menorah lightings this 12 months by means of its quite a few branches around the globe.
“There certainly is some apprehension,” Seligson mentioned, referring to considerations about antisemitism and political friction. “Some individuals query whether or not Jews shall be celebrating as overtly as prior to now.
“What I’m hearing is there’s no way that we can’t,” he added. “The only way through these difficult times is by standing stronger and prouder and shining brighter than ever.”
Stanton concurred.
“Through our history, we’ve been through moments that are easy and moments that are hard,” he mentioned. “Safety for us does not come from hiding. It comes from reaching out.”
A quirk of the calendars
Why is Hanukkah so late this 12 months? The easy reply is that the Jewish calendar relies on lunar cycles and isn’t in sync with the Gregorian calendar, which units Christmas on Dec. 25. Hanukkah at all times begins on the twenty fifth day of the Jewish month of Kislev, a date that happens between late November and late December on the Gregorian calendar.
The final time Hanukkah started on Christmas Day was in 2005. However the time period “Chrismukkah” — signifying the overlap of the 2 holidays — had change into a preferred time period earlier than then. The time period gained additional forex in 2003, when the character Seth Cohen on the TV drama “The O.C.” embraced the fusion vacation as a tribute to his Jewish father and Protestant mom.
This season, the Hallmark Channel launched a brand new Christmas film referred to as “Leah’s Perfect Gift,” depicting a younger Jewish girl who had admired Christmas from a distance and will get an opportunity to expertise it up shut when her boyfriend invitations her to spend the vacations along with his household. Spoiler alert: All doesn’t go easily.
Regardless of such storylines suggesting a fascination with Christmas amongst some Jews, Stanton says analysis by the Jewish Federations reveals a surge in Jews looking for deeper connections to their very own traditions and group, in addition to a surge in Jews volunteering for charitable actions through the holidays.
“The opportunity is to share with others how we celebrate Hanukkah,” he mentioned. “It’s a holiday of freedom, hope, showing proudly you are Jewish.”