For many Jewish families today, Hannukah, or the festival of light, is a holiday season highlight. It is full of fried potato pancakes known as latkes, spinning tops called dreidels, and the exchange of gifts over eight nights marked by the lighting of the Menorah. While the miraculous origins of Hannukah trace back to the second century BC, it might be surprising to learn that Hannukah was considered a relatively minor event on the Jewish calendar until the early twentieth century.
As a sizeable Jewish community of nearly half a million individuals migrated to America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, they settled into a vibrant community on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, eventually spreading into Brooklyn, Long Island, and other areas of the Northeast.[1] Within these circles, they increasingly began to carve out unique traditions that reflected their changing cultural landscape. Increasingly, Jewish-American customs began to diverge from their European counterparts, in part to, in part, to better integrate into American Christian communities. Many believe that this process of ‘Americanization’ was the reason for Hannukah’s growing importance, established as a direct response to Christmas.[2] Indeed, by the 1950s, some Jewish families even beginning to create “Hannukah bushes” to rival their neighbour’s Christmas Trees, drawing further comparisons between the two holidays.[3]
However, Hannukah also became increasingly symbolic of the American Jewish Experience. Many Jewish immigrants saw the festival of light as a metaphor for their own experience, taking inspiration and solace from the festival of light in the face of immigration, impoverishment, and cultural isolation. For this community in the early twentieth century, a reappraisal of Hannukah ‘provided a rich trove of memories, new political meanings, familiar rituals, and simple joys. Torn from old pleasures, the immigrants sought new ones.’[4]
Regardless of whether Hannukah is simply a response to Christmas, it has undoubtedly taken on a life of its own within the United States and abroad. Museum collections of Menorahs, the symbolic candle holder lit across the eight nights of Hannukah, highlight centuries of artistry and craftsmanship and suggest that Hannukah has always held its distinct cultural importance.[5] Today, the festival of light is an opportunity for family and friends to gather over and exchange gifts, stories, and memories.
Cover Image Credit: Jewish. Hanukkah Menorah, late 19th–early 20th century. Silver-plated metal, 10 1/2 x 11 1/2 x 5 3/8 in. (26.7 x 29.2 x 13.7cm). Assigned to the Brooklyn Museum by Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc., L50.26.13. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, L50.26.13.jpg), https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/5110
[1] Lawrence J. Epstein, At the Edge of a Dream: The Story of Jewish Immigrants on New York’s Lower East Side 1880-1920, 1st ed. (San Francisco, Calif. : Chichester: Jossey-Bass, 2007).
[2] Ran Abramitzky, Liran Einav, and Oren Rigbi, ‘Is Hanukkah Responsive To Christmas?’, The Economic Journal 120, no. 545 (2010): 612–30.
[3] Peter S. Lemish, “Hanukah Bush: The Jewish Experience in America.” Theory Into Practice 20, no. 1 (1981): 26–34. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1476610.
[4] Dianne Ashton, Hanukkah in America : A History (New York, NY : New York University Press, 2013), pp. 107-108
[5] See for example the collection of Menorahs in the ‘Lighting The World: Menorahs Around The Globe’ exhibition at the Museum at Eldridge Street, https://www.eldridgestreet.org/exhibition-lighting-the-world
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