Growing up, Christmas to me always felt like I was looking into a toy shop or sweet shop window at things I couldn’t have.
I enjoyed the Christmas parties and the festivities – still do – but, being Jewish, I always felt like the outsider at the party.
At home, growing up, we neither celebrated Xmas nor Chanukah, the Jewish festival of lights, which takes place around the same time. Father Christmas didn’t visit Jewish children and my parents treated Christmas just like any other day.
When I had children of my own, not wanting them to feel left out, OH (other half) and I experimented briefly with Christmas. We left out mince pies at bedtime and crumbs on the plates when they awoke.
Our children had pillowcases rather than stockings which we filled with goodies. I would stash these away until Christmas Eve. One year our six year old son found my hiding place. He marked all the things he’d found with a felt tip pen so, when they later turned up in his pillowcase, he was able to prove once and for all that Santa did not exist!
As our children grew older, Chanukah replaced Christmas. So our kids wouldn’t feel left out we gave them a gift every day. Something special at the beginning or the end and small presents in-between such as you might put in a stocking. As Chanukah lasts eight days it more than compensated for Christmas!
Each night of Chanukah we light a candle on the special eight branched candlestick known as the Chanukiah or the Chanukah menorah. At the end of the eight days all eight candles are lit. Actually nine – because there is an extra candle on the Chanukah menorah that’s used to light all the others.
There are Chanukah parties, songs, games and special Chanukah foods such as donuts and latkas. A spinning top – “the dreidel” is spun. Raisins are won or lost depending on where it lands.
Our son, when he was seven, wrote this poem about Chanukah:
“How I love to go to bed with the candles shining in my head.
And when I have dreams, how lovely Chanukah seems.”
He’s now a father himself.
Each year, until the pandemic, he and his wife have made a Chanukah party for their children, friends and family.
Last week they held another Chanukah party – the first since Covid. The story of Chanukah was told and acted out with costumes, arts and crafts. Latkas and donuts were eaten. The dreidel game was played. Each child present made, decorated and lit their own Chanukiah.
It was a beautiful moment. One I think the children – and I – will remember for a long time to come. At least, until next Chanukah when we will do it all again.
In 1961 there was a memorably creative advertising poster campaign in the States which featured photographs of non-Jewish New Yorkers (Asian and Native American amongst others) enjoying Levy’s rye bread.
The campaign slogan was, “You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s real Jewish Rye.”
The ad was a first for its time. It was witty, memorable and demonstrated diversity at a time when that was not being done.
And that is why, as Jewish people all over the world are celebrating the festival of Chanukah, I thought I would share with you this lovely Chanukah song from YouTube. It is heart warming, tender, moving and truthful. And, what’s more, you don’t have to be Jewish to appreciate it!
Are you, like me, a fan of Bob Dylan? The words of the songs he wrote decades ago still resonate today.
In May 1965, I was given complimentary seats for the Dylan concert at the Albert Hall. Our next door neighbour worked there as an usher and passed the tickets on to me. I was allowed into the Albert Hall when it was still empty. Empty that is, except for Dylan himself tuning up alone on the stage. I was able to stand a few feet away from him and watch him strumming his guitar. I felt like I had died and gone to heaven.
That night Dylan sang, “With God on our side” from his 1964 album, “The Times They Are A-Changin”. It was the first anti-war song I had ever heard and it became the protest song that folk singers sang in all the folk clubs.
“But now we got weapons of chemical dust/If fire them we’re forced to, then fire them we must/One push of the button and a shot the world wide/And you never ask questions with God on your side.”
The melody, said to be based on Dominic Behan’s “The Patriot Game” is a little dirge-like but the words are as powerful and meaningful today as they were then. Whenever I hear Dylan singing it, I am transported right back to my seventeen year old self.
My Life in Poems 