The IDF’s Hanukkah dilemma: Chocolate or jelly doughnuts?

Defense Ministry purchases 360,000 units of the oily confection for the ‘modern-day Maccabees’ to celebrate the eight-day holiday

The Defense Ministry announced on Sunday that it has purchased some 360,000 doughnuts, or sufganiyot, for IDF troops to celebrate the Hanukkah season.

The ministry said that a tender had recently been awarded to various food companies to provide the military with the holiday treats, weighing 50-55 grams each but together a total of over 40,000 pounds and nearly 20,000 kilograms.

According to the IDF, vegan-friendly donuts will be provided to the some 10,000 vegan soldiers.

Throughout the eight-day holiday, the doughnuts will be sent to all IDF soldiers and commanders from the ground forces, the air force and the navy on bases and military posts across the country.

Troops will be able choose between sufganiyot filled with jam or sufganiyot filled with chocolate.

In addition, the Defense Ministry purchased 16,000 packages of Hanukkah candles, 30,700 tin menorahs and 200 large menorahs for the holiday, which begins on Sunday, December 2, and lasts until Monday, December 10.

Jews around the world celebrate the Hanukkah holiday to celebrate the retaking of the Jewish Temple by the ancient Maccabees and the miracle of a tiny jug of oil that should have lit the Temple’s menorah for just one night, but ended up lasting eight nights.

To commemorate the ancient miracle, Jews light the menorah and eat foods cooked in oil – such as potato pancakes (latkes) and sufganiyot – for eight days and nights.

With IDF troops often called “modern-day Maccabees,” the head of the Defense Ministry’s procurement department wished “IDF soldiers a happy Hanukkah holiday and that they will return home in peace.”

In 2016, then-health minister Yaakov Litzman called on the public to refrain from eating the calorie-rich doughnuts.