Holiday’s heft is in America
For me, growing up in suburban New York, Hanukkah was not grounded in religious observance. With no clue that there are traditional Hebrew blessings for lighting the holiday candles, we invented our own wishes for happiness and peace.
The eight-day Festival of Lights, which concludes Monday night, requires fewer religious rituals than most other Jewish observances, and the holiday is not mentioned in the Bible because the events it commemorates occurred hundreds of years after the Bible was written.
The Hanukkah story is about a conflict between two different groups of Jews — those who were eager to become part of the Hellenistic culture represented by the Syrian-greeks and the Maccabees, a band of zealots who sought to maintain Jewish rites.
Today only 15 percent of American Jews view their Jewish identity as rooted in religion, and for many, the aspects of Hanukkah that are most attractive mirror what many other Americans are doing at this time of year — celebrating Christmas.
Hanukkah is the only Jewish holiday that is celebrated more widely among Jews in the United States who have children. Notably, those who live in Christian majority areas, spend more on Hanukkah gifts than those who reside in mostly Jewish neighborhoods. By contrast, Hanukkah in Israel is not as significant.
American Jews have carved out a place for Hanukkah in pop culture. Seeing their own group depicted in pop culture was a source of pride for American Jews throughout the last century. In recent decades Jewish comedians have mined humor from Jews’ need to feel their minority identity is still a meaningful and salient one, even while poking gentle fun at Christmas.
On “Saturday Night Live,” Jon Lovitz’s Hanukkah Harry premiered in 1989 when the graybearded, ultra-orthodox Jewish character fills in for an ailing Santa to deliver presents on Christmas Eve only to face disappointment from Christian children when they receive chocolate coins and dreidels, a Hanukkah spinning top, which seem paltry and foreign to them.
Adam Sandler first performed his “Hanukkah Song” in 1994, reminding Jews that they have their own holiday in which they can take pride. “When you feel like the only kid in town without a Christmas tree,” the song begins, “here’s a list of people who are Jewish just like you and me.” It includes celebrities who are at least partly Jewish in ancestry.
The contemporary celebration of Hanukkah does not hinge on the need to reclaim a distinctive religious practice. Instead, it centers on recapturing a sense of connection to other Jews. This Hanukkah, I am celebrating it with my wife and children by lighting the menorah and chanting the Hebrew blessings — which I finally learned.