Tag: Chanukah

For Jews, assimilating out is easy – but the real challenge is to assimilate in, to process 3,500 years of Jewish history, knowledge, and texts, and to somehow find a way to be modern, creative, and free yet still in line with Jewish tradition.

Chanukah commemorates our victory over the Syrian-Greeks and the Hellenists – Jews who betrayed their own people in order to curry favor with the gentiles.

Chanukah is definitely a holiday of lights, but not of light cooking. Here is the second in a series of Chanukah dishes from different Jewish communities from around the world.

Chanukah is definitely a holiday of lights, but not of light cooking. Here is the first in a series of Chanukah dishes from different Jewish communities from around the world.

MK Otniel Scheller attacked with a firebomb on Tuesday night..

The following general overview of Chanukah laws - Chag Sameach!

In June 1967, even skeptics and agnostics admitted that the people of Israel, who only days before were digging their own graves, were saved by nothing short of a miracle. Over the years, however, however, the miracle, so obvious when it occurred, became camouflaged in a shroud of strategic, military terms.

Dear Dr. Yael: After reading your columns about bullying, I wanted to share with you a wonderful story about how our son went from being a bully to becoming a tzaddik.

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It never used to bother me; that is, until recently. Somehow, over the years, Chanukah has come to be celebrated as a children’s holiday.

Something serious is going on here…regarding Jewish women. Sotheby’s current auction of Judaica is a concise offering of 106 items that provides a tantalizing glimpse into Jewish art and image making over the last 500 years.

Welcome once again to “You’re Asking Me?” It’s pretty much like your typical ask the expert column, with one minor difference (if you want to get technical): I’m not an expert on anything. Just ask my wife.

Under pressure from overseas, Prime Minister Netanyahu ends a powerful ad campaign targeting Israelis living overseas.

Today begins the month of Kislev. 25 days until Chanukah. Chodesh Tov.

Readers and nervous newshounds wondering how to become more spiritual in a hurry can take steps toward meeting that goal by studying The Light of Thirty-Six: Accessing the Hidden Light of Creation on a Daily Basis. Read and re-read the book. Invest time, effort and thought into your spirituality-seeking process so you can act on the book's lessons seriously, not superficially.

It's another Chanukah miracle: a small group of Jewish men defy the odds and emerge victorious. But this time there was no war, no bloodshed and instead of an army of Maccabees, the conquering heroes are the a cappella group Maccabeats, 14 current and former students from Yeshiva University. Their hit song "Candlelight," a take-off on Taio Cruz's "Dynamite," has gone viral and reached over two million hits on YouTube in just 10 days.

Gazing wistfully through my window at the remaining leaves still clinging to the young maple tree on our lawn, I am reminded of the golden hues that come to warm the stark cold nights in the dead of winter - those of the Chanukah flames. Just when we desperately yearn for an infusion of warmth, Chanukah comes around to reassure us that our light is never extinguished, that the flame in our soul is eternal, and that from darkness comes light.

Nearly two decades into the 20th century, Jews were suffering the horrors of pogroms, mass expulsions, starvation and disease in Eastern Europe while Jewish soldiers in various armies were enduring the carnage of the battlefield. Amid the horrors, however, a glimmer of hope appeared.

Ever wonder why the Jewish New Year begins with three back-to-back-to back holidays and then no biblical holidays for another six months?

The 31st Annual South Florida Chassidic Chanukah Festival is getting bigger and better. Over 10,000 people have participated each year since the event was moved to Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach in 2007. The upcoming festival planned for Wednesday, December 8, has a star-studded program that will likely see the largest attendance ever.

Many of us in North America, even in areas that are usually relatively toasty during the winter months - like Maryland and Washington, DC - are impatiently counting the days until spring and the promise of warmth and sunny days. Even rain is looking good these days.

Consumers beware: Shopping, gift-giving, vacationing, even making money may be hazardous to your health. Indulging in what should be routine activities can - due to a seeming epidemic of "who cares?" - induce extreme frustration, stress and anxiety, causing your blood pressure readings to be more like those of a thermometer just pulled out of a feverish child. Way too high.

The young adult clowns of the Long Island-based charity Lev Leytzan, a medical clowning troupe, returned recently from an 11-day humanitarian mission to Romania and Israel to celebrate Chanukah.

ZOA -The Zionist Organization of America hosted its 112th Annual Gala Dinner in New York City last week, and since I happened to be in the "neighborhood," visiting the tri-State area for an upcoming simcha - I decided to attend.

On Rosh Hashanah it is a mitzvah to assume a bowed posture as we offer tearful prayer to God and beg for His mercy and forgiveness. We are hopeful that our humility and remorsefulness will earn us a favorable verdict, but should we, Heaven forbid, fall short, Hashem in His infinite kindness extends our time of teshuvah through the duration of Chanukah, when it is a mitzvah to light the Chanukah candles that give rise (literally) to the flames that shoot straight upward, in affirmation of our spiritual ascent.

With Chanukah - the Festival of Lights quickly approaching, Jews the world over are busy planning get-togethers, preparing or buying latkes and donuts, shopping for gifts for children and adults alike and generally looking forward to having fun and a much welcome break from the daily grind of life.

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It was about a week before Chanukah last year when I traveled to Israel to spend some time with my son, who was learning in Yeshiva there.

Last year on the seventh morning of Chanukah our phone stopped working. It wasn't completely dead; it was still receiving calls and placing outgoing ones. But there was a funny kind of static on the line.

The 29th Annual South Florida Chassidic Chanukah Festival is scheduled for the last night of Chanukah, Sunday, December 28, at the Gulfstream Theatre, Hallandale Beach Blvd. and US 1, in Hallandale Beach; at 7:00 p.m. Performing at what is traditionally the world's largest Chanukah event will be child prodigy Ethan Bortnick and the king of Jewish music, Avraham Fried.