‘Untraditional’ Hanukkah celebrations are often full of traditions for Jews of color | Opinion

Written by Samira Mehta

Hanukkah, the Jewish “Festival of Lights” commemorates Miracle storyWhen the oil was supposed to last for a day, it lasted for eight. Today, Jews light the menorah, a menorah with eight candles—and one “helper” candle called a shamas—to remember the oil of Hanukkah, which kept the eternal lamp of the Jerusalem Temple burning brightly. Each year, the holiday begins with only the deacon and one of the eight candles and ends, on the last night, with the full lighting of the menorah.

But because the reason for the light is oil, the Jews also celebrate by eating food cooked with oil. In the United States, most people think of those foods that are soaked in oil as latexor potato pancakes, and jelly cakes called Sovganyot. For most American Jews, these foods are an important holiday food, full of memories—both their heavy, greasy taste and the aromas that permeate the house for days after a latke fry.

More specifically, though, these remedies are Ashkenazi, referring to Jews whose ancestors came from Eastern Europe. Two-thirds of the Jews in the United States known as Ashkenazi, which powerfully shaped American Jewish culture. However, the Eastern European culture is only one of many Jewish cultures around the world.

In recent years, Jews of color and non-Ashkenazi Jews have drawn attention to new Hanukkah traditions that celebrate the diversity of Judaism in the United States. world of sex And the