Free Republic

"Put down the candles and step slowly away from the menorah." That's what I felt like shouting at Jennifer Michael Hecht. In her pay-per-view New York Times column of today, she managed to turn the Festival of Light into a celebration of multi-culturalism and the rejection of traditional Judaism. Hanukkah celebrates "a revolution against assimilation and the suppression of Jewish religion." Syrian-Greeks had colonialized Israel, overturned the Temple, and turned Jews away from their religion. A small band of faithful Jews defeated the Greek army, drove them from the Israel, reclaimed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and rededicated it...

In Warsaw, hundreds gather to celebrate Hanukkah and light menorah The Associated Press Published: December 17, 2006 WARSAW, Poland: Jewish leaders and Poland's first lady lit candles of a large menorah in central Warsaw on Sunday as they celebrated the third day of Hanukkah, or the Jewish Festival of Lights. The country's Chief Orthodox Rabbi Michael Schudrich chanted prayers in Hebrew before Maria Kaczynski, the wife of President Lech Kaczynski, lit a candle and wished happy Hanukkah to the hundreds who gathered on Grzybowski Square, which lies in the heart of the capital's once-thriving prewar Jewish community. Israeli Ambassador David...

Hanukkah has an identity problem — and not just because it’s overshadowed by Christmas. It is often disowned by the very people who celebrate it. Must my fellow Jews forever explain to Christians how Hanukkah is not a real holiday, even though it is the only Jewish holiday represented at the local drug store? Maybe if they knew more about Hanukkah, they’d understand that it is celebrated precisely because it is a Jewish alternative to Christmas. The story of Hanukkah is old; only its celebration is new. In the 19th century, many Jews lived secular lives, practicing few of the...

Countdown: One week left for Christmas… and Hanukkah begins today at sunset. Many have been ready for months. Many haven’t started preps. Many will have NO preps but just go out elsewhere. For those last minute gifts….last minute food prep… last minute decorating… Let’s share our ideas. Gifts Gift cards, gift certificates are ALWAYS great. For gasoline, Malls, specialty shops, book stores, food stores etc. People really like to pick out their own stuff. They really do. Budget tight? Homemade is so nice..or make your own “gift certificates”.. Good for one(or more)..back-rubs, foot-rubs, car washes, window cleaning, car cleaning,...

After nine kids, the annual nursery school Hanukkah parties lose some of their luster. To be perfectly honest – they even become something of a pain. That is until Grandma, an Auschwitz survivor, reminded the Green family of what the holiday spirit is all about Mali Green Published: 12.14.06, 23:39 The invitation sent home for the upcoming Hanukkah party assumed its traditional place of honor on the refrigerator door, where three other invites immediately joined it. One shaped like a menorah, the second a dreidel and a third the spitting image of a sufganiya (traditional Hanukkah pastry). The only common...

Sharply Divided Court Upholds City's Anti-Christian Ban of Nativity in New York City Public Schools ANN ARBOR, MI — A sharply divided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that it is constitutionally permissible for New York City public schools to ban the display of the Christian nativity during Christmas, while permitting the display of the Jewish menorah and the Islamic star and crescent during Hanukkah and Ramadan. The legal challenge to this policy was brought by the Thomas More Law Center on behalf of Ms. Andrea Skoros and her two children, who attend...

The Chanukah Candle that Inspired George Washington Given by Reb Given to Rebbetzen Sternberg to type five years ago by Rabbi Yehuda Mandelcorn zt"l . May this be a blessing and inspirtation for you, in his Memory Chanukah (1775) 5537. A difficult winter. Terrible cold. We are sitting in Valley Forge and waiting. Why? I don’t know. Perhaps for better days than these. I am the only Jew here. Perhaps there are other Jews among us, but I haven’t seen any. We hunger for bread. We have no warm clothing or shoes to protect our feet. Most of the soldiers...

Originally published December 30, 2005 DULUTH, MINN. // For Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish holiday celebrated this week, the black Jewish community in Duluth is having - Let me rephrase that. There isn't a black Jewish community in Duluth, except me. It used to be my daughter and me about 20 years ago. But we moved from Minnesota to Massachusetts, and now that she's grown and established in her career, she has no immediate need to move back. I did return, and here I am. Duluth aside, there actually are a lot of black Jews. Ethiopian Jews are well known, and...

Jews in Rome Light Hanukkah Candles in Front of Iran Embassy in Demonstration Associated Press Rome, Dec. 28 - Members of Rome's Jewish community lit Hanukkah candles in front of the Iranian Embassy on Wednesday in what they said was a peaceful response to comments by the Iranian president that the Holocaust was a "myth." Two of the people who lit the candles were World War II concentration camp survivors, and a third was an Iranian Jew. "We want to bring the light and not fire to the world," said Rome's chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni. "The story of Hannukah...

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political observer Marianna Belenkaya.) -- Even now, representatives of all Jewish organizations celebrating Hanukkah in Moscow are unanimous in saying that the real miracle is that Russia has this holiday. Only fifteen years ago no one would have believed it possible to openly celebrate Jewish holidays in this country. The Jewish community in Russia today is a living proof that miracles did not happen only in ancient times and can occur even today. For several successive years, a hanukiah, or a nine-candle menorah, has been placed in the heart of Moscow, in Manezh Square near the Kremlin....

CAMP TAQADDUM, Iraq (Dec. 28, 2005) -- December is a month of celebration for multiple faiths, making the holiday season an extra busy time for chaplains in Iraq. Between Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and the Islamic Hajj, Navy Capt. Vince Arnold, 2nd Marine Logistics Group (Forward) group chaplain, knows the importance of providing for all service members, regardless of religious preferences. “This time of a year the three main religious groups being Judaism, Christianity and Islam, trace back their genealogy to one person: Abraham,” The Newport, N.C. native said. “It’s interesting that we are in Iraq during this season because this...

When did being obnoxious start getting confused with being intellectual? Honestly, I was just in another forum where somebody posted a picture of Jesus hanging on a cross with the caption "Happy Hanukkah, we killed your savior." Didn't these same people bitch and moan when the "Passion Of The Christ" came out because they said Mel Gibson was trying to say just that? But now if you're a left winger you can make a joke out of it and it's okay? The people who do this sort of thing call it "discussion". If you respond to them in like manner,...

A rabbi from Down Under has persuaded the city of Fort Collins to rise above a tradition that excludes menorah displays - but not in time to make tonight's Hanukkah celebration a permanent part of the 2005 holiday landscape. "You'd think we asked to put a stuffed kangaroo on display," said Rabbi Yerachmiel Gorelik, an Australian who moved to Fort Collins four months ago. "They weren't malicious but it was like, 'We don't do things like that.' " Last week the city turned down Gorelik's request to let a menorah remain on the public square - literally - alongside the...

Chabad Gives Chanukah 2005 Greatest Exposure Ever Stopping traffic in Malibu (photo courtesy: Shmais.com) WAIKIKI, HAWAII — Tuesday, December 27, 2005   blue Lego piece clutched in his chubby fingers, Zhak Goldemberg-Levy, just 21 months old, built a menorah with a little help from his grandfather Liviu Goldemberg at Chabad of Hawaii’s Chanukah celebration. Later, Hawaii’s Jewish Governor Linda Lingle lit a ten-foot-tall, 5,000-piece Lego menorah at Waikiki’s Gateway Park. Chabad of Hawaii’s recipe of child-friendly activities, a creative jumbo menorah, and a public figure to light it typified this year’s framework for Chabad-Lubavitch Chanukah celebrations. Spin a globe, plant a...

Kevin Seamus Hasson is busy this time of year. The founder and president of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a public interest law firm dedicated to protecting religious liberty, Hasson is busy with numerous challenges to Nativity scenes on public property. Author of the new book The Right to Be Wrong: Ending the Culture War Over Religion in America (Encounter, 2005), Hasson once worked under Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. He spoke to Register correspondent Joseph A. D’Agostino. Some will argue that if we continue to allow Christmas trees and menorahs, some day we will have Islamic crescents, Wiccan...

There is no doubt that mountains of potato latkes will be consumed this week, thanks to the terrific work of Yaakov Litzman, chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee. Once again, this terrific man has worked wonders. This celebratory item appeared in the ultra-Orthodox newspaper "Hamodia" this past weekend, Shabbat Parashat Vayeshev (December 23 to us goyim): "Every yeshiva student will receive a Chanukah bonus this week… financed by a special finance ministry dispensation of NIS 41 million (USD 8.9 million)… every married student will receive NIS 600 (USD 130); single men will receive NIS 330 (USD 71)." That's a lot...

Happy Hanukkah to FREEPERS! Menorahs around the world, including Israel, Washington DC, Moscow, Berlin, and China. One of these pictures features a special young man that I am very proud of. :)

Christmas falls on the first day of Hanukkah this year, only the fourth time that has happened in the last 100 years. Hanukkah is the celebration of the rededication of the Jerusalem Temple 2,100 years ago, but for many Jews volunteering here, it's also the celebration of the rebirth of New Orleans. Holiday season a time of reflection, renewal It is times like these people tend to get somewhat stronger or weaker. For Rabbi Andy Busch, who began working at the Touro Synagogue three weeks prior to Hurricane Katrina, it is a time to remind people what they're remembering and...

In an effort to eliminate all religious symbols from the shopping center, management of Paseo Colorado is ending an annual Hanukkah menorah display. But the mall's towering Christmas tree stays: Paseo Colorado managers said the tree isn't a religious symbol. The shopping center has displayed the 13-foot-tall menorah - sponsored by Chabad of Pasadena, a Jewish congregation of about 300 people - for the past three years. The menorah is not allowed because religious symbols are not appropriate in the commercial center, which has no religious affiliation, said Colleen Dunn, regional general manager for Ohio-based Developers Diversified Realty, which manages...