c. 2008 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) Last week, Jill Miller Zimon, a writer from Pepper Pike, Ohio, attended her daughter’s school band concert. Four bands and orchestras performed.
“All four played `Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah,”’ said Zimon, laughing. “I thought I was going to tear my hair out.”
Zimon, who’s Jewish, doesn’t think that would have happened a few decades ago. One public-school band playing a Hanukkah number would have been a surprise, let alone four on the same program. But back then, you couldn’t find Hanukkah greeting cards, or Hanukkah wrapping paper or Hanukkah postage stamps.
Now, of course, you can. And for that you can thank Adam Sandler.
Over the past 15 years or so, something has happened to the Jewish Festival of Lights, which began Sunday (Dec. 21) at sundown. The eight-night holiday, a minor one on the Jewish religious calendar, has gone from getting token attention in American culture to receiving its own prominent spot on the nation’s holiday mantel.
You can see it everywhere, from a punk band releasing a Hanukkah album to synagogues hosting No Limit Texas Dreidel tournaments.
Turn on the TV and there’s PBS airing a prime-time Hanukkah music special. There’s Jon Stewart on Comedy Central singing “Can I Interest You in Hanukkah?” There’s Marge on “The Simpsons” shopping at Shlomo’s Judaica Dreidel Blowout Sale.
You can even tune your Sirius-XM radio to channel 3 for Radio Hanukkah, a station dedicated to the holiday.
“Hanukkah seems to have a popularity that it didn’t have previously,” said Rabbi Stephen Weiss of B’nai Jeshurun Congregation in Pepper Pike. “When I think back to my youth and growing up, Hanukkah was an important family time and still is. … You would not hear comedians talking about Hanukkah like you do today. Or Hanukkah being a theme on a sitcom episode. You would never have seen those kinds of things.”
All that changed the night of Dec. 3, 1994.
On NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” Sandler, guitar in hand, introduced his number: “When I was a kid, this time of year always made me feel a little left out … so I wrote a brand new Hanukkah song for you Jewish kids to sing, and I hope you like it.”
Turns out, everyone did.
“The Chanukah Song” _ a hilarious tally of Jewish celebrities mixed with forced rhymes (Hanukkah and “gin-and-tonic-kah”) _ became an instant (and enduring) favorite, on the radio and at holiday parties. Since then, the song and its two sequels have found a unique spot in the canon of American holiday music.
But the song was more than just popular, says Dianne Ashton, a religious studies professor at Rowan University in New Jersey. It inspired other Jewish entertainers to incorporate their Hanukkah experiences in their work, something few had done before.
“Once one person breaks the ice, then other people can say, `Oh yeah, I can create something about Hanukkah, too,” said Ashton, who is writing a book about the history of Hanukkah in America. “But somebody has to begin it, and I think it was Adam Sandler who really made it a national thing.”
With Jews accounting for only about 2 percent of the population, the song also served as a funny, positive introduction to the holiday for Americans who didn’t know any Jews and who thought a latke was something you ordered at Starbucks.
The holiday’s acceptance in mass culture marks the end of a conscious effort, started in the 19th century, to give American Jewish children a holiday parallel to Christmas, according to Ashton.
Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in 163 B.C. after a victory by the Jewish Maccabees over the Greeks. Upon taking back the temple and lighting its flame, the Maccabees had enough oil for only one day, yet, as the story goes, the flame burned for eight.
Until the late 19th century, the holiday was celebrated modestly in Jewish homes, with an adult male lighting candles and reciting the blessing. Socializing and feasting probably also were part of the celebration, said Ashton.
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It’s hard to tell exactly how things were celebrated because there’s almost no record of it. In her research, Ashton found no mention of Hanukkah in old diaries and letters. Instead, they mentioned the Sabbath, Passover and other, more significant, holidays.
All that started to change in the 1870s _ in Ohio of all places.
Because of Cincinnati’s large German population, the traditions of Santa Claus, trees and giving gifts were everywhere. Not wanting Jewish kids to feel left out, Cincinnati rabbis Isaac Mayer Wise and Max Lilienthal began holding Hanukkah festivals in the synagogue.
“Lilienthal said, `Our children shall have a grand and glorious Hanukkah festival as nice as any Christmas festival,”’ according to Ashton. The rabbis then took their mission of promoting Hanukkah nationwide, urging other congregations to celebrate the holiday.
The renewed Hanukkah took root in the Jewish community. It remained an afterthought, however, in American culture. Until now.
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Sandler and the others who have pushed Hanukkah into the mainstream are more comfortable and confident with their Jewish heritage, said Weiss. He credits stronger Jewish youth organizations and day schools with building that self-identity.
And while presents will always be a part of the American Hanukkah celebration _ because, as Weiss puts it “kids like presents and kids will always like presents” _ the best gift a hip Hanukkah offers is something that can’t be wrapped.
“It’s a wonderful thing for Jewish youth to see their faith and heritage and celebration being accepted in the mainstream. That’s a wonderful affirmation of their identity.”
(John Campanelli writes for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland.)
KRE END CAMPANELLIA related Hanukkah illustration is available via https://religionnews.com
