Last week at school, we had a day of learning about Chanukah. One of the sessions talked about the "December Dilemma," i.e. it's hard to be a Jew on Christmas. This "December Dilemma" was something I didn't really think about as a child. Growing up, I went to a Jewish day school and lived in a pretty Jewish neighborhood. I never felt left out of anything because as far as I knew, Chanukah was the best winter holiday ever, and I enjoyed celebrating it with my family and friends, even if it wasn't a major holiday. When I was in high school, I didn't really care about Judaism, and by the time I was in college, my Jewish identity was strong enough that I didn't feel left out of anything. It was only as an adult that December 25th started to bother me. Not because I felt left out, but because I felt that it was really hard to grapple with my identity as a Jewish American when everything around me screamed of something that I had always thought of as someone else's holiday. It was almost like my identity as Jew and my identity as an American didn't mesh. I know Christmas is technically a national holiday, but is it cool with everyone else that I don't celebrate it? I enjoy Christmas music and think trees are pretty, but when it came to the day itself, I really didn't know what to do with myself. I wanted it to be just another day, but it wasn't. Even when I worked for Hillel, I had off work on December 25th, which always baffled me. I'm not complaining about an opportunity to party with my friends, but it was still weird.
Here in Israel, there is no "December Dilemma." When you go into the supermarket, they say, "Chanukah sameach," just like around Rosh Hashana they say, "Shanah tovah."I'm missing the peppermint mochas and gingerbread lattes at Coffee Bean (American winter staples for me), but I'm loving the fact that I have already eaten my body weight in delicious sufganiyot (like jelly doughnuts, but better) and still haven't tried every bakery. And I love the fact that I have a final on December 25th. I don't like to be exclusivist, and I think it's important that every culture or religion in any given society is given a space to express itself, but sometimes, it's just nice being in the majority. I like not having to explain my holiday to people I meet on the streets because everyone already knows what my holiday is about. I can just be. It makes me kind of want to fly to Israel every December. . . after a trip to Coffee Bean, of course.
So far, Chanukah has been nice. One of my friends has decided to do this thing called the Sufganiyot Challenge where we try different sufganiyot every night. I actually got a head start because I'll be out of town for a few nights with my parents, but whatever. Last night, we went to Roladin and English Cake, so I had a tiramisu one and a blueberry one. Om nom nom.
Today, we counted the free ones they gave us at HUC as part of the challenge. Speaking of which, today, we had a candle lighting ceremony at HUC for night two. My friend Lori and I planned it, and three other friends played guitar with us. It was a lot of fun. Most of the stuff we ended up doing reminded me a lot of my childhood (read: almost all in Hebrew, yeah, I didn't learn "The Latke Song" until I was an adult), but this was even better than my childhood because it consisted of fifty something adults all beautifully singing Chanukah songs together. I knew we had a musical class, but wow. Chanukah song sessions need to happen ALL THE TIME. And people should rotate and lead their favorite Chanukah songs. It also reminded me of what is perhaps my favorite thing about HUC: community. If I can't be attending parties with my friends back at home involving latke wars and irreverent party games, I'm glad that I can be here. Also, our apartment came with a chanukiah.
