חנוכה

Hanukkah started at sunset December 20 and ended at sunset December 28 (the last candle was the 27th).  It was so cool to be here during Hanukkah.  In December 2006 our family took a trip to Israel that also coincided with Hanukkah.  I honestly don't remember how many nights of Hanukkah we were here for, except that one of the nights our tour had dinner, lit candles and walked along the street where there was a street fair going on.  I remember it being cool, but I was tourist.  This year, I was here as a temporary resident.

Just like in the States during Christmas where every store is decorated for Christmas, in Israel every store is decorated for Hanukkah.  Die-cut menorahs and dreidels, hannukiyot everywhere you looked, sufganiyot (jelly donuts) EVERYWHERE.  The first 3 nights we were in the Negev, more on that trip in the next post.  It was a lot of fun to celebrate with our entire program.  The first night, there was a little "play" written by one of my friends, candle lighting, sufganiyot, and, the best part, a bonfire on the sand in the middle of the desert making s'mores and singing Hanukkah songs.  It was also at the bonfire that most of the non-North American participants made s'mores for the first time!  It didn't occur to me until I heard one of the Brits explaining what to do to another Brit.

My next door neighbor is a chef, a pretty damn good one at that.  Since we moved to Jerusalem in October, we've had a "family" Shabbat dinner at least once a month.  Last week, he made latkes for dinner.  They were good, but not moms!  I always love the night that Shabbat and Hanukkah over lap.  There's just something about lighting both sets of candles and celebrating both at the same time.

So in the US, and maybe other places, latkes are the big Hanukkah food with the sufganiyot as a "side" food.  In Israel, it's the other way around.  As hard as it is to find, or smell, latkes in Israel, the plethora of donuts more than makes us for the lack of latkes.  These are not your traditional jelly filled donuts.  Every bakery you pass has their own assortment of very delicious looking and tempting donuts.  You can find everything from chocolate to halva, dolce de leche to, yes, alcohol injected filling.  You can find the jelly ones, but why would you eat a jelly with powder sugar topping when you could have a chocolate filled sufganiyah with a sprinkle topping?  Aside from the food and store decorations, even the busses were in the Hanukkah mood.  The electric sign on the front of every bus that usually displays route number and destination also said "חנוכה שמח".  Every store, restaurant, public square had a hanukkiayh.  Even the American bar had one in it's window, made out of Jose Cuervo bottles.

Despite the obvious signs of Hanukkah, it just didn't feel all that much like Hanukkah to me.  Maybe it was because I wasn't with my family, maybe it was because I didn't eat enough latkes, but it just didn't feel the same.  It was weird but necessarily a bad weird.  Either way, Hanukkah 2011 will always be a special one because it will, forever and always, be the Hanukkah I spent in Israel not as a tourist but as a temporary resident.