“For the kids, it’s a fun time once a year. For adults, it’s a sense of acknowledgment,” says Rachel Haus of Kalamazoo.
Haus is referring to her family’s celebration of Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish celebration commemorating a 2,000-year-old battle in which the Jews drove the Syrians from Jerusalem.
Haus, library director at the Congregation of Moses Synagogue and a cantorial soloist, says that Hanukkah in America differs from that abroad.
“In Israel, Hanukkah is a minor holiday,” she says, “but because of it overlapping with Christmas, there’s more emphasis on it here. Here, it’s about showing off that you’re Jewish and the pride in that.”
For the Haus children — Shira, 10, Nava, 8, and Mazal, 4 — the holiday isn’t just about cultural pride, it’s fun, too.
Revolving around the lighting of the nine-branched menorah — or the hanukiah, in Hebrew — one candle will be lit on the first night of Hanukkah by the ninth candle, the shamash (the “helper”), says Haus, followed by two candles on the second night, and so on until all eight candles are lit.
The lighting of the hanukiah represents the Hanukkah “miracle,” where Judah Maccabee and other Jews who had defeated the Syrians only had enough oil to keep their hanukiah burning for one day, yet it burned for eight, says Haus.
Though many Jewish families celebrate with the giving of one gift for each of the eight nights, Haus says she and her husband, Dr. Jeffery Haus, a professor of Jewish studies at Kalamazoo College, limit the gifts to the eighth night. Otherwise, “it gets crazy.”
In addition to lighting the hanukiah, the Haus family takes part in several parties, either hosted themselves or by friends or family, and enjoys Hanukkah lunches, plays and activities at their synagogue.
As a tribute, traditional Hanukkah foods are fried in oil, says Haus, and some of her family’s favorites are latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiyot, similar to a jelly doughnut.
“The kids like it because it’s the only time of year they get to have those,” she says.
Afterward, they’ll play dreidel, a game with a four-sided spinning top.
The Haus kids also receive a reaping of Hanukkah gelt. Jewish children traditionally were given money at the holiday. In the Haus household, the gelt comes in the form of chocolate.
“Gelt is the Yiddish term for gold,” Haus said. “We get the kids chocolate coins, or chocolate gelt.”
As with any holiday, the Haus family makes it its own. In addition to having the family hanukiah, Haus said they have one or two for the kids to light themselves.
“Lighting the hanukiah is a tradition to stave off the darkness,” she says, “and by the end of Hanukkah, with all the hanukiahs lit, our kitchen is ablaze.”