Fall ‘25/Winter ‘26
We take nearly all of our blessings for granted. Like our health, our freedom, our homes, our food, our family, our friends. We even take it for granted that we're going to wake up tomorrow morning. I guess it's human nature.
We also take this special time of year, called the “Holiday Season," for granted. But we shouldn't!
Every year at this season, I recall something that happened to me about 25 years ago. I was with a Jewish friend of mine from Scotland and a quick announcement came on the TV – "Happy Chanukah from Channel 10" – accompanied by a picture of a menorah and a dreidel.
My friend's father, a Jewish man who lived his whole life in Scotland, was visiting Florida at the time and he erupted in glee and laughter. "Look at that!" he cried out. "I can't believe it! Happy Chanukah from Channel 10! That would never happen back home." I asked him what he meant and he said, "Back in Scotland, no one ever said Happy Chanukah on TV; it's preposterous. Everyone celebrates Christmas, and that's it."
But not here in America.
Jews are only two percent of the United States population, but our holidays are part of the December festivities. We are part of the special time of year that begins with Thanksgiving at the end of November, and includes Chanukah, Christmas, New Year's Eve – which is also my birthday – and New Year's Day.
I like the Holiday Season because of all the beautiful lights and music that we get to enjoy. But as Jews, we should always remember the true meaning of Thanksgiving and Chanukah.
I had a wonderful friend named Andy Hartmann, who was a member of TBE before he moved away, and I always think of him at Thanksgiving.
Andy was a child survivor of the Holocaust, thanks to a magnificent couple – Mr. and Mrs. Chuvala – who hid him and his sister and brother-in-law in an underground bunker they built in their barn. They kept it secret from their children that they were hiding Jews in the barn because if anyone found out, their whole family would be executed by the Nazis.
Sadly, Andy's parents and two teenage sisters perished at Auschwitz. But at the end of the war, his aunt and uncle in Brooklyn found him and brought him to America. He often told me how the boat he was on sailed into New York harbor early in the morning and everyone ran out on deck to see the Statue of Liberty. They were truly free in a marvelous country where Jews were welcomed!
About a week after he arrived in New York, Andy's cousins took him to the Thanksgiving Day Parade. He'd never seen anything like it before – giant floats and balloons of cartoon figures, and Santa Claus too. Andy knew nothing about Thanksgiving. His cousins explained that this was not a religious holiday, but a day for all Americans, regardless of their religion, to give thanks for the blessings we enjoy.
Chanukah is coming up just a few weeks from now. And like Thanksgiving, it has a deeper meaning than just being a time for food and merriment.
Chanukah celebrates the Jewish victory over the mighty Greeks, who tried to impose their Hellenistic ideology and pagan Gods over the people of Israel. They installed a statue of Zeus in the temple and banned the study of Torah and the observance of Shabbat. In 167 BCE, the Jewish revolt began and it wasn't for another 22 years that the Jews regained full political sovereignty in their land.
Thanksgiving and Chanukah have been secularized by our annual Holiday Season, but both of them are essentially religious holidays about devotion to God and gratitude for the blessings we enjoy.