Posted by on 19. December 2017 0 Comments

Hanukkah meets Christmas: Chrismukkah

Christmas and Hanukkah have quite a lot in common: Candles are lit at both festivals to brighten up the dark season; both festivals fall on the 25th day of a month – Christmas on 25 December and Hanukkah on 25 Kislew, the ninth month of the Jewish calendar; and both are still traditional, family celebrations which have become festivals of consumerism.

The staff of the Jewish Museum Berlin didn’t want to choose between latkes and gingerbread and celebrated the “greatest superholiday known to mankind”:

Character Seth Cohen on the television series The O.C.

Chrismukkah!

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Posted by on 18. December 2017 2 Comments

Hanukkah commercialized

Gifts are not traditionally given on Hanukkah. Nevertheless, a small industry has started to develop Hanukkah products. No wonder that some objects in our collection are blue-white-plushy – and “made in China” …

The picture shows a doll made of skin-colored plush velvet. The figure is wearing a sleeveless, knee-length blue cotton tunic, which is girded and knotted at the waist with a violet ribbon.

Judah Maccabee rag doll JUDAH MACCABEE / The Hanukkah Hero!;  Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jens Ziehe

 

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Posted by on 17. December 2017 0 Comments

Hanukkah Songs

Today there are many beautiful Hanukkah songs and many that are, well, less beautiful—we’ll leave it to you to decide which belong in which category…

The Vienna Jewish Choir singing an arrangement of the traditional Ashkenazi Ma’oz Tzur accompanied on the piano by Roman Grinberg.

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