by dan pine
staff writer
Passover may hold the title of No. 1 family holiday for Jews, but Chanukah –– especially these days, with the emphasis on gifts, gifts and more gifts –– may be close behind.
A relatively minor Jewish festival for most of the last 2,000 years, Chanukah is big business now. As such, the holiday has left an imprint on the psyches of Jewish kids, and not all of it of warm and fuzzy.
Anyone seeking a compendium of Chanukah sorrows and screw-ups won’t find a better one than “How to Spell Chanukah,” an engrossing new volume edited by Emily Franklin. Laced with humor, nostalgia and pain, these 18 essays show the many ways parents can miss the mark when trying to give their children a little Jewish tradition.
As delightful a read as it is, “How to Spell Chanukah” reveals the dark side of the Festival of Lights.
Some of the essays are better than others. Joshua Newman’s droll recounting of helping his dad set up a loser of a scarf business around Chanukah time, is one of the best. So is Jennifer Gilmore’s memoir of the pet guinea pig she received as a Chanukah present (in lieu of the puppy she really wanted) and her Jewish father’s stubborn infatuation with all things Christmas.
Other essays –– like Jill Kargman’s “The Only Dreidel in Idaho” and Mameve Medwed’s account of her Bangor, Maine, childhood speak of the struggle to live a Jewish life absent a sizeable Jewish community.
Adam Langer’s poignant “My Father’s Menorah” and Joanna Smith Rakoff’s “Dolls of the World” are only tangentially about the holiday. Rather the authors look deeply into the damaged family dynamics that left them spiritually bowed but not bent.
“The Light, The Sword and the Nintendo DS,” co-written by husband-and-wife team Karen Bender and Anthony Siegel Robert, turns the tables on the formula. As parents of two toy-mad kids, they know how much sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child disappointed with the season’s Chanukah haul.
Less successful are half-hearted pieces from Peter Orner and novelist Joshua Braff, who just seemed to phone it in. Similarly, Ben Schrank’s survey of his marginally Jewish life does little to illuminate the holiday or the experience of it.
Kudos, though, to graphic novelist Eric Orner, whose beautifully drawn comic strip novella about a Jewish girl left behind at her college on winter break, evokes the depression that often strikes that time of year. Apparently the holiday blues aren’t just for Christmas anymore.
Special plaudits also go to Jonathan Tropper for his “Rock of Ages.” A David Sedaris-like memoir of his days in a Jewish day school, lovesick for the pretty girl in his Chanukah choir, manages to whip comedy, pathos and teenage angst into a delirious froth whose charm has yet to wear off.
None of the essays address the true meaning of Chanukah –– the fighting Maccabees, the rededication of the temple, and the like. For most contributors, the holiday’s historical and religious overtones give way to the more sensual aspects: the smell of frying latkes, the glow of the menorah on the eighth night, loom much larger.
For those who lament Chanukah’s modern role as a Jewish antidote to Christmas (complete with all that materialistic excess), this book won’t dispel any concerns. Instead it holds up Chanukah as a kind of cultural hologram, through which one may view the grand parade of family, clan and religious pratfalls.
There’s value in that. Add in plenty of first-rate writing and points of cultural resonance, and you’ve got yourself a real good read. Oh, and it would make a great Chanukah gift.
“How to Spell Chanukah,” edited by Emily Franklin ($19.95, Algonquin Books, 227 pages)
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California