In a calendar rarity, Hanukkah starts this year on Christmas Day

Hanukkah, Judaism’s eight-day festival of lightsbegins this year on Christmas Day, which has only happened four times since 1900.

For some rabbis, the intersection of the two religious holidays provides an auspicious occasion for interfaith engagement.

“This can be a profound opportunity for learning and collaboration and unity,” said Rabbi Josh Stanton, a vice president of the Jewish Federations of North America. He oversees interfaith initiatives involving the 146 local and regional Jewish federations that his organization represents.

“The goal is not proselytizing; it’s learning deeply from each other,” he said. “It’s others seeing you as you see yourself.”

One example of unity: a Chicanukah celebration organized Thursday night by several Jewish organizations in Houston, bringing together members of the city’s Latino and Jewish communities for a “cross-cultural holiday.” The place: Houston’s Holocaust Museum.

The food offered was a mix of the two cultures – for example one latkes bar with guacamole, chili con queso and pico de gallo as well as applesauce and sour cream. The doughnut-like cakes were sufganiyot — a Hanukkah specialty — and buñuelos, And the mariachi band had a blast playing the Jewish folk song “Hava Nagila.”

“What really brings us together is our shared values ​​— our faith, our families, our heritage,” said Erica Winsor, public affairs officer for the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston.

Rabbi Peter Tarlow, executive director of the Houston-based Center for Latino-Jewish Relations, said the first Chicanukah event 12 years ago drew 20 people, while this year’s crowd numbered about 300 and could have been larger had the turnout not had been limited. He said the partygoers were a fairly even mix of Latinos — some of them Jews of Hispanic origin — and “Anglo” Jews.

“There is too much hatred, too much segregation against both Jews and Latinos,” Tarlow said. “This is a way for us to come together and show that we support each other.”

While Hanukkah is meant to be an upbeat, festive holiday, the rabbis note that it takes place this year amid ongoing conflicts involving Israeli forces in the Middle East and fears of widespread incidents of anti-Semitism.

Rabbi Moshe Hauer, executive vice-president of the Orthodox Union, acknowledged that many Jews may feel anxious heading into Hanukkah this year. But he expressed confidence that most would maintain the key tradition: lighting candles on menorah candelabra and displaying them where they are visible through household windows and in public spaces.

“Our community’s position — without argument, just with determination — is that the menorah should be in our windows, somewhere the public can see it,” Hauer said.

“It’s less for us, the Jewish community, than for the world,” he added. “We have to share that light. Putting the menorah in the window is our expression of working to be a light among the nations.”

Hauer agreed with Stanton that this year’s overlap between Hanukkah and Christmas is “a unique opportunity to see and experience the diversity of America and the diversity of its faith communities.”

Rabbi Motti Seligson, director of public relations for the Hasidic movement Chabad-Lubavitch, noted that this year marks the 50th anniversary of a milestone in the public lighting of menorahs. It was on December 8, 1974—as part of an initiative launched by Lubavitcher leader Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson—that a menorah was lit outside Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, where the Liberty Bell was housed at the time.

“Hanukkah is a celebration of religious freedom, so don’t take it for granted,” Seligson said. “One of the ways to do that is by celebrating it publicly.”

He said Chabad organized about 15,000 public menorah lightings this year through its many branches around the world.

“There is certainly some concern,” Seligson said, citing concerns about anti-Semitism and political friction. “Some people question whether Jews will celebrate as openly as in the past.”

“What I’m hearing is that we can’t,” he added. “The only way through these difficult times is to stand stronger and prouder and shine brighter than ever.”

Stanton agreed.

“Throughout our history, we’ve been through moments that are easy and moments that are difficult,” he said. “Safety for us doesn’t come from hiding. It comes from reaching out.”

Why is Hanukkah so late this year? The simple answer is that the Jewish calendar is based on the cycles of the moon, and is not in sync with the Gregorian calendar, which puts Christmas on December 25. Hanukkah always begins on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev, a date that occurs between at end of November and end of December on the Gregorian calendar.

The last time Hanukkah began on Christmas Day was in 2005. But the term “Chrismukkah” — meaning the overlapping of the two holidays — had become a popular term by then. The term gained additional currency in 2003 when the character Seth Cohen on the television drama “The OC” embraced the fusion holiday as a tribute to his Jewish father and Protestant mother.

This season, the Hallmark Channel introduced a new Christmas movie called “Leah’s Perfect Gift,” which depicts a young Jewish woman who had admired Christmas from afar and gets a chance to experience it up close when her boyfriend invites her to spend the holiday with his family. Spoiler alert: Not everything goes smoothly.

Despite such storylines suggesting a fascination with Christmas among some Jews, Stanton says research by the Jewish Federations reveals an increase in Jews seeking deeper connections to their own traditions and communities, as well as an increase in Jewish , who volunteer for charitable activities during the festive season.

“The opportunity is to share with others how we celebrate Hanukkah,” he said. “It’s a holiday of freedom, hope, proudly showing you’re Jewish.” ___

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