Hanukkah, Judaism’s eight-day Pageant of Lights, begins this yr on Christmas Day, which has solely occurred 4 occasions since 1900.

For some rabbis, the intersection of the 2 non secular holidays gives an auspicious event for interfaith engagement.

“This is usually a profound alternative for studying and collaboration and togetherness,” mentioned Rabbi Josh Stanton, a vice chairman of the Jewish Federations of North America. He oversees interfaith initiatives involving the 146 native and regional Jewish federations that his group represents.

“The purpose is just not proselytizing; it is studying deeply from one another,” he mentioned. “It is others seeing you as you see your self.”

One instance of togetherness: a Chicanukah social gathering hosted Thursday night by a number of Jewish organizations in Houston, bringing collectively members of town’s Latino and Jewish communities for a “cross cultural vacation celebration.” The venue: Houston’s Holocaust museum.

The meals on provide was a mix of the 2 cultures – for instance a latke bar that includes guacamole, chili con queso and pico de gallo, in addition to applesauce and bitter cream. The doughnut-like pastries have been sufganiyot – a Hanukkah specialty – and buñuelos, And the mariachi band took a crack at taking part in the Jewish people tune “Hava Nagila.”

“What actually brings us collectively is our shared values – our religion, our households, our heritage,” mentioned Erica Winsor, public affairs officer for the Jewish Federation of Better Houston.

Rabbi Peter Tarlow, govt director of the Houston-based Heart for Latino-Jewish Relations, mentioned the primary Chicanukah occasion 12 years in the past drew 20 individuals, whereas this yr the group numbered about 300, and will have been bigger had not attendance been capped. He mentioned the party-goers have been a roughly even mixture of Latinos – a few of them Jews with Latin American origins – and “Anglo” Jews.

“There’s an excessive amount of hate, an excessive amount of separation in opposition to each Jews and Latinos,” Tarlow mentioned. “It is a means we are able to come collectively and present we help one another.”

Whereas Hanukkah is meant as an upbeat, celebratory vacation, rabbis observe that it is going down this yr amid persevering with conflicts involving Israeli forces within the Center East, and apprehension over widespread incidents of antisemitism.

Rabbi Moshe Hauer, govt vice chairman of the Orthodox Union, acknowledged that many Jews could also be feeling anxious heading into Hanukkah this yr. However he voiced confidence that almost all would keep the important thing custom: the lighting of candles on menorah candelabras and displaying the place they’re seen via family home windows and in public areas.

“The posture of our group – with out stridency, simply with dedication – is that the menorah needs to be in our home windows, in a spot the place the general public sees it,” Hauer mentioned.

“It’s much less for us, the Jewish group, than for the world,” he added. “Now we have to share that gentle. Placing the menorah within the window is our expression of working to be a light-weight among the many nations.”

Hauer concurred with Stanton that this yr’s overlap of Hanukkah and Christmas is “an distinctive alternative to see and expertise the variety of America and the variety of its communities of religion.”

Rabbi Motti Seligson, public relations director for the Hasidic motion Chabad-Lubavitch, famous that this yr marks the fiftieth anniversary of a milestone within the public lightings of menorahs. It was on Dec. 8, 1974 – as a part of an initiative launched by the Lubavitcher chief, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson – {that a} menorah was lit exterior Philadelphia’s Independence Corridor, the place the Liberty Bell was housed on the time.

“Hanukkah is a celebration of spiritual liberty, in order that it is not taken without any consideration,” Seligson mentioned. “One of many methods of doing that’s by celebrating it publicly.”

He mentioned Chabad was organizing about 15,000 public menorah lightings this yr via its quite a few branches around the globe.

“There actually is a few apprehension,” Seligson mentioned, referring to issues about antisemitism and political friction. “Some individuals query whether or not Jews might be celebrating as overtly as prior to now.”

“What I am listening to is there is no means that we will not,” he added. “The one means via these tough occasions is by standing stronger and prouder and shining brighter than ever.”

Stanton concurred.

“By means of our historical past, we have been via moments which can be straightforward and moments which can be laborious,” he mentioned. “Security for us doesn’t come from hiding. It comes from reaching out.”

Why is Hanukkah so late this yr? The straightforward reply is that the Jewish calendar is predicated on lunar cycles, and isn’t in sync with the Gregorian calendar which units Christmas on Dec. 25. Hanukkah all the time begins on the twenty fifth day of the Jewish month of Kislev, a date which happens between late November and late December on the Gregorian calendar.

The final time Hanukkah started on Christmas Day was in 2005. However the time period “Chrismukkah” – signifying the overlap of the 2 holidays – had turn into a well-liked time period earlier than then. The time period gained further foreign money in 2003, when the character Seth Cohen on the TV drama “The O.C.” embraced the fusion vacation as a tribute to his Jewish father and Protestant mom.

This season, the Hallmark Channel launched a brand new Christmas film referred to as “Leah’s Good Reward,” depicting a younger Jewish lady who had admired Christmas from a distance, and will get an opportunity to expertise it up shut when her boyfriend invitations her to spend the vacations together with his household. Spoiler alert: All doesn’t go easily.

Regardless of such storylines suggesting a fascination with Christmas amongst some Jews, Stanton says analysis by the Jewish Federations reveals a surge in Jews searching for deeper connections to their very own traditions and group, in addition to a surge in Jews volunteering for charitable actions throughout the holidays.

“The chance is to share with others how we have fun Hanukkah,” he mentioned. “It is a vacation of freedom, hope, exhibiting proudly you’re Jewish.” ___

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