More in ‘Hanukkah’

Today in Tablet Magazine, Contributing Editor Victor Navasky says that, by opposing universal health care, Sen. Joe Lieberman has betrayed his faith’s commitment to social justice. Andrew Marantz sees the new 3D blockbuster Avatar through the prism of the Hanukkah story. Poetry critic David Kaufmann reviews Stanley Moss’s new collection of comically God-doubting work. The ...

Opening night for Avatar was also the last night of Hanukkah, but when I was offered a free ticket to the blockbuster action flick, I put on my 3-D glasses and didn’t give the Festival of Lights a second thought. Then, while the big blue subalterns scampered across the screen, the damnedest thing happened: I ...

• The Spanish foreign minister announced his country will press for Palestinian statehood when it takes over the E.U. presidency on January 1st. [JTA]
• A Chabad-sponsored menorah at an entrance to Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Park has prompted a heated discussion on the legality of religious displays on city property. [NYT]
• Newsweek’s ace investigative reporter Michael ...

Congratulations to John Heywood—spinning name: Jonny Hei-z (“Hei” as in Nun, Gimel, Hei, Shin)—who won the honor last weekend in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, despite the arguable disadvantage of not being Jewish. Heywood told Tablet Magazine that the competition, which is run by friends of his, rates how long spinners can keep their dreidel spinning, rather than ...

Today in Tablet Magazine, Liel Leibovitz sees this week’s haftorah—in which King Solomon invents his patented cut-the-baby-in-half method of conflict resolution—as a parable for the self-destructive consequences of the impulse to revenge. From our archives, Julie Subrin’s podcast explores the origins of the popular Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) Hanukkah song “Ocho Kandelikas.” And today is the ...

• In her very first speech, the brand-new E.U. foreign policy head took aim at Israel: “East Jerusalem is occupied territory together with the West Bank.” [JTA]
• J Street’s decision to back the Iran sanctions bill, which the U.S. House of Representatives passed yesterday, represented a move toward the center for the “pro-Israel, pro-peace” American ...

Today in Tablet Magazine, Eddy Portnoy profiles long-gone wrestler Martin “the Blimp” Levy, who weighed in at over 600 pounds yet could display surprising grace—“a freak with class,” his manager said. Ruth Ellen Gruber ponders the juxtaposition of Hanukkah and olive-harvest season at her grove in Umbria, Italy. From our archives, Ben Birnbaum remembers Brooklyn ...

It’s surely just a coincidence that in Italy, where I have a home, the olive harvest generally takes place in the month or so before the most oil-centered of Jewish holidays.
For me, though, the olive harvest and subsequent production of oil provide a parallel seasonal ritual, in which bruschetta, or grilled bread drenched in dense ...

You’re darn right latkes deserve their own year-end list. This writer has partaken of four of the five selections, and can seriously recommend the Ukrainian East Village mainstay Veselka (their cheese blintz complements their latke nicely), as well as the Park Avenue Winter selection (a bit precious, but the size and density are appealing). Experience ...

Today in Tablet Magazine, Daphne Merkin takes a look at Rebecca Rubin, the American Girl series’s first permanent-collection Jewish doll. Senior Writer Allison Hoffman profiles Herbert and Dorothy Vogel, a solidly middle-class hamishe New York couple who somehow turned themselves into formidable contemporary art collectors. For those in more of a watching than reading mood, ...