Hanukkah for Families

Eight days of fun.

By Sarah Gershman for MyJewishLearning.com

Hanukkah's proximity to Christmas can complicate the holiday.

For those who try to make Hanukkah more like Christmas, it inevitably seems to fall short. Yet while Hanukkah was traditionally not one of the most central holidays of the Jewish calendar, it can, nonetheless offer many opportunities for fun and joyous celebration. Here are some suggestions for how you can make this Hanukkah memorable, while still staying true to the essential meaning of the holiday.

Bringing Light out of Darkness

There are many ways to make this year’s Hanukkah a real "Festival of Light." As Rabbi Arthur Waskow writes in his book, Seasons of Joy, “Hanukkah is the moment when light is born from darkness, hope from despair.” Historically, this was reflected in the unlikely victory of the Maccabees over the Greeks, in the oil that brought light for eight days instead of one, and in the very act of lighting candles during the darkest time of the year.

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My Adopted Son Wants to Be Christian–And I Need to Let Him

By Dr. Gary Matloff  for Raising Kvell


We were walking out to the car after Yom Kippur services when my son Matheus, 14 years old at the time, unexpectedly broke the silence and asked, with a tinge of exasperation in his voice, “Father, when can I go to church?”

It had only been a few months past our first anniversary since I’d adopted him and his younger brother from Brazil. Up until then, Matheus had mostly kept to himself any thoughts he might have had about his religious inclinations. His brother had decided that he wanted to become Jewish, abandoning his Christian roots barely nine months into our first year together—he could hardly wait to attend Hebrew school later that year.

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Reconsidering Jewish Day School

by Nina Badzin @NinaBadzin for JCJewfolk.com

Where to send our kids to elementary school is the conversation dominating parents of preschoolers. I’m sure this is true in many areas of the country, but in Minnesota where we have open enrollment, parents often discuss which schools they’re considering for their children.

“Open enrollment,” if you’re not familiar with the term, means if there’s space at a public school in any district, parents can apply to get spots for their children.

As a mom with three kids already at a Jewish day school and one still in preschool, I’ve been listening to these conversations for almost a decade. There are many legitimate factors to consider when choosing a school, but I often hear parents automatically eliminate day schools from the running for reasons that are not supported by the facts.

If you have never considered even looking at Jewish day school, let me try to put your local day school on the list of possibilities by eliminating a few of the most common misconceptions. (1) I want my kids to be exposed to more than Judaism and Jewish people. (2) We aren’t as Jewish as the other families at the school. (3) Private Jewish education is too expensive.

1. I want my kids to be exposed to more than Judaism and Jewish people.

Another way of saying this is, “I don’t want my kids to be sheltered.”

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I Care Less About Chores, More About Kindness

By Julie Levine for Raising Kvell


This summer, my son wore his bathing suit and swim shirt for five days in a row—he slept in his bathing suit, wore it swimming the next day, and to bed that night. He did this for about five different weeks throughout July and August.

My kids (13 and 11) don’t make their beds every morning. They don’t do their own laundry either. Or take out the garbage. Ditto for loading the dishes in the dishwasher. Sometimes I feel guilty that they don’t help out more around the house. Once in a while I’d like my son to put on a clean shirt and brush his hair. But truthfully, I don’t care that much.

Before you start thinking that my kids are spoiled, entitled or just plain slobs, and before you think that I’m an indulgent parent, let me tell you what I do care a great deal about—I care deeply that my kids are good citizens of the world. A great deal of my parenting energy is spent trying to raise children who will grow up to be mensches.

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