Hanukkah evolves with the times

Gift-giving is relatively recent tradition

By BRIAN McGILLIVARY
Record-Eagle staff writer

      TRAVERSE CITY - The Hanukkah celebration is under way and increasingly is part of the holiday tradition for several area families.
      "I love the story of Hanukkah, and I love talking about it with my kids' school groups," said Tobi Karch of Traverse City. "We've always met with a real great reception from the kids."
      Karch said it's important for her children and for their friends to understand there are other cultural traditions in the world.
      Curtis Kuttnauer and his wife, Sandi, are putting together a small Hanukkah celebration for their daughter's first-grade class. They'll sing, dance, play the traditional spinning top dreidel game, eat potato pancakes and tell the Hanukkah story.
      "The message is one of hope, prevailing against difficult odds, and sticking together," Kuttnauer said.
      Sandy Swartz of Bellaire said they'll do a similar presentation next weekend with her son's hockey team as part of the team's holiday party.
      "Every year we've been asked to do a similar thing in Bellaire schools," she said, where her son Taylor was the only Jewish student in the elementary school.
      Rabbi Stacie Fine Bahle of Congregation Ahavat Shalom said Hanukkah is a good example of how a holiday evolves.
      "It actually started with our ancient, Middle Eastern neighbors who were concerned every year around this time when they thought the sun was dying," she said.
      The holiday was adopted in Judaism to commemorate the military victory in about 165 B.C. of the Maccabees against a Syrian king who had oppressed Jews and banned their religion.
      "It's similar to the American Revolution in that a small, rag-tag bunch of people defeated a much more formidable force," Bahle said.
      When the Maccabees went to rededicate the Holy Temple, there was enough blessed olive oil to burn the eternal light for just one night. It burned for eight nights and became known as the "miracle of the oil."
      "The core word, 'Hanukkah,' means dedication," Bahle said. "It's a wonderful time of year for Jews and Christians to dedicate ourselves to the values that are so important, like kindness, hospitality, visiting the sick and social justice."
      Bahle said Hanukkah never was considered as important as Yom Kippur or Rosh Hashana when she was young, but the modern influence of Christmas has made Hanukkah more prominent on the national landscape.
      "Christmas is celebrated much more here than in the rest of the world and Hanukkah is the same," Karch said.
      Gift-giving is another relatively recent Christmas-influenced tradition.
      "Other kids wake up one morning with all these new toys and the Jewish kids say, 'Where's ours?' " Kuttnauer said.
      "We try to minimize it," he said. "We stress hope and coming together to our 7-year-old, and 'Oh, by the way, you get a gift.' "
      Congregation Ahavat Shalom will offer a community-wide Hanukkah dinner party and gift exchange for children and adults on Friday at 6 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation on Center Road. Those interested in attending should contact Pami Sprague at (231) 533-5220 or the congregation office at 929-4330.

Published in the Traverse City Record-Eagle