FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM NOVEMBER 22, 2018 • THE QUEENS COURIER 39
hanukkah
Burn the oil & eat the oil during Hanukkah
BY MERLE EXIT
Hanukkah (or Chanukah) is the winter
holiday commemorating the restoration
of Jewish worship at the temple
of Jerusalem when Judah Maccabee led
the revolt against the Seleucid Empire in
164 BCE.
Judah was called “Maccabee,” a word
composed of the initial letters of the four
Hebrew words “Mi Kamocha Ba’eilim
Hashem,” meaning: “Who is like You,
G-d.”
Having conquered, Maccabee obtained
a menorah to serve as a memorial. A
small amount of olive oil was used, and
expected to burn for one day. Instead, the
menorah burned for eight days, and to
remember this miracle, this Hebrew year
of 5779, Chanukah begins on the evening
of Sunday, Dec. 2.
With the exception of the High Holy
Days, Jewish holidays tend to follow the
same pattern: We fought, we won, we eat.
Which traditional foods are served on
this Hanukkah? Th ink of it as consuming
the eight days of oil — starting with fried
pancakes called “latkes.”
Most common are the potato latkes that
combine raw grated potatoes with onions,
eggs, and fl our (or matzo meal), a traditional
Ashkenazi classic.
Why do we grate the potatoes? To
remind us of our suff ering, of course! You
can certainly bake them, but it tastes so
much better fried in oil.
Another tradition is “kugel,” or pudding
using either potatoes or wide noodles
(“lokshon”). Potato kugel is like having
a huge baked latke. Noodle pudding is
prepared two ways: sweet or savory. Th e
savory version combines noodles, eggs,
cottage cheese, sour cream, and butter.
Oy, the cholester-oil!
Butter makes the noodles crunchy
along the bottom. One sweet version uses
less butter and adds sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon
and raisins, usually served cold.
Th en there’s dessert. According to Gil
Marks, author of “Th e Encyclopedia of
Jewish Food,” Polish immigrants brought
“ponchiks,” as they called them, to Israel
along with the custom of eating them on
Hanukkah. In Israel, however, ponchiks
soon took the name sufganiyah (sufganiyot
plural), from a “spongy dough” mentioned
in the Talmud, “sofgan” and “sfogga.”
In 2009, about 18 million sufganiyot
were consumed in Israel in the weeks
before and during the holiday, or about
three doughnuts per Israeli, with the
Israeli Defense Force alone purchasing
around a half million that year.
About 70 percent of all sufganiyot consumed
are stuff ed with jelly, but a number
of other fi llings have become popular,
including halva, crème espresso, chocolate
truffl e, and numerous exotic fl avors.
Jelly doughnuts in Brazil are commonly
fi lled with dulce de leche (a milky caramel),
which recently also became a popular
Israeli fi lling, known as “ribat chalav”
in Hebrew.
American Jews have adopted the sufganiyah,
although most tend to stick to
the old- fashioned jelly fi llings and a
confection ers’ sugar dusting.
Queens Jewish Center to hold fundraiser concert for Pittsburgh Synagogue victims
BY JOSH TOWNER
editorial@qns.com / @QNS
Th e Hillcrest Jewish Center is inviting
people to join the “Gathering Time”
Concert — A Night To Remember on
Saturday, Dec. 1 at 7:30 p.m. Portions of
the proceeds will be donated in honor of
the Pittsburgh Synagogue victims.
Th e yearly concert usually helps maintain
HJC and its long history of sponsorship
and support of local community programs.
Th is year the event will additionally
help those aff ected by the tragic shootings
at the Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue
in October.
Gathering Time is an award-winning
folk-rock harmony trio made up of
Gerry McKeveny, Hillary Foxsong and
Stuart Markus. Th e trio will be live on
stage performing songs from legendary
and iconic Jewish artists like Bob Dylan,
Neil Diamond, Billy Joel and more.
Tickets are $25 for open seating, $36
for reserved seats, $15 for teens ages 13
to 18 and free for children under 13.
Tickets can be purchased at the door
before the concert or by calling 718-
380-4145.
Th e concert is being held at the
Hillcrest Jewish Center at 183-02 Union
Tpke., Fresh Meadows. Photo courtesy of the Hillcrest Jewish Center
link
