Chanukah around the world

Hear stories of the way Jews manage to celebrate Chanukah no matter where they are, no matter their economic hardship.

“This is a Jewish dish?, they asked.”
Linda Gritz remembers teaching her friends about Chanukah the year she studied abroad in Ireland.

Dreydl with Dad
Harriet Bonfeld remembers playing dreydl with her father, Yiddish writer, Leon Feinberg, up until the time she left the house for college.

Our Makeshift Menorah
Jacob Schlitt remembers celebrating Chanukah with his mother, when they were too poor to buy a menorah.

“I remember getting up on Christmas morning and opening gifts... and lighting candles on the menorah, too.”
Joel Halpern recalls how his family celebrated Christmas in addition to Chanukah until the rise of Hitler to power changed his family's practices.

Making a Chanukia in Sri Lanka
Ilene Gelbaum explains how she managed to celebrate Chanukah while living in a Sri Lankan village. Living there as a member of the PeaceCorps, she and her husband employed the village carpenter to construct a chanukia (menorah) out of local woods.

--Christa Whitney and Allie Brudney

Read about the evolution of the words Channukia, Menorah, and the Yiddish, khanuke-lempl, along with a couple of these stories, in the latest issue of Pakn Treger. Become a member to receive your copy!
For more information on the Wexler Oral History Project, click here.
To see more clips, click here.
To see full interviews, go to http://www.archive.org/details/ybcvideos.
To receive a weekly clip from the Wexler Oral History Project, write us an email at: tellyourstory@bikher.org.