RASHI, RAMBAM and RAMALAMADINGDONG
A Quizbook of Jewish Trivia Facts & Fun
A Quizbook of Jewish Trivia Facts & Fun
Chanukkah started last night with the lighting of the first candle. Celebrants are playing dreidel, eating latkes and sufganiyot, and singing traditional songs such as Chanukkah O Chanukkah and Maoz Tsur. But there are many other ways to celebrate the holiday, including attending concerts such as “The 8 Nights of Hanukkah” with Yo La Tengo at the Bowery Ballroom in New York, Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin’s “Hanukkah Sessions” at Largo in Los Angeles, and “The Matzo Ball” at the historic 100 Men Hall in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi featuring Meryl Zimmerman & the Miracles. A company in Jerusalem is offering a different type of Chanukkah celebration experience. Participants get the opportunity to creatively re-enact the Maccabean battle against the Greeks in what unusual way?
Menorahs by Mark D. Zimmerman
A. Eat and Meet Jerusalem, which offers cooking classes throughout the year, will be sponsoring a special Chanukkah cook-off for groups of up to 10 people. Participants will be divided into two teams, Judah’s Maccabees and Antiochus’s Greeks. The Maccabees will be taught to make traditional Chanukkah recipes, including latkes, bunelos (a traditional Sephardic treat of fried dough balls topped with orange glaze), keftes de prasa (fried leek patties that are traditional for Spanish Jews), and cassola (a baked ricotta cheesecake popular among Italian Jews). The Greeks will prepare tomatokeftedes (tomato fritters), baklava, kolokithokeftedes (fried zucchini balls), and kataifi (almond syrup pastries).
B. Falcon Laser Tag will set up a special Chanukkah competition for participants in a parking lot, inside a building, or in a public park for a laser tag battle between the forces of good and evil. You can also hold your laser tag event in the Engineering Corps Museum – only a 7 minute drive from Latrun, where Judah and the Maccabees prepared for battle against the Greeks.
C. Beitar Jerusalem, one of Israel’s premier soccer teams, is sponsoring amateur soccer games at their home field, Teddy Stadium. Families and friends can make up teams of 15-20 to be randomly assigned as Beitar Maccabees and Beitar Seleucids. The Maccabees use the Beitar Jerusalem locker room and the Seleucids use the visitor’s locker room, and everyone receives a soccer jersey with their team name. Beitar Jerusalem team members volunteer as coaches during the Chanukkah tournament, and all proceeds go to support youth soccer leagues throughout Israel.
D. Jerusalem Paintball is offering special Chanukkah paintball wars between the Maccabees and the Seleucids at its outdoor space in the Rehavia neighborhood of Jerusalem. The Maccabees are given blue paint balls, symbolic of the Jewish people, while the Seleucid team will fire red paint balls. But the Maccabee players are also given oil-filled balls, symbolic of the oil in the Temple which lasted eight days.
E. In an event sponsored by the creators of Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding, participants sign up for Toula and Motel’s Big Fat Sunrise Sunset Greek Jewish Wedding. Attendees are divided into two groups–the Jews and the Greeks, and one member of each team is selected to participate in a wedding ceremony. All of the Jews then object to the intermarriage with a Greek (a la Tevye), and all of the Greeks object to the intermarriage with a Jew (a la Gus), with everyone agreeing that the marriage won’t last a day. But in a Chanukkah miracle, the marriage actually lasts 8 days.
✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡
© 2024 MMJZ Services, Inc.