Hanukkah is not about feasting. It’s not about gorging monstrous amounts of potato latkes or jelly doughnuts, or even about receiving eight presents — one for each night of the holiday. What we really celebrate on the 25th day of Kislev, which, according to the Hebrew calendar, falls this year on Thanksgiving Day, are the events we learned in Sunday school — how one tiny cask of olive oil performed a miracle and saved the Jewish people.
And so, every year we celebrate the miracle of olive oil, which makes us realize how modern our ancestors really were, because 2,000 years ago, this healthful, golden, polyunsaturated substance — which should be called a gift from the gods to the cardiologists — was used to heat and light the temple. One wonders if they preferred extra virgin to pure, but let me tell you the rest of the story …
In 165 B.C., a small band of men led by Judah Maccabeus performed a miracle of their own. Outnumbered 100 to one, they were victorious in their battle against the Syrian Hellenists and the oppressive reign of King Antiochus Epiphanes. The victory was important, according to Claudia Roden in “The Book of Jewish Food,” because it was the first time Jews resorted to arms to preserve their faith and fight for religious freedom.
Fresh from their triumph, they came home to Jerusalem and cautiously entered the temple, where they found the eternal light snuffed out and the house of worship in ruins. Their first thought was to rekindle the holy light. They rummaged cask after cask of olive oil in search of one with the priestly seal still intact. Finally, they unearthed it — one totally pure vessel — and used it to ignite the flame. And then came the miracle. Although there was barely enough oil for one day’s light, it burned miraculously for eight, giving the soldiers time to rededicate the temple and give it back to the Jewish people.
To pay homage to the oil, during Hanukkah, Jews eat fried foods. Since my family is Ashkenazi — my ancestors came to the United States from Russia and Poland — I’ve been eating potato latkes all my life. It never occurred to me that in different parts of the world, where potatoes weren’t so plentiful, Jews ate other foods to celebrate this joyous holiday.
According to Evan Kleiman, of the famed, though recently shuttered, Los Angeles trattoria, Angeli Caffe, Sephardic Jews don’t necessarily eat latkes. “Since we’re honoring the oil — not the potato — Italian Jews serve rice fritters and fried chicken such as Milanese,” says the longtime host of National Public Radio’s “Good Food.”
Fritters swimming in syrup or sprinkled with powdered sugar are popular with other Sephardic Jews — from places as diverse as the Mediterranean, North and South Africa, India and the Middle East. Fried chicken with couscous is served in Morocco. Russians put a lump of sugar in a spoon, pour brandy over it, then set it on fire and drop it in a glass of tea, along with their latkes. And for dessert, the jam-filled doughnut, Sufganiyot, is devoured with delight in Israel and wherever Jews are found, actually. The best are light and buttery and melt in your mouth, homemade, or piping hot, right out of the oven at your favorite Jewish bakery.