In New Orleans, Hanukkah means decorating your door with a menorah made of hominy grits. Latkes in Texas are seasoned with cilantro and cayenne pepper. Children in Cincinnati sing Hanukkah songs and eat oranges and ice cream. While each tradition springs from its own unique set of cultural references, what ties them together is that they all celebrate a holiday that is different in America than it is any place else. For the past two hundred years, American Jews have been transforming the ancient holiday of Hanukkah from a simple occasion into something grand. Each year, as they retell its story and enact its customs, they bring their ever-changing perspectives and desires to its celebration. Providing an attractive alternative to the Christian dominated December, rabbis and lay people alike have addressed contemporary hopes by fashioning an authentically Jewish festival that blossomed in their American world.
The ways in which Hanukkah was reshaped by American Jews reveals the changing goals and values that emerged among different contingents each December as they confronted the reality of living as a religious minority in the United States. Bringing together clergy and laity, artists and businessmen, teachers, parents, and children, Hanukkah has been a dynamic force for both stability and change in American Jewish life. The holiday’s distinctive transformation from a minor festival to a major occasion that looms large in the American Jewish psyche is a marker of American Jewish life. Drawing on a varied archive of songs, plays, liturgy, sermons, and a range of illustrative material, as well as developing portraits of various communities, congregations, and rabbis, Hanukkah in America reveals how an almost forgotten festival became the most visible of American Jewish holidays.
Reviews -
“The tale Ashton tells, thankfully, is not simply of the holiday but also of the growth of the Jewish community in all its aspects from its earliest days on this continent. Hanukkah in America is a cultural history worth reading. As any book on Hanukkah should be, this one is wonderfully enlightening.” - Congregational Libraries Today
"[T]his work shows how Jewish communities used 'an element within Judaism that corresponded to an element of Christianity in order to resist Christianity.' A fact-filled, mostly interesting account of Hanukkah's development in the United States."- Kirkus
“Hanukkah in America is a unique work of scholarship and analysis.”-Jewish Woman
"Again and again . . . American Jews wove Hanukkah's story into their own contemporary lives in ways that reflected their changing circumstances. Those retellings kept Hanukkah's meaning alive and relevant. They turned the simple holiday rite into an event which, like other well-loved Jewish festivals, drew families together in their own homes where they could tailor the celebration to fit their own tastes in food and decor, and to reflect their own ideas about the holiday's significance." - Jewish Book Council
“Ashton has succeeded in putting together a fascinating account of Hanukkah in America; students of modern festive culture, and not only of American Jewish holiday culture, will undoubtedly find the book to be instructive.”- Journal in Contemporary Jewry
The ways in which Hanukkah was reshaped by American Jews reveals the changing goals and values that emerged among different contingents each December as they confronted the reality of living as a religious minority in the United States. Bringing together clergy and laity, artists and businessmen, teachers, parents, and children, Hanukkah has been a dynamic force for both stability and change in American Jewish life. The holiday’s distinctive transformation from a minor festival to a major occasion that looms large in the American Jewish psyche is a marker of American Jewish life. Drawing on a varied archive of songs, plays, liturgy, sermons, and a range of illustrative material, as well as developing portraits of various communities, congregations, and rabbis, Hanukkah in America reveals how an almost forgotten festival became the most visible of American Jewish holidays.
Reviews -
“The tale Ashton tells, thankfully, is not simply of the holiday but also of the growth of the Jewish community in all its aspects from its earliest days on this continent. Hanukkah in America is a cultural history worth reading. As any book on Hanukkah should be, this one is wonderfully enlightening.” - Congregational Libraries Today
"[T]his work shows how Jewish communities used 'an element within Judaism that corresponded to an element of Christianity in order to resist Christianity.' A fact-filled, mostly interesting account of Hanukkah's development in the United States."- Kirkus
“Hanukkah in America is a unique work of scholarship and analysis.”-Jewish Woman
"Again and again . . . American Jews wove Hanukkah's story into their own contemporary lives in ways that reflected their changing circumstances. Those retellings kept Hanukkah's meaning alive and relevant. They turned the simple holiday rite into an event which, like other well-loved Jewish festivals, drew families together in their own homes where they could tailor the celebration to fit their own tastes in food and decor, and to reflect their own ideas about the holiday's significance." - Jewish Book Council
“Ashton has succeeded in putting together a fascinating account of Hanukkah in America; students of modern festive culture, and not only of American Jewish holiday culture, will undoubtedly find the book to be instructive.”- Journal in Contemporary Jewry