Members of the Jewish community share experiences of Hanukkah in Auburn

For many, the holiday season revolves around the celebration of Christmas and its surrounding traditions, but each year around the same time is the celebration of Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights.

Hanukkah is an eight-day holiday celebrating the Jewish defeat of the Greeks. Vice-President Elect of Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi and member of the Jewish student organization Hillel Sam Levenson said Hanukkah is observed for eight days because despite the destruction of many structures in Israel, a lamp that had only enough oil to last a few days burned for eight. 

“In traditional synagogues, or Jewish houses of worship, there’s an eternal light that needs to always be on,” said President of Alpha Epsilon Pi and Hillel member Jeremy Newman. “So that’s why the oil that was able to keep the light on for eight days is considered to be a miracle in a religious context.”

Newman said, as a result, the holiday is celebrated by lighting a new candle each day and eating oily foods including latkes, potato pancakes fried in oil, and jelly donuts also fried in oil.

Taking place from Dec. 12 through the 20th, Hanukkah fell during the University's finals week this year. For Levenson, he said the worst part about the date conflict is not being able to be with his family. 

Levenson said Hanukkah itself is not as central to the Jewish religion as other holidays.

“Hanukkah’s a different kind of holiday,” Levenson said. “Whereas other holidays involve a lot of prayers and reading from the Torah, Hanukkah tends to have a lot fewer religious aspects to it. It’s definitely more of like a celebratory, traditional type thing.”

Newman said the most emphasis is generally placed on the first or last night. That is typically when family is invited for dinner. The remainder of the nights are spent with traditions such as lighting the candles in accordance with the days, saying prayers, and giving gifts.

“So for most of the eight days, it’s not a very cumbersome holiday,” Newman said. “You light a candle and say the prayer and then you can play with dreidels or eat jelly donuts.”

One of the biggest differences between Hanukkah and other winter holidays, namely Christmas, is while Christmas is a highly symbolic holiday to the Christian religion, the more important holidays, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, come earlier in the fall semester, Newman said. Hanukkah is more of a time to celebrate Jewish folklore and traditions than it is the centerpiece of the religion.

“It’s not like a big religious holiday; it’s cultural,” said Michael Deutsch, outgoing vice president of Alpha Epsilon Pi and member of Hillel. “It’s a fun one, and it’s good for families to get together.”

“When the calendar aligns and you get to be home for Hanukkah with your family, that’s, of course, a great time,” Newman said. “Finals does make that difficult, but of course we, the Auburn Jewish community, are here together.”

The Jewish community at Auburn is not very large, which by nature leads to a strength surrounding the community around times like Hanukkah, Newman said.

“We’ll have our Hanukkah parties, and we’ll eat latkes, and play dreidel,” Levenson said. “And we recently had the menorah lighting on Samford Lawn which is really awesome.”

A large menorah can also be found in front of the Alpha Epsilon Pi house, Deutsch said.

“Some people open their homes, and the community comes and celebrates,” Newman said. “I think that speaks to how strong the community is here, and that’s really nice.”