Happy Eight Days of Chanukah Message - Day 7

Home is Where the Chanukah Lights Are

Our friends back home—be that Chicago or Copenhagen or other points quite north of hear---ask what it’s like to celebrate Chanukah in the tropics. I must admit that, even after the fourth time, it is a bit odd to see the combination of palm trees, orchids in bloom, and winter holiday decorations! I am waiting for someone to offer me sufganiyot—the Chanukah jelly donuts popular in Israel—filled with guava, or serve me latkes made with plantains. (Truth in advertising: I have in fact been served yucca latkes, and they were actually tastier than the original potato type!)

But one wonderful aspect of celebrating Chanukah in Miami (in addition to swimming outside during the holiday) is that it reminds me that, wherever Jews have wandered, we’ve created our own holiday traditions. While the deep, cold winters of Russia were familiar to my immediate ancestors, once that was new and foreign. Jewish communities have celebrated Chanukah in Shanghai and Adis Addaba and Christ Church, New Zealand in addition to the more common homes we associate with menorahs and dreydels.

With that in mind, I share with you a poem by Steven P. Schneider, a professor at the University of Texas Pan-American, and the author, most recently, of Prairie Air Show: Poems . I hope you enjoy the poem, and that you always take pleasure in wherever you find yourself to be!

Chanukah Lights Tonight
 
Our annual prairie Chanukah party—
latkes, kugel, cherry blintzes.
Friends arrive from nearby towns
and dance the twist to "Chanukah Lights Tonight,"
spin like a dreidel to a klezmer hit.
 
The candles flicker in the window.
Outside, ponderosa pines are tied in red bows.
If you squint,
the neighbors' Christmas lights
look like the Omaha skyline.
 
The smell of oil is in the air.
We drift off to childhood
where we spent our gelt
on baseball cards and matinees,
cream sodas and potato knishes.
 
No delis in our neighborhood,
only the wind howling over the crushed corn stalks.
Inside, we try to sweep the darkness out,
waiting for the Messiah to knock,
wanting to know if he can join the party.