Hanukkah: A Not-So 'Minor' Holiday

Montclair resident Daniel Brenner wrote a new song to celebrate the Festival of Lights.

  One local resident says there aren’t enough Hanukkah songs, so he wrote his own.  Daniel Brenner, 42, recently posted a video of his new song about Hanukkah, titled “A Minor Holiday,” which he hopes will bring major attention to the traditionally lesser festival.  “I’ve been, let’s say, recovering from a certain kind of secret jealousy of Christmas my entire life,” said Brenner with a laugh.  Brenner, who is a rabbi, recalled that he was one of the only Jewish kids in his community growing up in Charlotte, N.C., and the yearly Festival of Lights would be drowned out by the ubiquitous Christmas season.  That is where the opening lyric of the song, “In a forest full of Christmas trees, we lit candles for the Maccabees,” comes from, said …

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Hanukkah How To: Mixing With Tradition

Traditional and Indian latkes prepared with love

I was at Amy Rubin Schottland's house over the summer when she taught me how to make rugelachs. This time she invited me to her kitchen for potato latkes. I am not a novice since I have made latkes before. The problem was, I had experience with Indian style latkes - that's right- they were definitely not the traditional ones. I love tradition- especially when it comes to food -- but I do find myself challenging and modifying old recipes whenever possible. In this case I decided to change up the traditional latke recipe by adding a few Indian ingredients. In India, vegetable fritters are made with chickpea flour. It is a pale yellow in color and has a delicious nutty flavor - it is also high in protein. I started with the usual russet …

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The Weekender: Hanukkah Begins, Funk at NJPAC and Essex County House Tour

Jewish Festival of Lights begins at sundown Saturday with party in West Orange.

  Here are a few weekend events to keep the holiday spirit alive: Christmas Spectacular! Friday, Dec. 7, 8 p.m. Caldwell College Student Center $10; Caldwell College Students Free The Caldwell College Choir, Wind Ensemble and High School Honor Band will perform works featuring an international theme and conclude with a carol sing-along. Essex County Historic Holiday House Tour Sat., Dec. 8, Noon Various locations Free Historic homes throughout Essex will open their doors in unison for one spectacular weekend. Each will be dressed for the holiday season while offering entertainment, refreshments or educational information. Fees and times vary by location. 2012 participating houses include: Essex County Kip's Castle, Verona; Essex County …

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Sunday Night Supper: Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah

Give it up for latkes, applesauce and brisket.

  This article originally ran in December of 2011. The winter holidays are upon us. Oh joy! In our house, that means scrambling to find gifts my kids might actually need and making brisket and applesauce from scratch and latkes out of the box. I know it’s heresy to use potato pancake mix and many of you foodies out there are probably gathering your potatoes and onions already. Go ahead. I have spent many nights, whipping out the food processor, peeling the potatoes, slicing them up so they fit down the chute, letting the processor grate them into mushy bits and then spooning them into a pan of hot oil, exhausted but secure in the knowledge in that I have peeled the potatoes myself and my family might love me more for it. But I’ve found …

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Laura Zinn Fromm

1:56 pm on Monday, December 19, 2011

If you drop the hard the brown sugar into the pot with the brisket, you can skip microwaving it first. Good luck, M2BW!   more ›

When Does Hanukkah 2012 Start?

The Jewish holiday begins a little early this year.

  Mark your calendars for the 25th day of the month of Kislev. That's when Hanukkah starts in 2012. For those of us who aren't so tuned into the Jewish calendar, that translates to sundown on Saturday Dec. 8. The holiday, also called the Festival of Lights, lasts eight days. Hanukkah commemorates the story of the Maccabean Revolt against Syrian rulers in present day Israel 2,300 years ago. The Maccabees wanted to rededicate Jerusalem's main temple but had only enought oil to kindle the Eternal Light for one day. Yet the oil lasted for eight, according to the story, and thus the holiday of Hanukkah was born. Today, Jews generally celebrate by gathering together with family, lighting a menorah over the course of eight days, playing dreidel …

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Holiday Season 2010

Parade Celebrates Final Night of Hanukkah

The county's first Hanukkah parade saw cars, people and menorahs galore.

Part of the Hanukkah tradition is to share the light of a menorah, usually by placing it in a window for passersby to see. This year, members of the Lubavitch Center of Essex County, Living Legacy and the Friendship Circle, and the Rabbinical College of America in Morristown joined forces to share the light with whole communities of people by organizing the county's inaugural Hanukkah parade.  Led by a red "Menorah Truck," vehicles with large menorahs on their roofs set out from Livingston to wind through a number of Essex County towns, including Millburn-Short Hills. They ended the parade in West Orange.  The hope of the parade organizers, said Rabbi Mendy Kasowitz earlier this week, is "to inspire people, to bring joy into people's lives…

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Local Author Focuses on Kosher Cooking for Teens

The Livingston mom and cookbook author finds inspiration in her children.

This was a first for cookbook author Susie Fishbein: Her 16-year-old daughter had raffled off spots at the Fishbein table for a taste-testing as a fundraiser at school and filled 10 seats a night over the course of 10 nights. So Fishbein tested the recipes in her latest cookbook "Kosher by Design, Teens and 20-somethings" with a tough, but perfect, crowd—teenagers. "There were kids at my table I didn't even know," said the Livingston mom and author of a series of popular "Kosher by Design" cookbooks. "It was a win-win-win. And, as it turned out, the kids were extremely helpful. "I had a broccoli rabe borsetti pasta recipe that I thought the kids would go for, but they didn't like it. I learned it was too bitter for a kid's palate. So I …

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Holiday Season 2010

Hanukkah How To: Mixing Latkes With Tradition

Learning to make traditional and Indian latkes for the holiday.

I was at Amy Rubin Schottland's house over the summer when she taught me how to make rugelachs. This time she invited me to her kitchen for potato latkes. I am not a novice since I have made latkes before. The problem was, I had experience with Indian style latkes—that's right—and they were definitely not the traditional ones. I love tradition—especially when it comes to food—but I do find myself challenging and modifying old recipes whenever possible. In this case I decided to change up the traditional latke recipe by adding a few Indian ingredients. In India, vegetable fritters are made with chickpea flour. It is a pale yellow in color and has a delicious nutty flavor - it is also high in protein. I started with the usual russet …

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Holiday Season 2010

The Jewish Festival of Lights Starts Tonight

It's eight days of latkes, love and plenty of presents

Jewish families around Millburn-Short Hills will begin lighting menorahs Wednesday night as Hanukkah begins at sundown. The first night of Hanukkah, which corresponds to 25 Kislev of the Hebrew calendar, floats every year, sometimes falling as late as the end of December or sometimes earlier as it is this year coming less than a week after Thanksgiving. At Temple B'nai Jeshurun in Short Hills, kindergarten students worked diligently last week to make oil for Hanukkah menorahs at an olive oil press workshop presided over by Rabbi Yisroel Rosenblum from Living Legacy in Livingston. The youngsters learned about how olive oil is made and linked this science lesson to history of burning oil in an Hanukkiah (Hanukkah menorah) and holiday …

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