Jewish Latinos Mark Hanukkah With a Mixture of Traditions

It probably was one of the more unlikely celebrations of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights, in Southern California: a sold-out dance that featured a popular Latino orchestra playing tangos, mambos, rumbas and salsa music.

But the celebration of the Jewish holy day was entirely appropriate for the 200 Jews of Latino background who have found camaraderie in the “Club Hebreo Latino” at the Jewish Community Center here. The new group’s popularity was underscored by Saturday’s baile de Hanukkah , a dance marking the eight-day celebration that begins today.

For 2,000 years, Jews have observed Hanukkah as a celebration of religious freedom, commemorating the defeat of the more numerous Syrians who had captured the temple in Jerusalem.

To celebrate the victory, the Jews lit a menorah, a candelabrum. According to legend, there was enough oil for only one day, but the flame miraculously burned for eight days. Accordingly, the holiday is celebrated for eight days.

In Southern California, not surprisingly, the celebrations take on a multicultural twist.

“Most people in the United States don’t realize there are Jews who speak Spanish and have that kind of background,” said Moises Paz, executive director of the Jewish Community Center in Costa Mesa, and himself a Latino Jew.

“When you go to Israel it’s very evident, because you see people from all kinds of backgrounds there and they blend in.”

But in Southern California, most Jews are of European heritage and few speak Spanish, so organizations that combine the two cultures are rare, he said.

“We thought we needed a place where Spanish-speaking Jewish people can get together and keep our tradition and have a little fun with our own type of music and language,” said Alicia Haber, 55, a founder of the club, who helped organize the Hanukkah Ball. The event’s 250 tickets sold out.

“We are trying to keep the (cultural) tradition,” said the Argentine-born Haber, who came to this country with her husband 32 years ago. “This is for the youngsters.”

The Habers are from Latin America, but they are Ashkenazic Jews, who are predominantly of Eastern European descent. About half of the more than 200 club members are Sephardic Jews, of Spanish descent.

The two groups differ in their songs and traditions, Paz said. Sephardic Jews traditionally enjoy “Arabic foods, Spanish rice, and foods more customary of South America.”

Members of the Club Hebreo Latino also participate in activities in the Jewish community at large, including next Sunday’s ceremonial lighting of the center’s 15-foot tall menorah for Hanukkah.

Club Hebreo Latino is the latest ethnic organization to emerge at the Jewish Community Center.

“At the center we have a Persian group, a Yiddish club, a Russian club of Russian immigrants,” said Paz, whose parents are from Mexico, grandparents from Turkey and great-grandparents from Spain. “We all meet together to be able to express our Jewish identity in our mother tongues.”