Holiday History

It was Thursday morning snack time at the West Valley Jewish Community Center, and preschoolers Adam Brainin and Nicholas Volk were discussing their plans for the coming evening, the first night of Hanukkah.

“You know what my mommy said?” Adam announced. “She’s going to dance the hora.”

Chewing on a mouthful of popcorn, Nicolas countered: “My mommy said I’m going to get presents--for Hanukkah and Christmas.”

With that, conversation among the 4-year-olds quickly turned to a certain metabolically challenged guy in a red suit, touching on the related topics of sleigh aerodynamics, arctic beasts of burden, and strategies of ingress and egress via chimney.

“Uh-oh,” teacher Marina Miroshnichenko said, smiling. “Wrong holiday, guys.”

Despite criticism that it has been distorted by commerce and the influence of Christmas, the eight-day celebration of Hanukkah remains a vibrant and spiritually resonant celebration for most Jews.

Educators at the West Valley Jewish center use the season to teach some serious lessons about Jewish history, culture and values--and have a little fun as well. Kids here knocked on a dreidel-shaped pinata, made candles and baked cookies this week, but preschoolers also learned about the concept of tzedekah, or altruism, bringing in books for both classmates and the less fortunate.

“I think Hanukkah is moving back to its roots,” said preschool director Pam Ross. “Presents still make kids excited, but it’s moving away from materialism and back to roots and traditions.”

Hanukkah is not the easiest holiday to describe to a 4-year-old: It celebrates the rededication of the holy temple at Jerusalem after it was sacked in 167 BC by Syrian king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, also known as Antiochus the Mad, a staunch Hellenophile bent on stamping out Judaism in his realm.

The preschoolers learn all of this--in a classroom display, Antiochus’ rage is represented by that glyph so omnipresent in the age of antiquity, the “frowny face”--but kids tend to focus on the more graspable miracle of the oil, the Talmudic story of the returning Jews’ seemingly self-renewing energy source.

“They thought the oil lasted for one day, then it lasted for eight days,” said student Sarah Perlmutter. “Hey--I made a menorah.”

For Miroshnichenko, Hanukkah’s themes of thanksgiving and perseverance have a special meaning. When she was growing up in Odessa, Ukraine, her family hid its Jewish identity to survive Soviet anti-Semitism. In Odessa, she said, there was no Hanukkah--commercialized or otherwise.

“I didn’t know anything about Jewish holidays,” said Miroshnichenko, 40. “Now I am learning with the children. And all the time I’m telling them what I’m thankful for.”