Dianne Ashton. Hanukkah in America

Many years ago, I taught a course at Ohio State University on the history of toys in America. I argued that adults (mostly) gave toys to children for many reasons (bribes, diversions, learning, comfort, creativity), and toys told us a lot about American adult culture. Further, from the “junk” children created, we could learn much about American children's culture. Toys served as a window into American culture. Dianne Ashton has done a similar thing with Hanukkah, using it as a window into how “Jews draw distinctions between themselves and the majority society while asserting their common humanity” (p. 14). As late as 1874, a prominent rabbi could complain that “Chanukah is entirely neglected in so many of our Jewish families” (p. 79). This is a book about the eruption of Hanukkah into the religious calendar of Jews as well as into American culture (e.g., President Barack Obama hosted a kosher Hanukkah party at the White House), so much so that today many non-Jews think it is the most important holiday in the cycle of the Jewish year. Ashton demonstrates that in every generation, American Jews tinkered with Hanukkah to make it “serve their own needs and reflect their own values, ideals, and concerns” (p. 185).

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