Articles and Stories

November 19, 2013

In a meeting of holidays so rare it will be over 70,000 (79,000 to be more exact, but who’s counting?) years before it happens again, Thanksgiving and the first day of Hanukkah fall on the same day this year, creating what many celebrants have dubbed “Thanksgivukkah.” How does this translate into culinary, not to mention merchandising opportunities? First and foremost, an ingenious 9 year old, Asher Wientraub, has designed and created the Menurkey to celebrate the once in a lifetime event, raising $48,000 on Kickstarter to get production started for his turkey shaped menorah.

These and other novelty items such as greeting cards, posters, and a Woodstock-inspired T-shirt featuring a turkey on a guitar neck proclaiming “8 Days of Light, Liberty, & Latkes.” are selling like (dare I say?) hot latkes.

Speaking of latkes and other culinary mixtures of the holidays, there are recipes available for sweet potato latkes with sour cream and cranberry apple compote, cornbread challah stuffing, Thanksgivukkah pumpkin mandelbrot, among many others.

For the young at heart, there is even the Thanksgivukkah dreidel!

Thanksgiving paired with Hanukkah is a chance for all us to celebrate the religious freedoms that make our country great — whether you’ll be lighting candles, carving a turkey or doing both! Each is a celebration of appreciation. The former is about being grateful for our country and the latter for the miracle of a small amount of oil burning for eight days and the dedication of the new temple in Jerusalem.