- Chanukah (or as it’s spelt in this article, Channukah) is officially the most popular Jewish festival in the UK. According to research published last week by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research,2 89% of British Jews participated in at least one Channukah candle-lighting last year, compared to only 84% who went to a seder and 74% who marked Rosh Hashanah.
- Now, as a matter of strict halachah, Channukah is a very minor festival. But it’s not exactly difficult to work out the source of all the hype. It’s what the artist Mae Rockland Tupa calls “the pernicious effects of Christmas celebration on the … Jewish mentality … mak[ing Channukah into] a Jewish Christmas”3 –except I’m going to dispute her use of the word “pernicious”. Frankly, the statistics speak for themselves. If Christmas is the thing that inspires 89% of British Jews to celebrate Channukah, I’m very much in favour of Christmas. Maybe Christianity popularised the idea of family gatherings in these dark days of winter. Maybe Christianity popularised the idea of twinkly lights when the evenings come in so early. Maybe Christianity makes children excited to get presents. But the 89% of our community who marked Channukah 2024, marked it Jewishly.
- There’s a beautiful irony in the juxtaposition of the original story of Antiochus IV, and the role of Christmas in promoting Channukah. Crucially, he was trying to wipe out Judaism, not Jews. Purim was about a plot to annihilate our people. Channukah was an attempt to annihilate our distinctiveness.4 So, says the 20th-century Rav Yitzchak Hutner, Antiochus deployed three strategies to merge Jews back into the mainstream population.5 Firstly, they forcibly translated the Torah into Greek so that its nuances, uniquely accessible to Hebrew-speakers, were lost. Secondly, they “poured [their] power into the stream of Israel’s eternity” through forced intermarriage.6 And thirdly, they pushed non-Jewish innovations and institutions to promote assimilation.
- That tripartite strategy was doomed to fail. In fact, all three of its components strengthened Judaism, and continue to strengthen us as Progressive Jews, today. Translating Jewish texts into the languages that people actually speak only helps more and more people access our teachings. Intermarriage, often called ‘marrying out’, is for us called ‘marrying in’. By welcoming mixed and blended families we swell our numbers. And secular institutions, from universities to trade unions, have all nurtured strong Jewish identities over the course of their history.
- The fact is, cruelty aside, Antiochus7 was very, very stupid. He thought that exposure to his culture would simply end Judaism because our ancestors would take one look at what his world had to offer and immediately jump ship.
- But of course that isn’t what we did! Granted, we’re happy to adopt some of the best bits of Greek culture – tzatziki and democracy, in that order – but we were smart enough to realise that we didn’t have to make a binary choice. It isn’t an all-or-nothing decision about whether to follow Matisyahu the High Priest or Antiochus the Emperor. We can mix and match. We can study Plato and Rambam. We can practise democracy in our synagogues. We can put tzatziki on challah. It’s all about nuance.
- Of course, the Maccabees completely routed the armies of Antiochus. There was no nuance there. Modern Israeli scholars in fact describe Judah Maccabee’s campaign as “one of the first manifestations of terrorism”.8 And that’s precisely why they’re largely left out of the rabbinic narrative of Channukah.9 The vital message is not that we should celebrate Jewish might or Jewish power. Rabbi Shlomo Goren, the first chief rabbi of the IDF, wrote that the glorification of military might is “the greatest danger to the principles of our faith”. Instead, he said, “the essence of the festival is not the battlefield victory but the spiritual victory”.10
- That spiritual victory continues, without bloodshed, rancour or even ill-will, when it comes to the December dilemma of our multicultural society. The proof of the pudding is in the Christmas pudding.11 The more that British Jews have been exposed to Christmas, the more we’ve done Channukah! 89%! And, on a more sober note, I suspect the statistic for Channukah 2025 will be even higher than the 89% from 2024, because the disgusting terrorist attack on Bondi Beach last week12 will not only have failed to deter our people from gathering to celebrate, it will push and inspire us to do so even more.
- The next challenge for Progressive Judaism, of course, is to see what other Jewish moments we can boost to a take-up percentage in the high 80s. But we know for certain that embracing the multicultural life of modern Britain is a key part of how we do so.
- Rabbi Gabriel Kanter-Webber serves Brighton & Hove Progressive Synagogue, where he delivered this sermon. He is pictured above at local primary school showing a menorah and teaching about the festival.