NFTY Helps Teens With Hanukkah Pointers

Hanukkah, meaning "dedication" in Hebrew, refers to the joyous eight-day celebration during which Jews commemorate the victory of the Macabees over the armies of Syria in 165 B.C.E. and the subsequent liberation and "re-dedication" of the Temple in Jerusalem. The modern home celebration of Hanukkah centers around the lighting of the chanukiah, a special menorah for Hanukkah; unique foods, latkes and jelly doughnuts; and special songs and games.

Take a look at our Hanukkah resources, we hope they will help make your holiday a memorable one!

Hanukkah 101

What does Hanukkah mean? How do you light a menorah? Get answers to your questions and find delicious recipes for celebrating.

Learn the Blessings for each Night of Hanukkah
Learn the Hanukkah blessings for each night. Find printable blessing and listen to audio versions here!

Video: Learn how to make latkes
Tina Wasserman, author of the acclaimed Jewish cookbook "Entree to Judaism", demonstrates how to make potato latkes.

Light our Virtual Menorah with your Family!
Choose a night of Hanukkah to view the blessings. Then close the blessing and light the candles!

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A Diary of the Nazi Years

After a Gestapo raid on May 27, 1942, Victor Klemperer wrote in his diary that the journal's discovery "undoubtedly" would have meant death. "But," the journalist and scholar vowed, "I shall go on writing. That is my heroism. I will bear witness, precise witness." The surviving volumes—a 1st-person account spanning the entire Nazi era—are unique, invaluable pieces of Holocaust documentation.

Seven years before that raid, Klemperer had been stripped of his position at Dresden Technical University. Although his conversion to his wife Eva's Protestantism spared him deportation, it did not protect him from the Nuremberg Laws.

The 1942 raid took place in the Klemperers' rooms in a segregated building called the "Jews' House." It was there that he recorded hunger and fear, as well as tedious factory work, a jail sentence, friends' disappearances, and all manner of indignities.

Though his spirit at times flags, his will to live—and ultimately, to write—never deserts him. The reader is swept along as his story unfolds—all the way to Upper Bavaria, to which he and Eva eventually flee, and back to Dresden, on foot, at war's end.

These diaries are masterful, essential reading for anyone with an interest in the Nazi years and the human spirit.

- Ken Sichel for Jewniverse

Tough Teachers

The gift of great expectations.

by Emuna Braverman for aish.com
“Tough Teachers Get Good Results.” I don’t know if the Wall Street Journal lists the most emailed pieces of the week the way the NY Times does, but this would win for sure. I read it. My kids read it. My friends read it. My editors at aish.com read it. And my inbox was bombarded with hyperlinks to the articles. I think it’s because the piece struck a chord; it resonated with many of us who feel some dismay about the direction of education today.

We all remember the one teacher (you have to be very lucky to have more than one!) who stood out from the crowd – not for her warmth (although I’ve nothing against warmth), not for her creativity (although I’ve nothing against creativity) and not for her effusive and undeserved praise (which I do have something against). She stood out because she was tough but fair. She had expectations – but not unreasonable ones. She made us work hard – for our own benefit. She was strict – so that we would take the lessons seriously. She made us drill, drill and drill again – because it was an effective teaching strategy. She didn’t put up with nonsense and she wouldn’t settle for mediocrity.

In fact, she seems rather like the Mr. Kupchynsky referred to in the article, whose teaching strategies the author extols and whose philosophies are elaborated on in the newly published Strings Attached: One Tough Teacher and the Gift of Great Expectations.

My teacher’s name was Miss Dick. She was my high school French teacher. She wasn’t particularly friendly or popular but she made us work and she challenged us to succeed. I respected her.

Not so my English teacher who tried very hard to be cool, to be “au currant,” to be our friend – and who later showed up at one of my freshman year college parties. Yuck! In his class, I learned nothing and he engendered no respect whatsoever.

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What I Learned From ‘All-of-a-Kind Family’

The series portrayed not just Jewish life or immigrant life—but girls’ lives

By Sara Ivry for Tablet

As I child, did I love Sydney Taylor’s All-of-a-Kind-Family and its sequels because there was a character with—more or less—my name? Was it because Henny, the second of the five daughters, was a rascal, often up to no good—for instance, soaking a dress borrowed from her sister in tea to disguise a stain? Maybe it was because the family frolicking at a city beach during the summer while their father toiled away seemed to be having such a ball that I wanted to be there with them. It was all of that and more. Beyond showing with such compassion the struggles that an early 20th century immigrant family faced in New York City, Taylor also conveyed wonder and romance about their lives—she raised them up from the huddled masses and gave them pride of place in my imagination. Probably in yours too.

All-of-a-Kind Family formed my earliest impression of the immigrant experience in America. That says a lot given that my own grandparents had come through Ellis Island and made their way through New York City’s tenements before moving on to Boston’s north shore or to Brooklyn, in both cases a decided step up. Taylor’s series portrayed not just Jewish life or immigrant life—but girls’ lives too, and even though their hijinx and quarrels took place decades before I was to learn of them (and longer ago, still, than those kids reading Taylor books now), the themes and struggles resonate still.

Related: 101 Great Jewish Books: All-of-a-Kind Family, Sydney Taylor (1951)
We Are Family