American Jewish History editor Ashton (Rebecca Gratz) has written a scholarly but accessible guide to the evolution of the Festival of Lights in America. After a brief introduction to the origins of the eight-day celebration of the Maccabees’ victory over the Greeks in the second century B.C.E., Ashton picks up in the mid-1800s, when the holiday “began to evolve from an often neglected occasion in the Jewish calendar to one deemed particularly relevant for American Jews.” During the Civil War, Jewish soldiers fighting for the Union identified with their brave and persistent Maccabean forebears, while competing factions of American Jewry sought to lay claim to “the mantle of the Maccabees” in order to bolster their position. Most will be familiar with modern efforts to counter the pervasiveness of Christmas by boosting Hanukkah’s significance, but Ashton’s thorough treatment of her topic is sure to enlighten—she discusses everything from the official observances of Hanukkah at the White House to how the rise of the celebration affected mainstream ad campaigns and the number of opportunities available to Jewish women. It all adds up to powerful support for her thesis that Hanukkah now enjoys “a more significant place in the American Jewish calendar than it had known” since the events it commemorates. B&w photos throughout. (Oct.)
"Hanukkah, traditionally a minor Jewish festival, grew like a beanstalk in America, becoming one of Judaisms most widely celebrated holidays. In this definitive history, Dianne Ashton explains how this happened, and what it teaches us about America, about religion, and about Jews."
"Religiously, Hanukkah is considered a minor Jewish festival. Ashtons wonderfully readable, fact-packed history demonstrates, however, that in the U.S., Hanukkah isnt minor at all . . . . [T]he illustrations scattered throughout the text are always pertinent; andAshtons evenhandedness most admirable."
STARRED Booklist - Ray Olson
"More than merely the 'Jewish Christmas,' as it is often mistakenly characterized, Hanukkah's storyas told through Dianne Ashton's sweeping historyis a fascinating window on the evolution of Jewish integration into American society and culture."
"The books strength lies in both the comfortable familiarity of its broad theme and in its delightful details, many of which will be unfamiliar to specialists and more casual readers."
"Ashton's study reveals that the interactions between Jews and their American neighbors held the potential for inspiring Jews to reexamine their religious culture and redirect it toward bringing greater joy to American Jewish life. This 'Christmas effect' also demonstrates the complicated question of whether an innovation constitutes assimilation or 'Jewish renewal.' When was borrowing from the majority culture an act of 'selling out,' and when was it a means to finding a more meaningful solution? Jews in America have always wrestled with that dilemma and, perhaps, never more than during Hanukkah."
The Marginalia Review of Books - Rachel Gordan
"Again and again . . . American Jews wove Hanukkah's story into their own contemporary lives in ways that reflected their changing circumstances. Those retellings kept Hanukkah's meaning alive and relevant. They turned the simple holiday rite into an event which, like other well-loved Jewish festivals, drew families together in their own homes where they could tailor the celebration to fit their own tastes in food and decor, and to reflect their own ideas about the holiday's significance"
"Although Hanukkah in all its various spellings is considered a minor holiday on the Jewish calendar by rabbis and many Jews, Dianne Ashton makes a very persuasive case for its importance and influence in American society."
Western States Jewish History
"Children growing up in 21st-century America are encouraged to think that the December holiday season is an inclusive one, and that Christmas and Hanukkah celebrations carry equal import. Historically and liturgically, however, as many Jewish children learn after their bar or bat mitzvah, Hanukkah is a minor holiday, ginned up to compete with Christmass dominancea quandary known as the 'December dilemma.' Hanukkahs history was manipulated: the celebration of an unlikely military victory of the Maccabee-led Judean insurgents against Hellenic rule became a story, spurred on by Talmudic myth, of Gods intervention to make one flask of sacred oil burn for eight nights. Ashton offers readers a lively account of the holidays modern iterations. At various points, Hanukkah was a social enticement to join a Jewish congregation, a counterpoint to arguments that Jews were weak and a celebration to bond children to family. Hanukkah reflects both a general Jewish problem and a distinctly American one. On the one hand, it embodies the 'essential project of the rabbis: With the Temple destroyed, they aimed to make it possible for Jews to extend the spirituality of the Temple into their everyday lives.' On the other, for most of the 19th century, 'American Jewish life struggled along on the distant periphery of the Jewish world, an ocean away from the great centers of Jewish learning' and leadership. Celebrating Hanukkah in the home allowed the creation of an American Jewish tradition."
"In Hanukkah in America, Ashton notes that poverty and scarcity were the experience of most Jews in Europe, but 'abundance, security, and access to new places marked their Americanization. 'Presents' was among the first English words to appear in Yiddish newspapers . . . By 1906 the Forverts (Jewish Daily Forward) advertised Hanukkah gift objects' for sale in Jewish-owned stores. America itself was associated with prosperity and conspicuous consumption. It logically followed that Hanukkah should reflect this."
"[T]his book is certainly a welcome and valuable contribution to the fields of American Jewish history and religious studies."
The American Jewish Archives Journal
"Ashton provides a very thorough cultural history of Chanukah as she traces the holiday's importance to American Jewry."
"Ashton offers us the most comprehensive history of Hanukkah to date . . . . It would be a joy to find this book nestled under one's Hanukkah bush or in front of the memorah."
Practical Matters - Lisa Hoelle
Ashton (religion studies, Rowan Univ.; Rebecca Gratz: Women and Judaism in Antebellum America) provides a thorough cultural history of Hanukkah in the United States, tracing the holiday's importance to American Jews. She argues that Hanukkah's popularity among Jewish Americans can be attributed to its family focus, its proximity to Christmas, and the opportunities it provides celebrants to discuss assimilation and God's intervention in history. Readers unfamiliar with Hanukkah will welcome the first chapter, "What is Hanukkah?" in which Ashton describes the Maccabean revolt that inspired the festival and goes on to discuss the holiday's historical evolution. Ashton details in subsequent chapters the uses to which American Jews put Hanukkah throughout American history, e.g., as an antidote to assimilation, an alternative to Christmas and, poignantly, a rallying cry during World War II and the Holocaust. The chapter "Hippies, Hasidism, and Havurot" describes Hanukkah's development since the 1960s, especially the influence of the counterculture, both Jewish and non-Jewish, leading readers to an understanding of the contemporary iteration of the holiday. VERDICT A successful and accessible history, Ashton's book will appeal to general readers and specialists with an interest in American Jewish history.—Matt Rice, Philadelphia
2013-10-01American Jewish History editor details the modern development of Hanukkah's rituals and traditions Ashton (Religion Studies/Rowan Univ.; Rebecca Gratz: Women and Judaism in Antebellum America , 1997, etc.) begins her history of Hanukkah with a brief account of the second-century B.C. Judean revolt against Hellenistic rule and influence. While the Jewish calendar historically celebrated Hanukkah to commemorate the success of this revolt, it was seen as a fairly minor festival. However, during the late 17th and into the early 18th centuries, Jewish immigrant communities on America's East Coast felt that the influence of proximity to the Christian holidays of their neighbors and new Enlightenment ideas were posing threats of assimilation. Following a common Jewish theological practice, liberal reformers and ardent traditionalists alike looked to a shared religious history as a means to understand, define and defeat the problems of the present. Concurrent with America's decision to add to its holiday calendar--e.g., Thanksgiving (1863) and Memorial Day (1868)--Hanukkah's importance increased by demarcating developing traditions in a new land and offering the Jewish alternative to Christmas. Along the way, Ashton gives a nod to the role of women through an explanation of their crucial domestic job of making the home Hanukkah-friendly. The increasing malleability of the symbolism attached to Hanukkah first became evident in the 20th century, when the Hanukkah story was used to contextualize events associated with the Holocaust and the foundation of the state of Israel. Though occasionally too dense with information, this work shows how Jewish communities used "an element within Judaism that corresponded to an element of Christianity in order to resist Christianity." A fact-filled, mostly interesting account of Hanukkah's development in the United States.
