08/12/2020
The Dutch expatriot station Radio 4 Brainport reminds us this week that Hanukkah begins. Indeed, its first evening is commencing as our show goes to air, on Thursday 10th December. The celebration goes on for eight nights and will conclude on Friday 18th December. Hanukkah's start falls on the twenty fifth night of Kislev, a wintry month in the traditional Jewish lunar calendar, which usually means that the eight night celebration falls in late November or early to mid December. For this reason, it is sometimes referred to as the Jewish equivalent festival to Christmas or Yuletide in other calendars. Indeed, in multicultural areas such as New York's Brooklyn or London's Golders Green, Hanukkah is marked with gifts for children and is generally part of broad spectrum celebrations at this time of year. The eight night feast however, also has a very historic meaning. It commemorates the victory of Jewish armies over the Syrian empire in antiquity. It's more complicated than that, involving armies of occupation and counter rebellion stretching over several years. But in the year 165 Before the Common Era, that is also known as BC in Gregorian calendars, the Jewish revolt against the Syrians was successful and their largest temple in Jerusalem, which had been changed to worship the Greek pantheon, was reverted back to Jewish religion. In secular societies, Jewish people will often celebrate with friends and family with traditional foods such as potato cakes and fried doughnuts. Dairy products are on the menu as well. LGBTQ Jews will be sending warm Hanukkah greetings to their colleagues and friends, and we have added a useful beginners list of LGBTQ Jewish and LGBTQ friendly Jewish organisations to our web feed. Happy Hanukkah to all our listeners! .
https://www.liberaljudaism.org/
https://www.keshetuk.org/otherorgs.html
https://jewishmuseum.org.uk/exhibitions/through-a-queer-lens-portraits-o...
https://www.jqyouth.org/lgbtq-jewish-orgs/
https://www.stonewall.org.uk/resources-lgbt-people-faith
https://www.bod.org.uk/blog-celebrating-diversity-in-lgbt-history-month-...
