Merry Christmas from Israel!
I'm a big Christmas fan -- I love Christmas carols and twinkly store windows and holiday movies (ever see The Bishop's Wife, with Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven?). It's a beautiful holiday, and I always feel a bit of a pang this time of year.
I'd love to share the day with you, but all I can offer from this distance is a picture of some sufganiyot, which are the big Chanuka food here in Israel. (Holidays for us are all about the food.) Sufganiyot are not diaspora fare; I'd never heard of them until I came to Israel. A sufganiya is basically an extreme jelly doughnut: if it's made right, it's loaded with oozy, purply-red jam and covered with sugar. There are upscale variants -- chocolate and pistachio, dulce de leche, and so on -- but a true sufganiya contains your basic tooth-endangering, sickly sweet jam. The filling is concentrated in a large blob in the middle to ensure a healthy dollop down the wrist when the mother lode is struck.
Sufganiyot are what you eat for dessert after you've downed a few platefuls of levivot (potato pancakes) with a nice side of sour cream or apple sauce. Levivot and sufganiyot are Chanuka foods because they're both prepared in lots of oil. (Think Maccabees and the miracle of the oil that lasted eight days.)
I raise my sufganiya to you, my Ricochet friends, and wish you the merriest of all Christmases and a fabulous 2012, full of health, happiness, and encouraging election results!
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Sep '10
Re: Merry Christmas from Israel!
Well, Judith, isn't this a surprise! I just got back from Midnight Latin Mass and now I find that you've baked me a whole pantry full of goodies. You shouldn't have. Thank you!
Oct '10
Re: Merry Christmas from Israel!
Thanks, Judith! Merry Christmas and Happy Chanuka to you, too!
Aug '11
Re: Merry Christmas from Israel!
Most people are probably familiar with this, but its worth repeating for those that haven't:
Jewish festivals pretty much all have the same theme: They tried to kill us, they failed, Let's Eat!
Re: Merry Christmas from Israel!
Sufganiyot? I've never heard of it. Are you sure Jews eat that? Looks goyische as a Krispy Kreme to me.
May '10
Re: Merry Christmas from Israel!
Krispy Kremes may not be as goyische as you think.
Having just been up five and a half hours assembling toys, that sufganiyot looks incredibly good. So does a beer.
Now, on to wrapping the presents my wife will be getting.
Mar '11
Re: Merry Christmas from Israel!
Hear hear! Great post, Judith!
Here's a second Merry Christmas from Israel to all our Christian Ricochetois!
Aug '11
Re: Merry Christmas from Israel!
We used to have Sufganiyot in Australia for Hanukkah. I think its just you American Jews that live in your own world. The Chinese take out for Christmas is also an inside joke for American Jews that has no relevance to this Aussie Jew who grew up deep within the Jewish community.
Re: Merry Christmas from Israel!
Ottoman Umpire: Krispy Kremes may not be as goyische as you think.
Having just been up five and a half hours assembling toys, that sufganiyot looks incredibly good. So does a beer.
Now, on to wrapping the presents my wife will be getting. · Dec 25 at 1:36am
Go relax with a nice Kosher Krispy Kristmas Kreme. Too early to get drunk, dear boy.
Re: Merry Christmas from Israel!
Yep, that's me alright, living in my own world.
Note the massive menorahs outside my window.
Aug '11
Re: Merry Christmas from Israel!
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Yep, that's me alright, living in my own world.
Note the massive menorahs outside my window. · Dec 25 at 2:31am
Well if you've never heard of Sufganiyot.... I mean, come on!
Aug '11
Re: Merry Christmas from Israel!
Here is me and some other fathers from my son's kindergarten doing the suganiyot song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uU04v84r_Y&sns=em
(Is it possible to embed a video in a comment?)
Edited on Dec 25, 2011 at 3:20amMar '11
Re: Merry Christmas from Israel!
That is amazing - so funny!
I must admit, though: I'm glad that the standards of parental participation aren't as high at Chanuka parties at the Ramat HaSharon kindergartens...
Re: Merry Christmas from Israel!
מדהים!!!!!!
Which one are you?
Aug '11
Re: Merry Christmas from Israel!
Judith Levy
מדהים!!!!!!
Which one are you? · Dec 25 at 3:39am
The one who looks like he doesn't actually know the dance
Mar '11
Re: Merry Christmas from Israel!
Judith Levy
Holidays for us are all about the food.
I always suspected I was part Jewish.
My wife talked me into going to Mass last night. Though I'm not Catholic, nor much of anything else for that matter, I went for her sake. St. Patrick's is as simple as one can imagine a Catholic Church can be, there's not one pane of stained glass in the building. The parishioners are mostly farm folk and aren't the type who take to putting on airs. It's small and it's struggling.
But then, there's Father George. In a congregation that's 100% Irish, this good man from Uganda has taken the parish and made it his own. His accent makes him hard to understand, but it also makes you listen all the more. During his sermon, he took the Baby Jesus from the creche and walked it to every pew, bestowing personal blessings on the congregation, especially the children. I can only describe him as beatific.
I don't know why I'm telling this story, except that it left me moved in a way I haven't been for years. Merry Christmas all.
Aug '10
Re: Merry Christmas from Israel!
Illiniguy
I don't know why I'm telling this story, except that it left me moved in a way I haven't been for years. Merry Christmas all.
But Illiniguy, those sorts of stories is what Christmas is all about. Thank you so much for sharing (wipes tear from eye). Merry Christmas!
Aug '10
Re: Merry Christmas from Israel!
And Merry Christmas to y'all in Israel, Judith. I raise my Lebkuchen to you in return.
Jun '10
Re: Merry Christmas from Israel!
This brightened my day. God bless you, your family, and the great state of Israel.
Mar '11
Re: Merry Christmas from Israel!
I think I gained a pound reading this post Judith....
May '10
Re: Merry Christmas from Israel!
Interesting. I've been making sufganiyot for years, but didn't grow up on them, so I think they are a fairly recent import to the US. The ones in Israel are definitely better, too. Then again, I can't bring myself either to make them that big or to fill them that full. Yum! I haven't had a chance to make any this year, but we may just have to see out the holiday with a batch...
Happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate it, Merry Christmas to those still celebrating it (past midnight here), and happy New Year to all. A new year in which we will elect a new President! That's my blessing on all of us.