‘Thanksgivukkah’ the ultimate mash-up
Between bites of sweet potato latkes and lighting the
‘menurkey,’ Jewish families give thanks for rare holiday.
By COURTNEY PERKES / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
ROSE PALMISANO, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Rabbi Peter Levi leads family members in song as they celebrate Thanksgiving and
Hanukkah at his home in Aliso Viejo. “This is the most special year,” Levi said.
ALISO VIEJO › Rabbi Peter Levi stood
over the stove frying sweet potato latkes as
two turkeys baked in the oven Thursday
afternoon for the double holiday of
“Thanksgivukkah.”
“Sweet potato is a Thanksgiving thing,
and fried potatoes are a Hanukkah thing,
so we’re going to make sweet potato latkes
a Thanksgivukkah thing,” Levi said.
Shoshana Lehrer, left, Honor Fuchs and Sarah Steingold light the menorah as they celebrate Hanukkah and Thanksgiving. His wife, Ruth, gathered the children as she lit the so-called
“menurkey,” a ceramic turkey, wearing a blue prayer shawl, with
nine candles serving as feathers.
“It’s not really a kosher menorah but, you know, it’s fun,” Ruth
Levi, 43, said.
At the Levi home in Aliso Viejo, fun, creativity and a lesson on
religious freedom
– for Pilgrims and Jews – marked the rare convergence of
Hanukkah and Thanksgiving.
Peter Levi, who leads Temple Beth El in Aliso Viejo, created a
“Jeopardy”- style trivia game called “Jewpardy.”
“This is the most special year,” Levi, 50, told the gathering of 30
members of extended family. “It won’t happen again for 77,000
years of Hanukkah being on Thanksgiving, so we’re going to test
your knowledge.”
The first question: “Why did the Pilgrims leave England?”
Levi’s 7-year-old daughter, Eden, answered, “Because they
wanted to do their own thing.”
That prompted a family discussion about religious freedom.
Hanukkah commemorates the Jewish Maccabees who took back
the temple in Jerusalem from the Greek Army in 164 B.C.
“Both groups took on the superpowers of the day,” said Dr. Albert
Fuchs, 45, of Beverly Hills. “They both won and they got a holiday.”
The Levis decorated their long dinner table with a menorah, pillar
candles emblazoned with glittery Stars of David, miniature
pumpkins and fall leaves. They also scattered chocolate gold coins,
called gelt, that read: “Dreidels and Drumsticks 2013.”
Children at the Levi home dig into sweet potato latkes as they prepare for the Thanksgiving and Hanukkah celebration. Guests snacked on latkes with apple sauce and sour cream on two
kinds of paper plates – Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Hanukkah.
“What I’m awed by is that the next time they’ll converge is
80,000 years from now,” said Clare Steingold, 81, of Santa Monica.
“It really is incredible. A lot of time it coincides with Christmas.
This is very early.”
In addition to turkey with all the trimmings, the Levis skipped
roasted potatoes this year since they had three kinds of latkes:
regular potato, gluten-free and sweet potato seasoned with curry,
cumin and cayenne pepper. The dessert menu mixed both holidays
with pumpkin pie and doughnuts with blue sprinkles.
“The nice thing about this is you get all the cooking over with all at
once and you sit back and relax,” said Steingold, who is Ruth Levi’s
mother. Rabbi Peter Levi and Janet Fuchs prepare traditional latkes as they celebrate Thanksgiving and
Hanukkah at his home in Aliso Viejo. The two holidays rarely coincide, but the Levi family and relatives
were ready to celebrate it with traditional foods.
Before the Thanksgiving feast, as the sky grew dark, the children
received their own menorah to light. Peter Levi led the guests in
sharing what they’re thankful for, with answers including family,
health, pets and hospitality.
Levi started by saying, “As we all gather around, we are certainly
thankful for religious liberty of our time and our place. That
certainly as Jews in America is a very good thing.”
“God bless America!,” one child exclaimed during the sharing
time. The family sang in Hebrew as they lit their candles. After
blessings of the food, they ate turkey, Brussels sprouts, candied
yams and cranberry sauce on the Thanksgiving plates. “Dessert will
be on the Hanukkah plates,” Ruth Levi said.
Rabbi Peter Levi lights a candle as he and family members prepare to light the menorah in celebration of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving. Ruth Levi lights candles as she and family members prepare to celebrate the Thanksgiving and
Hanukkah holidays. She said the celebration is "a big deal".
Anita Fuchs helps children light the menorah as they celebrate Thanksgiving and Hanukkah at Rabbi
Peter Levi's home in Aliso Viejo.
Members of the Levi family prepare to light the menorah as they celebrate Thanksgiving and
Hanukkah.