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Liberal-thinking Jews like me need a new way to think about Hanukkah

JL;DR SUMMARY Herbert Levine explores the evolving narrative of Hanukkah for liberal Jews who may find traditional stories of miracles and military victories incongruent with modern values. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Jewish IdentityJewish SpiritualityLiberal JudaismPeaceHanukkahTikkun OlamUniversalismMiraclesMilitarismSpiritual Reinterpretation

Places mentioned

Israel
"We may not yet realize it, but we need a new story of Hanukkah, lest we lose the next Jewish generation to disillusionment with Jewish power and might. I grew up in the generation that delighted in Israels victory in the Six-Day War of 1967, only to discover on my first trip to Israel in 1969 that the exercise of Jewish power meant ruling over the Palestinian people that also wanted its own homeland."
Russian Federation
"The story presents a little boy in Russia who angers his father by asking for Hanukkah to last a whole year, so that he could have a permanent vacation from the cheder and its rigors."
Palestinian Territories
"I grew up in the generation that delighted in Israels victory in the Six-Day War of 1967, only to discover on my first trip to Israel in 1969 that the exercise of Jewish power meant ruling over the Palestinian people that also wanted its own homeland."
United States
"This year especially it will be hard for many American Jews to celebrate Hanukkah as a holiday glorifying a Jewish military victory."

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