JDCC hosted its 8th Chanukah Candle Lighting Ceremony in December to celebrate the holidays.
This year there were five performers to celebrate the ceremony which was named in memory of two JDCC supporters who recently passed away, Bernard Bragg and Bummy Burstein.
All five performers are shown in the photo above: Idy Fass – Miracle; Jake Grafman – Bohemian Chanukah; Charles Katz – Ida, the Little Iron Menorah; Shmuel Khorsandi – Chanukah ABC story, and Sarah Tubert – Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah.
Sharon Ann Dror at Jewish Deaf Community Center also produced and posted the following holiday videos:
Chanukah blessings in American Sign Language and Israeli Sign Language
Our Way/NCSY printed the blessings with English, Hebrew, Hebrew transliteration and Sign Language on their card in 1999. If you want a laminated copy, contact Our way at [email protected] or call 212 613 8234
Here are several examples on how to sign the blessings:
- Hinda Kasher – Rochester, NY
- Rabbi Fred Friedman – Baltimore, MD
- Rabbi Rebecca Dubowe – Bloomington, IL
- Oren Avnaim – Haifa, Israel
Thank you to the above signers for sharing with us.
Gluten Free Latkes & Raw Apple Sauce
Here is a recipe to make gluten free potato latkes and apple sauce:
POTATO LATKES
2 eggs
2 cloves of garlic minced
6 russet potatoes
6 tablespoons arrowroot flour/starch (gluten free, no white and wheat processed)
2 medium onions – grated or chopped
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoon fine sea salt
PREPARATION
wash potatoes with water and use vegetable scrub on potatoes – keep skin for fiber and nutrition benefits
after grating potatoes in the food processor or grater – put in bowl of cold water to help bring out some of the starch and use strainer to squeeze out all liquid to make patties
frying pan – pour either avocado oil or extra virgin olive oil and have it hot ready before putting the latkes in it
Let’s make some raw apple sauce in the blender – no cooking involved.
I use green apples because it has the lowest sugar of all the apples and I keep the skin on for fiber and nutrition benefits. Use apple corer to remove the core in the middle.
4 apples
1 teaspoon fresh lemon squeezed juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon or 3 drops of doTERRA cinnamon bark essential oil
1 tablespoon honey
Vitamix blender
Hope you enjoyed the cooking show and learned some new tips. Please share with us your results.
Playing the Dreidel game
Dreidel is a game played at Chanukah. Dreidel is a four-sided spinning top with a Hebrew letter on each side.
Each letter represents:
Nun – get nothing
Shin – put in pot
Gimel – get all
Hay – get half
The complete phrase is “A great miracle happened there”.
We use Chocolate coins – Gelts instead of real coins.
Thanks to Kenneth S. Rothschild for making this video. He captured a perfect shot with the Dreidel giving me all four Hebrew letters after many takes! A great ending 🙂
Menorahs and its rules
Do you notice something about all the kosher Menorahs from all over the world? Of course, besides the 8 candle holders for oil or wax plus the shamash (servant)…
There are some 7 candle holder menorahs without a shamash – it is a symbol of the menorah once standing in Jerusalem’s temple. Back then, it was lit by the High priests, ‘Kohanim’, every evening, using oil to burn it.
Yes, there are specific rules when designing menorahs.
According to Jewish law, the eight candles of the menorah must be arranged in a straight line, not set in a semicircle. Similarly, the menorah’s lights should be level or on an even slant, not some randomly higher than others.
There is an image of an I Love You menorah going around – the candles on top of the ILY fingers would not be acceptable… Instead, they could put the candle holders in front on the bottom in a straight line. We do not know who designed this artwork so if you know, please let us know.
So far, I know of one Jewish Deaf artist that has made ceramic menorahs – Ellen Mansfield of Maryland – see photo of the orange/yellow/blue menorah with a dreidel.
Chanukah Jewish Deaf Art
Today’s topic is Jewish Deaf Artist that has done Chanukah theme in their artwork. I will share with you what I have so far.
Dan McClintock designed and sold a Chanukah card in 1996. (Non-Jewish)
Our Way/NCSY sold Chanukah cards in the 1980’s – designed by Mattice Aaronson. (hearing)
Bill Parker made stained paper glass menorah for me.
Uzi Buzgalo of Israel painted for Bernard Bragg “The Man and His Muse” and there is a menorah in it. Completed in 2011. The first and only piece Uzi has done a Menorah on all of his artwork to date!
Ellen Mansfield designed and sold Jewish De’Via 2018 Calendar – Chanukah theme appears on the front cover of the calendar, February, July, October, November and December.
Ellen Mansfield designed ceramic Menorah with Dreidel. She is currently doing an ‘8 days of Jewish De’Via’ painting for Chanukah. She has a website – www.ellenmansfield.com
If you know of other Jewish Deaf Artists that has made Chanukah theme artwork, please email [email protected]
