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The threads discussing Christmas during the War made me curious about the extent to which Hanukkah was celebrated by Jewish soldiers. The short answer is - not much.
A little background for anyone who isn't too familiar with the holiday (please forgive me if you know all this):
Hanukkah (or Chanukah or חֲנֻכָּה or however you spell it, depending on where you're from) is a Jewish holiday commemorating the victory of Jewish rebels over the Syrian Greeks in about 167 B.C., as well as the rededication of the Jewish Temple. It's always been a minor holiday. Early Jewish rabbis wanted this downplayed, as the Maccabean rebels set up their own kingdom and emphasized the military victory instead of recounting the supposed miracle in which the oil for the Temple menorah, enough for only one day, lasted for eight. The most common customs are lighting a special menorah, or candelabra, adding a candle each successive night, eating foods fried in oil like potato pancakes or fried doughnuts, and giving small gifts of money to family members or those in need. Pretty simple, right?
From everything I can find, Hanukkah remained a very minor, unimportant celebration in 1860s America. Part of this was the proximity of the holiday to Christmas, as well as mixed feelings of American Jews about fully assimilating. This ambivalence can be seen in several period anecdotes. A New York journalist, Mordecai Noah, reportedly hung Christmas stockings in his home, despite being an observant Jew, to celebrate "Christmas as the birthday of the religion that had spread monotheism around the world". The New York times reported in 1856 that “in most European countries, however repugnant it may be to their sentiments, we find the Jews giving presents on Christmas,” while in New York, “they are released from this awkward predicament, for they can give their children presents at New-Year’s". Reportedly Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, the rabbi who helped establish American Reform Judaism, published in 1860 a serial short story about the Maccabees. “He stretched it over 39 weeks, so it became an American melodrama about Jews and religious commitment and the importance of fighting for your religious commitment, and about the importance of women in all of this.", according to Dr. Dianne Ashton.
Despite this, the enthusiasm for Hanukkah as a separate holiday was minimal. By the 1880s, one rabbi wrote, “The customary candles disappear more and more from Jewish homes", while a Jewish newspaper practically begged readers to light Hanukkah candles "if just for the experiment".
I couldn't find articles that addressed this specifically, but was curious about why Jews during the Civil War didn't embrace Hanukkah more; for Jews in the Confederacy, I would imagine a story about rebelling against powerful invaders would have appealed to them, while Jews in the Northern states could have been drawn to a fight for freedom. Although just a guess, it seems that the tension between the religious aspects and secular aspects of the holiday prevented this from gaining more widespread observance, a tension that was finally resolved after World War 2.
http://jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com/chanukah-in-america/
https://www.americanheritage.com/content/merry-chanukah
A little background for anyone who isn't too familiar with the holiday (please forgive me if you know all this):
Hanukkah (or Chanukah or חֲנֻכָּה or however you spell it, depending on where you're from) is a Jewish holiday commemorating the victory of Jewish rebels over the Syrian Greeks in about 167 B.C., as well as the rededication of the Jewish Temple. It's always been a minor holiday. Early Jewish rabbis wanted this downplayed, as the Maccabean rebels set up their own kingdom and emphasized the military victory instead of recounting the supposed miracle in which the oil for the Temple menorah, enough for only one day, lasted for eight. The most common customs are lighting a special menorah, or candelabra, adding a candle each successive night, eating foods fried in oil like potato pancakes or fried doughnuts, and giving small gifts of money to family members or those in need. Pretty simple, right?
From everything I can find, Hanukkah remained a very minor, unimportant celebration in 1860s America. Part of this was the proximity of the holiday to Christmas, as well as mixed feelings of American Jews about fully assimilating. This ambivalence can be seen in several period anecdotes. A New York journalist, Mordecai Noah, reportedly hung Christmas stockings in his home, despite being an observant Jew, to celebrate "Christmas as the birthday of the religion that had spread monotheism around the world". The New York times reported in 1856 that “in most European countries, however repugnant it may be to their sentiments, we find the Jews giving presents on Christmas,” while in New York, “they are released from this awkward predicament, for they can give their children presents at New-Year’s". Reportedly Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, the rabbi who helped establish American Reform Judaism, published in 1860 a serial short story about the Maccabees. “He stretched it over 39 weeks, so it became an American melodrama about Jews and religious commitment and the importance of fighting for your religious commitment, and about the importance of women in all of this.", according to Dr. Dianne Ashton.
Despite this, the enthusiasm for Hanukkah as a separate holiday was minimal. By the 1880s, one rabbi wrote, “The customary candles disappear more and more from Jewish homes", while a Jewish newspaper practically begged readers to light Hanukkah candles "if just for the experiment".
I couldn't find articles that addressed this specifically, but was curious about why Jews during the Civil War didn't embrace Hanukkah more; for Jews in the Confederacy, I would imagine a story about rebelling against powerful invaders would have appealed to them, while Jews in the Northern states could have been drawn to a fight for freedom. Although just a guess, it seems that the tension between the religious aspects and secular aspects of the holiday prevented this from gaining more widespread observance, a tension that was finally resolved after World War 2.
http://jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com/chanukah-in-america/
https://www.americanheritage.com/content/merry-chanukah