JTA: “The War on Chanukah?”

David Streeter — December 10, 2009 – 5:47 pm | Barack Obama | GOP Hypocrisies | Separation of Church & State Comments (2) Add a comment

The Jewish and secular press is continuing its coverage of the most important issue facing the American Jewish community today: “The War on Chanukah.”

JTA’s chief “war” correspondent Eric Fingerhut offers his analysis of this catastrophic situation:

Now, in a odd twist on that controversy, we’ve gotten a complaint that the White House is apparently dissing Chanukah because the invitation to the president’s much-discussed “Chanukah party”—already the subject of overheated complaints over the slimmed-down 400 person guest list—says “holiday reception” instead of using the word Chanukah. One expert notes that all of the Bush Chanukah party invites used the word Chanukah (although some Bush critics did snicker when last year’s invite included what looked like a Christmas tree on the front)

And Fingerhut’s wise conclusion:

Enough already. It’s a party. Go enjoy it, before the White House decides that dealing with all the silly whining from the Jewish community makes holding a Chanukah party more trouble than it’s worth.

UPDATE: Rabbi Levi Shemtov, head of American Friends of Lubavitch’s Washington office, gave The New York Times his similar analysis direct from the front lines. Shemtov, who is also the man responsible for kashering the White House kitchen, said:

This is all one big overblown latke ... I feel that we need to save our communal kvetching in reserve for when it’s more called for and really matters.

Hopefully both sides will be able to engage in peace talks over latkes and sufganyot. But in case that’s not enough, they can embrace the newest Chanukah treat in Israel: vodka donuts.

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