Black People and Hanukkah

Robert believes that our world's many cultures and traditions form a beautiful, breathtaking tapestry.

The Festival of Lights, Hanukkah, commemorates the oil miracle of BCE 164. After the Assyrians were out of the land, the Israelites rekindled the eternal light in the desecrated temple. The lamp lasted eight days, although there was only enough oil to light the eternal temple light for one. That miracle spawned the eight-day Hanukkah observance. An eight-branched candelabra called a menorah is lit each night during the festival, with one candle representing each day that the lamp remained illuminated.

Hanukkah Observance Occurs for Eight Nights and Days

Hanukkah observance occurs for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of the Jewish calendar month of Kislev. The festival may appear from late November to late December on the Gregorian calendar. Families celebrate by lighting the candles of a menorah, or Hanukkah. The Hanukkah is a candelabrum that has nine branches. One candle, which rests above or below the others, is often used to light the other eight. This unique candle becomes the shamash ("attendant"). Each night, the shamash is used to light one additional candle until all eight candles are lit.

Other Hanukkah festivities include:

• Singing Hanukkah songs.
• Playing the dreidel game (created as a way for Jews to learn Hebrew and study the Torah).
• Eating oil-based foods, such as latkes (pancakes made with grated potato) and sufganiyot (round jelly doughnuts).
• Eating dairy foods like cheese and blintzes (rolled fried or baked pancakes filled with cheese or fruit).

A Minor Holiday

In the 1970s, the worldwide Chabad Hasidic movement started public menorah lightings in open public places in many countries. Since 1979, the National Menorah has been lit on the White House grounds to celebrate Hanukkah. The 39th U.S. president Jimmy Carter attended that first ceremony. Ronald Reagan, 40th U.S. president, designated it the National Menorah.

Hanukkah exists as a minor holiday because it lacks the stricter obligations of other Israelite festivals. However, secular jews in North America and elsewhere enthusiastically embrace the celebration. The holiday often occurs around the same time as Christmas during the holiday season.

Black Jews

Some may not realize that there are a lot of black Jews. Ethiopian Jews have existed for centuries. 200,000 black American Jews lived in the United States during the 20th century. Some converted, while others were biracial with a Jewish parent. Many black American Hebrew congregations emerged in the early 1900s.

Around the middle of the 1900s, many blacks in North America began celebrating Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. Joint Hanukkah and Kwanzaa celebrations were not uncommon. Like the Hanukkah menorah, Kwanzaa has a candelabra called the Kinara (Kee-Nah-rah). The Kinara symbolizes the ancestral roots of the African continent. Candle colors of the Kinara are one black, three red, and three green. All seven candles (Mishumaa Saba) of the Kinara represent one of the Seven Principles (Niguzo Saba) of Kwanzaa. Like the shamash ("attendant") is used to light the other eight candles in the Hanukkah, the black candle burns the other six candles of the Kinara.

Famous Blacks Who Have Celebrated Hanukkah

The United States has many Black Jewish luminaries who have celebrated Hanukkah.

Samuel George Davis Jr." Sammy Davis, Jr." (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an African American singer, dancer, actor, vaudevillian, and comedian. Many years after losing his left eye in a 1954 car accident, he converted to Judaism.

Singer/actress Nell Carter (September 13, 1948 – January 23, 2003) converted to Judaism in 1982 after marrying mathematician and lumber executive George Krynicki.

The list of Jewish African American entertainers is long and includes:

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• Borris Kodjoe (Model and TV actor)
• Jussie Smollett (actor and musician)
• Khleo Thomas (film actor)
• Kidada Jones (film actress and model, daughter of record executive Quincy Jones and actress/model Peggy Lipton)
• Rashida Jones (film actress and model, daughter of record executive Quincy Jones and actress/model Peggy Lipton)
• Lauren London (model and actress)
• Lisa Bonet (TV and movie star)
• Maya Rudolph (comic actress, musician, daughter of singer Minnie Riperton)
• Tiffany Haddish (actress, writer, and producer)
• Tracee Ellis Ross (actress/model, daughter of singer Diana Ross)
• Yaphet Kotto (actor and writer)

Black Jewish Musicians Influenced by Hanukkah

The list of Jewish African American musicians is extensive and includes:

• Andre Williams (rock and roll singer)
• Aubrey "Drake" Graham "(Canadian and United States citizen, rapper, and actor)
• Ben Harper (Grammy-winning rock, folk, and blues artist)
• Nissim Black "D. Black"(rapper)
• "Goapele" Mohlabane (singer and songwriter)
• Jack Leroy Wilson Jr. "Jackie Wilson" (June 9, 1934 – January 21, 1984, pioneering hit songwriter and soul singer)

• Joshua Redman (jazz saxophonist)
• Justin Warfield (singer and songwriter)
• Lenny Kravitz (grammy-winning rock star)
• Saul Hudson "Slash" (guitarist for the rock band Guns N' Roses, British-American)
• William Henry Joseph Bonaparte Bertholf Smith aka Willie "The Lion" Smith (November 23, 1893 – April 18, 1973, legendary American jazz and stride pianist)
• Yitz Jordan "Y-Love" (rapper and hip hop artist)

Not All Jews Are White

Many believe that all Jews are "white." In reality, at least 20% of the Jewish population is racially and ethnically diverse. The Israelites (comprising Jews) began mixed. "An ethnically diverse crowd also went up with them..." (Exodus 12:38 The Holman Christian Standard Bible, HCSB). The Jewish population includes African, African American, Latino (Hispanic), Asian, Native American, Sephardic, Mizrahi, and mixed-race Jews by heritage, adoption, and marriage. Many black people have kept and continue to celebrate Hanukkah.

Sources

Bar, S. (2008). Who were the "mixed multitude"? Retrieved from https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA187624540&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=01464094&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=tel_oweb&isGeoAuthType=true Hebrew Studies(Vol. 49)

Breaking Matzo. (2021, May 19). What is the story of Hanukkah? Breaking Matzo. Retrieved January 7, 2022, from https://breakingmatzo.com/philosophy/what-is-the-story-of-hanukkah/

Comedy, A. D. (2015, December 5). Black people celebrate Hanukkah 'for the first time: All def comedy. YouTube. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/F-R0suzkIZY

Counting jews. Be'chol Lashon. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://globaljews.org/resources/research/counting-jews/

Kestenbaum, S. (2016, December 5). Why do the Kwanzaa kinara and the Hanukkah Menorah look alike? The Forward. Retrieved from https://forward.com/news/356188/the-secret-jewish-history-of-kwanzaa/

Kranish, M. (2020, December 10). Carter would make history lighting a Hanukkah menorah. But first, he needed a longer match. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/12/10/jimmy-carter-hanukkah-menorah-white-house/

Silberberg, C. S. (n.d.). When did Chanukah become an official Jewish holiday? Retrieved from https://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article_cdo/aid/623473/jewish/When-did-Chanukah-become-an-official-Jewish-holiday.htm

Staff, N. Y. P. L. (2020, November 25). Celebrating African American jews. The New York Public Library. Retrieved December 31, 2021, from https://www.nypl.org/blog/2016/02/11/celebrating-african-american-jews

Washington, R. (2005, December 26). Blacks, the Jewish faith, and Hanukkah. Blacks, the Jewish Faith, and Hanukkah. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5069907.

This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.

© 2022 Robert Odell Jr