In a world where cultural connections often get lost, the Jewish Culture Club stands as a beacon of unity and tradition, always bringing together students of all backgrounds for the holidays. Jewish Culture Club fosters a sense of community and cultural awareness through engaging events and vibrant celebrations of Jewish traditions. With the delicious Hanukkah food and the menorahs set on Shabbat after sundown, it all brings in the holiday spirit and people come together as a community singing songs and blessings.
The Jewish Culture Club is a monthly club with all sorts of activities such as making rugelach this month, gift cards, and raffles. Focusing on how everyone celebrates every holiday a little differently, Charlotte Pinski, an FM sophomore who participates in the club and Maytal Downie, an FM senior who is a co-founder and president of the club, discussed how they celebrate Hanukkah and other Jewish traditions.
There are countless common misconceptions that are good to be addressed. Maytal says that one popular misconception is that “Jewish people are really religious, and everyone is the exact same. Which is not the case.” All Jewish families are different and celebrate differently. Another misconception that Charlotte added is that “Jewish people are so lucky for the 8 nights of presents at Hanukkah. It’s more about spending time with family and appreciating what you have and not just for the presents.” Many people think it’s all about presents, when in reality it is not. There is family, which matters more.
Hanahkah includes countless foods to celebrate with like latkes, brisket, sufganiyot (jelly donuts), noodle kugel, and challah. Charlotte Pinksy’s favorite dish is matzo ball soup or latkes with applesauce while Maytal’s favorite dish is latkes and applesauce. “It has to be with applesauce,” says Charlotte. Everyone celebrates each holiday a little differently, having different food options and family traditions.
Charlotte says “Most years, Hanukkah is on a school week, so it doesn’t feel that special, but this year it is over December Break, so it feels a lot more special because even though you celebrate Hanukkah at night, it truly is an all day thing, so it feels way more special to not be in school, and I can celebrate it with my family. Some nights we will have a “fun night,” and we will have latkes with applesauce, matzo ball soup, and after we eat dinner we will light the menorah, and after the most fun part is after all of the “boring” stuff we all play dreidel.”
Maytal says “We love to come together as one by hyping each other up when someone has a really good idea for the club or even coming together and having meetings that might not just talk about the club but ourselves.”
The club is very diverse and inclusive. Maytal says “We even have people who aren’t Jewish, coming to the club to just have fun and learn about the religion, and what is so good about this club is that it brought everyone together, and I didn’t even realize there were this many Jewish kids at our school.”
The Jewish Culture Club is going to be a legacy for our school and not only ours now. It has just started up and already caused a ripple effect to other schools and communities to start a Jewish club of their own.
