Hanukkah in America: A History

Ashton (religion studies, Rowan Univ.; Rebecca Gratz: Women and Judaism in Antebellum America) provides a thorough cultural history of Hanukkah in the United States, tracing the holiday's importance to American Jews. She argues that Hanukkah's popularity among Jewish Americans can be attributed to its family focus, its proximity to Christmas, and the opportunities it provides celebrants to discuss assimilation and God's intervention in history. Readers unfamiliar with Hanukkah will welcome the first chapter, "What is Hanukkah?" in which Ashton describes the Maccabean revolt that inspired the festival and goes on to discuss the holiday's historical evolution. Ashton details in subsequent chapters the uses to which American Jews put Hanukkah throughout American history, e.g., as an antidote to assimilation, an alternative to Christmas and, poignantly, a rallying cry during World War II and the Holocaust. The chapter "Hippies, Hasidism, and Havurot" describes Hanukkah's development since the 1960s, especially the influence of the counterculture, both Jewish and non-Jewish, leading readers to an understanding of the contemporary iteration of the holiday.