What are some of the traditional Chanukah foods?
Because of the central role that oil played in the Chanukah miracle, it is customary to serve foods fried in oil. The traditional foods vary according to country of origin: Jews of Eastern European (or Ashkenazi) origin eat latkes, or fried potato pancakes. Sephardic Jews eat different varieties of deep-fried donuts. Greek Jews call them “loukomades”; Persian Jews refer to them as “zelebi,” while in Israel jelly doughnuts are wildly popular and known as “sufganiot.” It is also customary to eat dairy foods on Chanukah, in commemoration of the bravery of Yehudit, who used cheese to defeat the Greek general Holofernes. Click here to read the story of this brave woman. And one more custom…. It is customary amongst Sephardic residents of Jerusalem to arrange communal meals during the eight days of Chanukah. Friends who quarreled during the year traditionally reconcile at these meals.
