• King Arthur Flour featured a scrumptious looking cupcake hanukkiyah in their newsletter this week. If I had children these would certainly be on my "must make" list.
• Also in the edible hanukkiyah category, check out this Forward article on challahs shaped like hanukkah menorahs.
• Barack Obama shared a Hanukkah message with the world in both Hebrew and English, concluding "May Hanukkah's lessons inspire us all to give thanks for the blessings we enjoy, to find light in times of darkness, and to work together for a brighter, more hopeful tomorrow." [via CBS]
• Have you seen this Hanukkah flash mob, which brought more than 150 people together on Jerusalem's Ben Yehuda street?
• This New York Times Op-Ed sheds an interesting light on both sides of the Hanukkah story.
• Check out this mouth-watering slide show of culinary delights that "gentile chefs" have created for their Jewish spouses. I'd like one of those apple-cider donuts or cheese danishes please.

This week Rabbi Marc Disick answers a question from a Jewish woman seeking advice about how to navigate Christmas celebrations with her Christian boyfriend. As always, respectful comments are welcome.

Q. Dear Rabbi, I'm a 31 year old Jewish woman who has been dating a Christian man for the past five months. Our religious differences have never been an issue but now that the holidays are here I am feeling conflicted. He has invited me to his family's house for a Christmas celebration, which would include going to church first and then meeting with everyone for dinner and general celebration. He has never asked me to convert to Christianity (and I wouldn't) but I know his family would be happier if I was Christian. What should I do? Is it OK for a Jewish woman who is happy being Jewish to celebrate Christmas?

A: Dear Conflicted,

This is not really about Christmas, this is about whether or not you are in a relationship that can grow through this important issue. I suggest that your conflict has less to do with Christmas and more to do with the fact that you and your partner haven't yet learned how to discuss interfaith issues as they arise. Once both of you together realize that you have a lot to learn, you will be able to approach the issue with wisdom and sensitivity. Your relationship is still very new. Once the two of you take on this conversation in a way which is both curious and respectful, you won't seem to feel quite so alone with this question. The two of really need to talk - he deserves to know how you feel.

Just as a couple needs to learn how to talk about money together, so too do interfaith couples need to learn to talk about the role religion plays in their lives -- and what role they hope it will play in their lives together going forward. While you may never feel comfortable celebrating Christmas, your discomfort will dramatically decrease if, over time, you and your partner come to agreements on this and a host of related issues.

To answer your question specificaIly, I think that how you celebrate this one Christmas together pales in comparison to whether or not the two of you embrace the next year as an opportunity to learn. You will learn a great deal about him if he genuinely wants to learn about Judaism. Things might need to get a little more serious between you before he'd be willing to take an Introduction to Judaism class. (Click here for classes offered by the Reform movement.) Hence, your question is less about the meaning of Christmas to your boyfriend and more about the meaning and importance of being Jewish to you.

Rabbi Marc Disick

Hanukkah begins tomorrow and with it Jews around the globe will be breaking out their family traditions. I'm curious: what are your traditions?

Since I work with children my hanukkah celebration is usually connected to what's happening in religious school. I spin the dreidel with the kids, enjoying their enthusiasm for the annual Dreidel Spin-Off, in which the best dreidel spinner in the school gets a little prize. I hand out gelt, sing Hanukkah songs and eat sufganiyot (jelly filled donuts). This year I'm also teaching a cooking class where adult students and I will be making beignets - a kind of fried French pastry - to celebrate the holiday. Fun!

At home, our Hanukkah is a bit more subdued. My husband and I light the hanukkiyah every night and exchange a gift (or buy something together). I'm curious to see how things change when we have children. Will we be a one gift kind of family, or a one gift for every night kind of family? Will we have a special dinner to commemorate the holiday? Only time will tell.

So what about you: how do you celebrate Hanukkah? Please share!

More About Hanukkah on About:

• History of Hanukkah
• What Is a Hanukkiyah?
• Origins of the Dreidel (And How to Play the Dreidel Game)
• Hanukkah Food Traditions

• Rabbi Marc Disick, one of our very own "Ask the Rabbi" rabbis, was recently featured in a PBS special. Click here to hear him talk about how God is what happens between people in a community.
• Mervis Diamond Importers has created the world's first diamond dreidel, which costs $1,800. [via Jewcy]
• A friend of mine, Leah Koenig, wrote a great article on the history of Chanukkah gelt for the Forward. Recipe included! [via Forward]
• Chelsea Clinton has confirmed that she's engaged to nice Jewish boy Marc Mezvinsky. Will she become a member of the tribe? [via NYT]
• It's offical: Tootsie rolls are now kosher. [via OU]
• In an article titled "The Rise of the Hot Jewish Girl," Details magazine outlines why Jewish women are the new fetish. "It seems that America can't get enough smoking-hot Semitic tush lately." Yikes.
• A leader of the pro-Palestinian al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade is suing comedian/actor Sasha Baron Cohen and NBC Universal for a scene in the recent Bruno movie that shows Cohen mocking an alleged leader of the group. With charges of libel and slander, the suit is for $110 million. [via Tablet]
• An Israeli alcohol importer has hired a pastry chef/bartender to create vodka-spiked sufganiyot this Chanukkah season. Each sufganiyah (Chanukkah donut) contains 90 milliliters of vodka diluted with jam. Definitely not for the kids table! [via Ynet]

Photo of sufganiyot by Ariela Pelaia / Recipe at Baking and Books

According to the Jerusalem Post, a recent poll taken by Independent Media Review Analysis reveals that a majority of Israelis believe Israel's policy of negotiating for captives should be toughened up - but not until Gilad Shalit has been released. Negotiations for Shalit's release have recently stalled over some "70 to 100 names of Palestinian prisoners which Israel is not willing to release," but in the end Israel is likely to free up to 980 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the abducted soldier.

The poll was conducted over the phone and surveyed 512 Israelis. 55% were in favor of adopting new guidelines created by Supreme Court justice Meir Shamgar, which would limit the "price" Israel is willing to pay for captured soldiers. These 55%, however, were only in favor of the new policy taking effect after Shalit has been returned. Only 23% of respondents thought Israel's policy should be toughed up beforehand. 22% thought changes should not be made.

What are your thoughts? Do you think Israel's captives policy needs to be changed?

Photo via JPost / Gilad Shalit in video footage released in September

A new book by Shlomo Sand, a professor at Tel Aviv University, aims to discredit Jewish claims to the land of Israel by "demonstrating that they do not constitute 'a people,' with a shared racial or biological past." Titled The Invention of the Jewish People, the book spent months on the best-seller list in Israel and is now available in English. Not surprisingly, it has sparked much discussion. Indeed the New York Times review of the book is one of the most emailed articles on the entire website.

According to the NYT, the book highlights ideas that are common among historians: that the Jews were not universally expelled from Jerusalem in 70 CE, that converts contributed as much to Jewish genetic ancestry as did ancient Jews and that many modern-day Palestinians can trace their heritage to Jewish ancestors. Essentially, Sand takes the historical narrative of Israel to task. A narrative that holds Jews are descended from the ancient tribes of Israel, were expelled by the Romans in 70 CE and have finally returned to their rightful homeland after 2,000 years of exile. All of this, says Sand, is the result of a distorted and invented history created to justify Zionism.

Yet, according to Haaretz, the book is good for Israel in that it provokes discussion around some serious questions. "The fact that very basic questions about Israel's foundations can be discussed trenchantly shows that Israel is a vibrant, if at times flawed, democracy," says writer Carlo Strenger.

Without having read the book myself I can't say much more about it, though I am curious to hear whether any of you have read it. If yes, what were your thoughts?

Read more about The Invention of the Jewish People:

NYT Book Review - Book Calls Jewish People an 'Invention'
Times UK Review - The Invention of the Jewish People by Shlomo Sand
Haaretz - Shlomo Sand's 'The Invention of the Jewish People' is a success for Israel

• The 2010 edition of the Nice Jewish Guys calender is now available. And here you were wondering what to get your girlfriends for Chanukkah. [via Jewcy]
• A 700 year old Torah scroll from pre-Inquisition Spain - the oldest complete scroll in existence - was sold by Sotheby's to a private collector for $398,500. [via Tablet]
• The White House has appointed a new "U.S. State Department special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism." [via Forward]
• Dozens of Zionist rabbis are praising Israeli soldiers who refuse to obey military orders to evacuate settlements. [via Haaretz]
• Artist Richard Kamler was barred from displaying a collage made of cut out portions of the Torah and the Koran at an exhibition in New Haven, Connecticut. Said one of the exhibition organizers: "You're not going to cry 'fire' in a crowded movie theater, even if you have free speech." [via Tablet via NH Independent]
• Negotiations for a prisoner swap that would free Gilad Shalit have stalled over the list of top militants who would be handed over in the exchange. [via AP]
• The airline easyJet  is withdrawing all copies of its in-flight magazine, easyJet Traveller, after a fashion spread was published depicting models at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. The photo shoot took place without permission. [via NewStatesman]

Photo via Nice Jewish Guys

Over the past few days there is one question that has appeared in my inbox several times and that I've also heard discussed among friends and colleagues: Is turkey kosher? The general consensus seemed to be that no, turkey was not kosher. Being a vegetarian myself, I was hard pressed to weigh in on these conversations. Our Thanksgiving dinner consists of things like butternut squash lasagne, mashed potatoes, salads and freshly baked breads. Turkey? Not so much.

But today I decided to do some digging on the topic and discovered that, contrary to apparent popular belief, turkeys are indeed kosher. At one point their status was uncertain because turkeys were unfamiliar to the ancient rabbis and hence, they were not specifically identified as kosher animals. As a result, some people asked: sure, turkeys are birds but are they a kind of bird that is kosher?

There was much discussion on both sides of the debate, as Kahrut.com recounts. Some rabbis pondered whether turkeys could cross breed with chickens, and if so, what implications that might have in terms of its kosher status. Others pointed out that the wild turkey has three characteristics of a kosher bird: it "has a crop... it has an 'extra' toe, and its eggs have the indicators of kosher eggs." In the end many rabbinic authorities, including Rabbi Soloveitchik, attested to the acceptability of the turkey. One of the primary reasons behind their rulings (though by no means the only) was that the majority of the Jewish community had accepted turkey as a kosher species. As Kashrut.com concludes:

The turkey is no longer new and its kosher status has been addressed by both the great and not-so-great Jewish minds over 250 years and has received near-universal endorsement. To call it into question now is to impugn the dozens of responsa, and more so, the millions of honorable Jews, who have eaten turkey for almost half a millennium. That is not the Jewish way.

So that solves the mystery. Turkey is kosher and there is no reason you can't enjoy it as the centerpiece of your Thanksgiving table. (Also, here's an interesting side note: did you know that "at a whopping 26.9 pounds per capita in 1996, Israelis consumed about 45% more [turkeys] than Americans?" Who would have guessed!)

Related About.com articles:

• Should Jews Celebrate Thanksgiving?
• Why Is Kosher Turkey So Tasty?

Last week I wrote about an incident in Israel where a woman was arrested for wearing a prayer shawl. Many of you responded to the post (thank you) so I thought you might be interested in reading a letter from Nofrat Frenkel, the woman who was arrested, which appeared in The Forward today.

It begins: "Every morning, since I was 15, I have worn a tallit for morning prayer in my home. During my army service, I was forced to swallow many negative comments by other soldiers who prayed in the army synagogues, some of which did not even have a women's gallery, because female soldiers never set foot in them. After leaving the army, I began to visit the Kotel every Rosh Hodesh. The atmosphere at the Kotel, the feeling that all those women praying around me were also turning to God and pouring out their hearts to him, inspires me with the joy of Jewish fraternity. Here is one place in which, shoulder to shoulder, all the hearts are calling to God..."

The rest of Nofrat's letter can be read here. Responses from readers in the comments section are fascinating in and of themselves, ranging from "Kol HaKavod. You do us proud." to comments that accuse Frenkel of insecurity and throwing her beliefs in the face of other worshipers.

• Future rabbi Yuri Foreman has become Israel's first boxing world champion. [via Forward]
• Hundreds of people peacefully protested outside Sen. Joe Lieberman's Stamford, Connecticut home last Sunday to show their support for universal health care. "When we heard not only would he vote against it, but he'd use his power, his position as a swing vote ... to block it from coming to a vote, we had to send a message so he knows people who vote overwhelmingly favor the public option," said Rabbi Stephen Fuchs, of Congregation Beth Israel in West Hartford. [via ConnPost]
• The White House has cut the guest list for its annual Hanukkah party and candle-lighting in half this year. Financial reasons were cited as the cause, but some rabbis think the cut might fuel "feelings in some quarters of the American Jewish community that the White House is giving them the cold shoulder." [via JPost]
• A Baptist congregation known for its anti-gay views has turned its attention to the Jewish community, protesting speeches by President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Jewish Federations of North America conference. Protesters carried signs that read "God Hates Jews" (among other things) and warned passersby that Jews would soon be in hell. [via USA Today]
• This November Costco plans to begin selling "The Illustrated Torah" at stores near significant Jewish populations. [via Forward]
• Apparently some folks are trying to turn dreidel spinning into a major league sport. [via Tablet]

Photo via Getty Images / Al Bello