Hanukkah 100 Years Ago

New York Tech Expert Shares How Jewish Americans Celebrated in 1920

Old Westbury, NY (12/07/2020) — One hundred years ago today, Hanukkah was still emerging as a well-known holiday and developing into the event we see it as now. This minor holiday in Jewish life was linked to several other social events/issues in 1920, though it was on its way to changing.

In the late 19th century, Hanukkah, an overlooked holiday by many, had been modified to fit with Jewish identity. Amplified by reform Judaism, there was a rising in popularity for the occasion that sparked. This coalition targeted celebrations with less religious and more cultural or historical identity, not only making Hanukkah a Jewish version of Christmas but also boosting it to be linked to Jewish life.

Jonathan Goldman, Ph.D., professor of English at New York Institute of Technology, has been researching Hanukkah for the digital project New York 1920: 100 Years Ago Today (When We Became Modern). He reports, "Hanukkah was a minor festival in the Jewish calendar until U.S. Jewish groups started promoting it in the late 1800s. At the time, many Jewish Americans celebrated Xmas as one way of assimilating into U.S. culture; Hanukkah was seized upon as an alternative and rival to Xmas and was even linked to early twentieth-century Zionism. Still, in 1920 Hanukkah was not yet on most Americans' radar, and was far from the marketing bonanza it would become. Gifts, for example, tended to be unextravagant, simple household items. The thing is, antisemitism was an active and powerful discourse in U.S. society then, influencing the manner by which Jewish people would express their religious identity."

At the time, this holiday was also one that Jewish Americans would mark through political action and humanitarian works. Take for example, the reports of charitable acts, fund drives, and food drives for the needy, particularly by progressive organizations such as Jewish Women's Organization. In terms of politics, this change was occurring at the end of a fifty year-long intense Jewish immigration to the U.S. This would lead to quotas for Jewish immigrants in the 1921 and 1924 immigration laws.

These movements and events are often overlooked when it comes to modern Hanukkah, but they have certainly intensified the holiday's history to make it what it is today. To learn more about Hanukkah in 1920, visit NY1920.com.

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