Santa Claus Ain't Coming to Town

You would think that the fact that Jerusalem is a holy city for Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike would mean that symbols of the two most celebrated winter holidays -- Chanukah and Christmas -- would be highly prominent during this time of the year. Not so much. Perhaps my opinion will change when I venture over to the Christian Quarter of the Old City on Christmas Eve, but right now it certainly doesn't look like Santa Claus is coming to this town! Instead, latkes, sufganiot (jelly doughnuts), menorahs, and dreidels are everywhere! As amazing as it is, I must admit that I do kinda sorta miss the Christmas spirit -- it feels like the Grinch stole Christmas here!

One of my favorite things to do during the Christmas season is to drive around and admire all of the elaborate holiday decorations. To compensate for the fact that I can't really do that in Israel, I took lots of pictures of Chanukah in Jerusalem. Some highlights:


I was indeed very tempted by these beautiful sufganiot, but I satisfied my craving by taking pictures instead of actually buying and eating them!

Outside of Israel, the letters on the dreidel stand for "Nes Gadol Haya Sham" -- a great miracle happened there. Because the miracle of Chanukah happened in Israel, Israeli dreidels substitute the letter shin for a peh, changing the saying to "Nes Gadol Haya Po" -- a great miracle happened here.


In addition to sufganiot, the shuk also sold menorahs and dreidels of all shapes and sizes. Take note of the outside glass box menorah. Since the menorah is meant to serve as a public advertisement of the miracles that occured during Chanukah, many religious Jews actually light their menorah outside, placing it in a box to protect it from the elements.



Lastly, Chanukah marks yet another Jewish holiday taking place since the capture of IDF soldier Gilad Schalit. His loyal supporters manned their post outside of the Prime Minister's house, pleaing and petitioning for his return.

As for me -- I'm thrilled that I'm spending more than half of the eight days of Chanukah onstage. Last night we had a Chanukah cantorial concert, Yeomen of the Guard opens tomorrow night and runs through next week, and on Saturday night I'll be performing in an original operetta called Keys to the City. The operetta tells the story of the Chanukah miracle of 1917, when the Turks surrendered control over Jerusalem to the British. It's an incredibly moving and beautiful story that features clever lyrics and catchy melodies written and composed by the director and conductor of Yeomen.

I wish all of you a joyful holiday season and a Happy New Year!