TRADITION Questions: “Front-Lawn” Hanukka
Click here to read about this series.
“Front-Lawn” Hanukka and the End of Jewish Understatement
What is it?
As Jewish families have become more confident in their position within American society, public displays of Hanukka have moved from town squares (where Chabad rabbis still light giant menoras opposite politicians and Christmas trees) to private front lawns where electric lights now accompany ever-grander inflatable Hanukka creatures. Eli Federman recently wrote in the Los Angeles Times:
The Orthodox Jewish community I grew up in rejected Christmas lights as signs of unwanted assimilation. We lighted the menorahs in our windows and doorways for the holiday’s eight nights, keeping the tradition simple and understated. Any more showy displays would have felt like crossing a line.
That line has been crossed. We may now speak of a “front-lawn Hanukka.” Every year, more Jewish American lawns adopt street-facing Jewish messaging, revealing comfort in broadcasting their Jewish identity to their neighbors. A certain element of publicity rests within the mitzva to light Hanukka candles with its aim of pirsumei nisa – the small lights spread awareness for the ancient miracle. While such slight flames might have stood out dramatically in ancient winter darkness, perhaps well-lit modern neighborhoods require greater wattage to communicate the Maccabees’ miraculous salvation. The variability within the original mitzvah – a unique three-tiered menu (culminating with mehadrin min ha-mehadrin) – might reflect a freedom to expand within the mitzva upon which these innovations may simply elaborate. Alternatively, might this be just another form of consumer excess and acculturation?
Why does it matter?
Evergreens and fires marked the triumph of light over darkness in pagan celebrations of the Winter solstice. Christianity assimilated these practices. Electric lighting helped such holiday decoration become a secular tradition spreading from Europe to America and throughout the world. Does taking on these post-industrial secular “traditions” partake of their idolatrous roots? Do Hanukka-themed lawn ornaments constitute hukkat akum?
Similar to the process of boutique minyanim opening up in basements and backyards, does the movement of Hanukka to the front-lawn reflect a certain “shteibelization” of public ritual? Do family and friends gather around these ornaments in ways that might parallel public lightings? How do Hanukka parties make use of these outdoor decorated spaces?
Which corners of the Jewish world partake in the “front-lawn Hanukka?” Is it part of what Saiman and Chizhik-Goldschmidt recently called in TRADITION aspirational Orthodoxy or does it hold a little too much “goyish” kitsch?
What questions remain?
Front-lawn signaling has expanded in general society. In past generations, lawn communication was largely limited to election cycles and “For Sale” signs. Today, little free libraries and “in this house, we believe” political credos have transformed this real estate. How has this affected how Jewish families see their yards as canvases for bigger religious communication? Has the use of these spaces since October 7, 2023, for calls to free the hostages and for support of Israel also changed how Jewish families see themselves and their property?
Why do many inflatables have a bear with a dreidel? Why a bear? Is this connected to the famous Coca-Cola Christmas advertisements?
What other expenses and themes have informed an evolving Hanukka culture? Tacky Hanukka sweaters? Mensch on a bench? Jewish holiday songs?
What are the costs of losing a culture of Jewish simplicity? What were the values that came from sitting on the “holiday season” sidelines?
Chaim Strauchler, rabbi of Rinat Yisrael in Teaneck, is an Associate Editor of TRADITION.