Category Celebrating the Holidays

Holiday family learning

With kids off school and parents home from work, the winter holidays are perfect for creating family time to play and learn together. ABC Life Literacy Canada offers these holiday family literacy tips to warm your heart and feed your…

It’s time to make sufganiyot

photo - There are so many flavors of sufganiyot to be found in Jerusalem around this time of year

There are so many flavors of sufganiyot to be found in Jerusalem around this time of year. (photo by Barry A. Kaplan) From Israel have come two popular foods for Chanukah: sufganiyot (doughnuts, often filled with jelly) and ponchikot, which are…

Latin American treats

image - Gluten Free Around the World book cover

Aviva Kanoff has been described as “the Indiana Jones of cooking,” and the subtitle of her latest book, Gluten Free Around the World (Brio Books, 2014), is “a journey of food, travel and extraordinary adventure.” She is a graduate of…

Some fun facts about dreidels

photo - Major League Dreidel attracts many competitors

Major League Dreidel attracts many competitors. (photo from facebook.com/majorleaguedreidel) The word dreidel is Yiddish, and comes from the German verb dreihen, meaning “to spin.” Dreidel literally means “little spinner.” The first dreidel players were Yiddish-speaking Jews in medieval Europe. In…

A cure for menorah malaise

Reb Cantor discovers that some families, like Chelm’s Gold family, light eight candles on the first night of Chanukah

Reb Cantor discovers that some families, like Chelm’s Gold family, light eight candles on the first night of Chanukah. (photo by Dov Harrington from commons.wikimedia.org) “I’m sick of Chanukah,” Reb Cantor, the merchant of Chelm, muttered. His wife, Shoshanna, looked up…