Is Hanukkah Sexy?
When I first saw a story on the Cut arguing that Christmas should not be made sexy, my first thought was that Dan Savage has been arguing this for years. My second was, of course, whether Hanukkah is sexy. Or, indeed, whether anyone’s trying to make that case.
And the answer, to the second question, is, kind of? The Schlep Sisters are still performing Hanukkah burlesque. And a mildly NSFW 2008 post declares one Jewish woman “the sexiest menorah ever.”
Any holiday involving candles and not necessarily not involving wine could, I suppose, get the “sexy” treatment. That said, my own observance involves a kind of atavistic compulsion to fry potatoes. And there’s nothing especially sultry about either latke preparation or, I venture to say, latke consumption. So my vote would be that Hanukkah, while delightful, is not sexy.
Phoebe Maltz Bovy edits the Sisterhood, and can be reached at bovy@forward.com. Her book, The Perils of “Privilege”, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2017.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO