The Results Are In: Manischewitz Tried To Settle ‘Hanukkah’ Spelling Debate With A National Poll

Families are torn apart every year by the annual Hanukkah spelling debate Image by iStock

By Jenny Singer December 7, 2017

It was a tough year for the polling industry. Since the presidential election Nate Silver has been persona non grata north of the Mason-Dixon line and no one born after 1995 knows what a landline is. Nevertheless, the iconic Manischewitz Company, sponsor of so many of our first drinking experiences, put a nation’s raging debate to a poll: how do you spell “Hanukkah”?

A young couple contemplates a breakup over a dispute about the spelling of ‘Hanukkah’ Image by iStock

Using the online Harris Poll company to scour the country for opinionated Jews (appropriately, it only took two days to collect adequate data,) the poll asked 2,171 Americans aged 18 and older (including 112 Jews) to pick their preferred spelling for the winter holiday from four options. They were as follows:

Hanukkah.

Hanukah.

Channukah.

A child is forced to choose between her “Channukah” spelling mother and her “Chanukah” spelling father Image by iStock

The poll found this: two-thirds of Americans spell the holiday name “Hanukkah,” which is also what the Forward style guide dictates. The next most popular spelling also begins with an “H,” “Hanukah.”

However.

Image of a young girl realizing that her parents are “Ch” people, but she’s a “H” person Image by iStock

People who identify as Jewish are more likely to use one of the “ch” spellings, suggesting the signature Jewish hairball sound that we all know and love (well, it’s nice when Gal Gadot does it.) “Chanukah” with one “k” and “Chanukkah” with two “k”s got eight percent and five percent of the vote respectively, but Jewish Americans prefer one “k” while non-Jews favor “kk.” (No surprise that the tribe wants to stay away from double “k” — more than one “k” in a row is asking for trouble, in this Jew’s opinion.)

The idea for the poll originated when the Manischewitz company realized that even as an exclusively kosher company they had no uniform “Hanukkah” spelling for their products. “As the largest marketer of Kosher foods in North America, we thought it would be both fun and festive to have Americans weigh in to help us to determine what the preference actually is,” CEO David Sugarman said.

Whether you were with the majority of Americans, or the majority of American Jews, or neither, no need to be to smug: always remember, the correct way to spell “Hanukkah” is in Hebrew.

Family reunites after a gruesome “Hanukkah” spelling argument. Image by iStock

Jenny Singer is a writer for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

Jenny Singer is a freelance writer with pieces in Vox, the Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Teen Vogue, and more. She was previously a staff writer at Glamour and the Forward, and she’s currently getting an MFA in nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa.

A message from our Publisher & CEO 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.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO