Tablet Magazine tells us how to "put a Syrian spin" on our Hanukkah feast.
Seriously?
Given that the festival is about how Syrian-Greek authorities defiled our Temple, and how the rebel Maccabees defied them and experienced the miracle we Jews still celebrate, isn't putting "a Syrian spin" on our Hanukkah feast rather like putting "an Egyptian spin" on the Passover seder?
Okay, okay: I know that those old-time Syrians and Egyptians have nothing to do with the peoples who inhabit those places today. And, yes, I get that the current grim situation vis-à-vis Syrian refugees can certainly make some Jews want to feel all humanitarian and virtuous-like by putting "a Syrian spin" on things.
But it's not as if today's Syrians--or for that matter today's Egyptians--like Jews, and especially the Jews of Israel, any better in our time than they did way back when.
Update: This year I wouldn't want to put "a French spin" on the feast either. (Hat tip: MW)
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