A Chanukah Message from Gayle Rubenstein

I always understood that the story of Chanukah was the Miracle of Light and the symbolic beauty was the tiny amount of oil found after the destruction of the Temple, just enough to light the menorah for eight days. I believe that this wonderful story is handed down through generations of Jews, to teach our values to the next generation of our young Jewish children.

As I was growing up, the tradition was to give Chanukah gelt (money), chocolate coins and dreidels. My Yiddish bobba (grandmother) made us dreidels out of wooden cotton reels and cooked latkes, served them with cinnamon, sugar, apple sauce and whipped sour cream. For me, raised in South Africa and with my bobba, Chanukah WAS the festival of miracles. I remember the wonderful smell of hot cooking latkes in her tiny house in Johannesburg and how she showed us, to always give Tzedakah, especially during the Jewish holidays. She told us horror stories about her upbringing in Birz, Lithuania, and how they ran away from the pogroms and hid, but always celebrated shabbat and all the holidays.

Today, I am the bobba or yaya to my 10 grandchildren. I see how technology and trends and COVID has impacted them, and how different it is to be growing up in today’s world. They are influenced by their environment. They are glued to their devices, and so many are isolated, even bullied online. Mental health is a thing and as parents and grandparents, we must be supportive of children transitioning and identifying differently. The world is different now, so we are their shamash to hold their hands and light the way forward. If we do this, we will ensure a miracle: that our children, and their children, will light the world.

Gayle Rubenstein is a wife, mom, grandmother of 10 + 2 + 1 dog, businesswoman and friend.