Dor Tamid’s Operation Hanukkah Connects with Soldiers

While Chanukah is still a few months out, now is the perfect time to partner with Congregation Dor Tamid to give Jewish American soldiers a bit of holiday cheer.

The congregation’s Operation Hanukkah, which will send Chanukah cards to soldiers, comes from the work of one of their members, Miranda Rosenblum, who has been sending out as many as 150 Chanukah cards annually by herself since 2017, when she was doing charity work with the Order of the Eastern Star.

“They’ve been doing Christmas cards for the troops for years,” said Rosenblum. “And since the rest of the Eastern Star was doing Christmas cards for the troops, to the tune of like 40,000 a year, I thought that maybe I could do the Jewish troops.”

Rosenblum, who grew up in a non-Jewish military family, was inspired by something her parents did during the holiday season.

“We were a family of four, but dad always brought home airmen that didn’t have families where we were and couldn’t get home for the holidays,” she said. “So, it’s something that I’ve always been around – the adoption, as it were, of the stragglers. When this became something that I was introduced to, I thought that was something I could do to continue what my parents had taught me.”

Now, through Congregation Dor Tamid, this mitzvah is beginning to reach more people than ever before.

“It’s become a sisterhood project,” Rosenbaum said. “They’re also letting everybody else know that they’re welcome to save my hands and write some cards as well.”

If you would like to participate, simply buy Chanukah cards that do not have glitter and are not shiny, write a message in the cards, sign them from your congregation or city (do not put your personal name), and put them in blank, unsealed envelopes. Please reach out to Miranda Rosenblum at mmallison@gmail.com for details on where to drop the cards off.