By Gabrielle Savoldelli
Director, Nursery School
My favorite Chanukah book as a child was Chanukah is Here, originally published in 1953. The simple four-color drawings illustrate the traditions of Chanukah: prayers by the menorah, the mother in the kitchen wearing an apron frying latkes, and the brother and sister spinning the dreidel. This book’s charms appealed to me because they felt reassuringly familiar, reflecting what was happening in my own home on Chanukah —though not for all eight nights. The oil in our house was a no eight-day miracle. Fried latkes deemed unhealthy and messy to make were a first-night-only treat.
Chanukah felt unusually special, almost like a private holiday just for my family. Only one other child I knew celebrated Chanukah. There was no Star of David wrapping paper at the local People’s Drugs, and my parents could only find chocolate gelt at one store in town: Foods of All Nations. Menorah candles must have been just as hard to find. Yet, none of these hurdles bothered me as a child. The effort my parents put in to observing the Jewish holidays made them feel uniquely personal, almost like a treasured secret.
I recently found a copy of Chanukah is Here tucked in the corner of a bookshelf at home. It’s a deaccessioned copy from the nursery school library, rescued from the recycling pile at work many years ago: an old friend—too tattered and dated to keep in circulation. A paperback, the pages’ staples are coming free and the last name of the teacher I replaced when she retired is written on the inside cover. I recognize her handwriting because she was one of the most welcoming teachers when I started teaching at Emanu-El, and she later taught my own children. She may have even read them this very copy.
On my dining room table are the flammable wooden menorahs my children made in her classroom, a tradition I continued when the classroom became mine and which the current teacher carries on now. My children, now grown, learned the traditions of Chanukah in the nursery school, in classrooms full of children who celebrate the holiday as well.
Chanukah for me, for my family, and for the children in the nursery school is no secret mission. It is an open, proud, and joyous celebration—a holiday shared and celebrated with community.
