Dabu and Sufganiot: An Ethiopian-Israeli Celebration of the Festival of Lights

Amram remembers his first celebration of Hannukah, which took place just a few months after his immigration to Israel in 1980: "It was joyous. I was ten years old. Every night, for eight nights, the staff of the Absorption Center would gather all the new immigrants, parents and children, around an accordion player. We made menorahs, spun dreidls and lit candles."

The first-time excitement of lighting the menorah at home had its drawbacks, he jokingly added. "We were scared we would burn the caravan down!"

Mati also fondly recalls his first experience with the holiday. He celebrated his first-ever Hannukah after his long, treacherous journey to Israel by foot in 1956, at the age of eleven: "It was fun and exciting for a child. It was so new – everything was new."

Amram and Mati, like most of the 85,000 members of the Ethiopian community in Israel, had never celebrated nor heard of the Festival of Lights prior to their move to Israel. While the Ethiopian community's rich Jewish heritage includes most of the same holidays celebrated by Jews around the world, the Jewish community there has many unique customs for these holidays, and did not celebrate certain festivals, such as Hannukah, that are regularly celebrated by other Jewish communities.

The probable reasons Hannukah is not celebrated by the Jewish community in Ethiopia highlight the uniqueness of this community: one explanation is that the events commemorated by the holiday occurred after the community had already left the Land of Israel for Ethiopia. Due to their centuries-long isolation from the remainder of the global Jewish community, this festival was therefore not part of their tradition.

Another potential reason is that the story of the Hannukah miracle was adopted by Ethiopia's Christian Coptic Church, a form of Christianity that incorporates a variety of elements of Jewish tradition into its Christian practice. The story of Hannukah being told in churches throughout Ethiopia may have distanced the local Jewish community from the celebration of the holiday as its own, in their effort to maintain their independent, Jewish identity.

In Israel, it is through the Ethiopian community's children that the adults of the community learn about the Festival of Lights. Forty-plus years after his aliya and his first Hannukah experience, Mati, now director of JDC's Aleh leadership program, explains:

"Children learn about the holiday in kindergarten and in school, and bring it home. They ask their parents to buy the traditional Israeli Hannukah doughnuts (sufganiot), they bring hand-made menorahs home, and teach their parents how many candles to light on each night, and the blessings."

Many more children than in years past will be experiencing Hannukah for the first time with thanks to the PACT (Parents and Children Together) program. PACT, carried out by JDC in partnership with American Federations, ensures the placement of children in early childhood frameworks, and involves the children's parents in the program's activities. Last year, over 5,000 children and 2,100 parents in nine Israeli cities celebrated Hannukah through the PACT program.

Partly as a result of JDC's efforts to strengthen local leadership and to encourage early education of Ethiopian-Israeli children, more and more of the community's families are celebrating Hannukah for the first time.

"Last year, Aleh arranged a Hannukah celebration in Ramla, for and by the community. For most of the adults, it was their first celebration of the festival. Over a hundred parents and children attended. We sang traditional Hannukah songs, as well as songs in Amharic. Members of the community baked dabu, a traditional challah-like bread, so the kess, a spiritual leader of the community, could make a blessing. We can't bless sufganiot, nor would most of the adults eat them!" noted Mati.

The members of the Ethiopian-Israeli community enjoy this combination of Ethiopian and Israeli Jewish culture.

"The parents have welcomed the holiday in their home. They see it as being good for their children and family. At the same time, they probably wouldn't celebrate it were it not for their children – it is not part of their tradition, and tradition plays a heavy role in the community."