charitable giving
On the ‘Festival of Lights,’
an Opportunity to Give Back
Sarah Ogince | Special to the JE
H eard of the Squishmallow? Quirky,
cuddly and only $25 a pop, it appears
on just about every one of the “must
have” gift lists that thoughtful retailers
have compiled to inspire children and
strike fear into the hearts of their parents.

The season of spending is upon us.

But if the idea of shopping for
Chanukah gifts this year fills you with
an extra measure of dread, you’re not
alone. Rising prices on basic staples have
left American consumers with a mild
aversion to malls: More than half say
they will buy fewer gifts this year due to
inflation, according to a recent survey by
coupon aggregator Retail Me Not.

Instead of opting for generic brands
and smaller quantities, perhaps it’s a
good opportunity to revive a time-hon-
ored Jewish tradition — Chanukah
gelt, which, in its original form, made
the “Festival of Lights” a holiday to
strengthen the bonds of community and
to give without the expectation to receive.

Chanukah gelt first emerged in
18th-century Eastern Europe, but the
money wasn’t for children: “Teachers
would be tipped or paid then, proba-
bly in keeping with the etymological
link between Chanukah (‘dedication’)
and chinuch (‘education’),” said Eliezer
Segal, professor emeritus of classics and
religion at the University of Calgary.

From there, the custom morphed into an
all-out charity bonanza. Chanukah gelt
“tours” — when teachers, cantors, bea-
dles and even butchers would go house
to house accepting donations — appear
frequently in early Chasidic stories.

The custom also made its way into
Sephardic communities. Segal noted that
in pre-state Jerusalem, yeshivah teachers
would walk through the Jewish Quarter
on Chanukah singing Ladino songs and
collecting contributions.

It was only in the 19th century that gelt
was given by parents to children. Though
no one is sure why the switch occurred,
mass immigration and outside influences
played a role. “In America, the need to com-
pete with Christmas presents is, of course, a
decisive factor in popularizing the practice,”
Segal said. Along with this new incarnation
of the custom came its now more famil-
iar chocolate counterpart, a 20th-century
Jewish riff on the chocolate Santa.

Today, Chanukah gelt is embraced by
those eager to avoid the consumerism of
the holiday season. And as an alternative
to the Xbox, it certainly caries signifi-
cant educational value. Children can be
encouraged to save or to spend on books
and other meaningful purchases, and to
give a tenth of their haul to charity, as
Jewish law stipulates.

But in keeping with the original spirit of
gelt, Chanukah is also a time to give out-
side the home. They may not be knocking
on the door or singing songs outside the
window, but there are many charities in
the Philadelphia area that provide essen-
tial support to Jewish children.

“Contrary to the trivialized Hollywood
or Borscht-belt portrayals, Chanukah is
an adult holiday devoted to themes of
struggle, freedom, miracles and wor-
ship,” Segal said.

Treats and gifts are a good way to get
the kids involved, but they shouldn’t be
allowed to overshadow the deeper values
at the heart of the holiday. Chanukah
gelt developed long after the Maccabees
waged their unlikely struggle against the
Greeks, but its focus on tradition and
strengthening the institutions that per-
petuate it is something they would have
recognized. The Squishmallow is not. JE
Sarah Ogince is a freelance writer.

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arts & culture
Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
P hiladelphia may not have seen
its first snow of the season, but
December brings with it winter
in earnest, including the shortest
days of the year.

While a 4:30 p.m. sunset might
mean an earlier Shabbat, it also
brings the onset of seasonal
affective disorder and the win-
ter doldrums. To relieve the cold
weather scaries, artists and galler-
ies around the city are putting on
exhibits that bring levity and light
to their spaces and audiences.

The Jewish Exponent rounded
up a few options for gallery view-
ings and events to add a little
brightness to your day or weekend:
Old City Jewish Art Center’s
“Light” ture the works of Elkins Park artist
Ursula Sternberg, who immigrated
to Philadelphia after fleeing Nazi
Germany. While much of the exhibit will
feature Sternberg’s figure drawing
and textile work, Sternberg perhaps
made her biggest impact in the
Philadelphia art community off the
canvas as one of InLiquid’s first
members and creator of a mak-
er’s space in the 1990s. She hosted
drawing classes for the community.

While the exhibit doesn’t
directly address the themes of lev-
ity and light like OCJAC does,
Sternberg’s approach to her art
represented, in part, escapism and
One of Ursula Sternberg’s pieces on display as part
expansiveness that some audience
of InLiquid’s “Ursula Sternberg: Daydream”
members may look for in dark
times. Congregation Beth Or’s Olitsky
Much of Sternberg’s art appeared in
The Old City Jewish Art Center kicked
off its December exhibit with the theme
of “Light” on Dec. 2, but the exhibit
will continue for the rest of the month.

The exhibit will feature several art-
ists who previously contributed to
OCJAC and will explore “the compo-
nents of light in practical terms and
spiritual meaning, connecting it with
Chanukah,” OCJAC Executive Director
Rabbi Zalman Wircberg said.

As with OCJAC’s other themes,
“Light” will draw on Jewish themes
to promote a universal message, inter-
preted across different mediums and
from Jewish and non-Jewish artists.

Artist Bonita Wagner will feature her
piece “Dahlia II,” a large charcoal drawing
that stretches about 5 feet. In the center, a
black and white dahlia flower blooms.

“All of the subjects that I work with,
when I draw them, I focus on how light
interacts with them, with bouncing
off of the surfaces of the flowers, with
how those flowers absorb the light and
reflect it back,” Wagner said.

Charcoal lends itself well to the
theme of “Light,” as Wagner uses the
medium to carve out delicate petals
and leaves that appear almost translu-
cent between thick and weighty char-
coal shapes.

Gallery On Dec. 9 at 8:45 p.m. following Kabbalat
Shabbat services, Congregation Beth
Or in Maple Glen will host an open-
ing reception for its newest exhibit at
its Olitsky Gallery featuring the art of
Elissa Goldberg.

Goldberg will display about 30 pastel
landscapes, many of which are scenes
from the beach.

“Her landscapes seem to be just
so evocative, just so dreamy and just
someplace you would love to be,” gal-
lery curator Karen Liebman said.

Similar to the charcoal of Wagner’s
works, pastel also creates brightness and
contrast that are effective at conveying
light and reflection with what Goldberg
calls “the immediacy of color.”
A lawyer by trade, Goldberg uses art
as an escape and can see her audience
doing the same.

“It’s just freeing because these large
swaths of color that you can just create
the scene as opposed to a lot of fine
detail. ... It’s more liberating,” she said.

“Ursula Sternberg: Daydream”
at InLiquid
InLiquid’s gallery in the Olde
Kensington neighborhood
of Philadelphia frequently exhibits local
Jewish artists, and their exhibit open-
ing on Dec. 10 will posthumously fea-
her home, with nearly every exterior
covered in her creations.

“We’ve seen photos of her house in
Chestnut Hill; it’s like literally every
surface of her home, she made it her
own,” InLiquid Program Director
Clare Finin said. “And I think she was
building a world for herself — a beauti-
ful world for herself and one where she
was safe.”
Finin suggested that Sternberg’s
escapist approach to her art and home
was a byproduct of the instability and
danger that pervaded her life. This
balance can be seen in the InLiquid
exhibit. “A lot of her works kind of undulate
between there being a kind of poetic
sadness, but also a humorous beauty,”
Finin said. JE
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Courtesy of InLiquid
Art Galleries Focus on Levity,
Light for December Exhibits