Get Outta Town
Continued from Page 16
Some trace the Jewish-cooking renaissance to the rebirth of the
storied 2nd Avenue Deli a few years back, when the murdered
founder’s nephews reopened the shuttered kosher icon in two new
locations. Also branching out is Russ and Daughters, which celebrated
its first hundred years by opening a much-heralded restaurant in 2014
that landed on many critics’ Best-of lists. Meanwhile, Jewish-inspired
bakeries like Sadelle’s in SoHo, which serves up treif like lobster salad
alongside appetizing classics, add a modern twist to a scene that still
venerates the old school, epitomized by Barney Greengrass, the Upper
West Side’s undisputed temple of smoked fish for over a century.

Which brings us to another reason to savor Jewish New York at
Chanukah: Fresh, innovative takes on tradition are now sprinkled
throughout the city rather than clustered downtown. You can bring
the kids to the Jewish Museum Chanukah Family Day celebration
on Dec. 14, then take your pick of pastrami at 2nd Avenue Deli
(which is actually on First Avenue) or the new Upper East Side out-
post of Pastrami Queen.

With an entire weekend…
How about latkes, Cajun-style? New Orleans lets the good times
roll for Chanukah, with candle-lighting by the Mississippi, spicy
latke cook-offs, and French Quarter festivities where Jewish classics
get a Southern spin. After all, what is a latke if not first cousin to a
hush puppy?
New Orleans offers plenty of opportunities to contemplate the
similarities this season. Start with a latke bar from local chef Daniel
Esses at “Latkes With a Twist” on Dec. 3, a community-wide party
sponsored by the Jewish Children’s Regional Service. It’s a chance to
kick off the holiday early with cocktails and music from Israeli soul
singer Eleanor Tallie at the sexy, candlelit Bellocq Bar.

Every year, an amateur latke-flipper shows his stuff against New
Orleans’s finest chefs at the Celebrity Chef Latke Cook-Off 4.0, held
each Chanukah at Chabad Uptown. Schmoozing, networking, flirting:
it’s all encouraged at this annual event for young Jewish professionals,
where home cooks can pick up latke-making tips from the pros over
beer and games.

There are more latkes at the Dec. 6 menorah lighting on the Span-
ish Plaza at Riverwalk, where the chanukiah lights shimmer across
the Mississippi River, and crowds gather for face-painting and live
music around a spectacular fountain. A decade ago, this waterfront
was a very different place, and the exuberant rebirth of New Orleans
— exemplified by the shiny new Riverwalk complex — is a modern
miracle worth celebrating on Chanukah. Chabad of Louisiana spon-
sors the party, with a special emphasis on children’s activities.

A more grown-up Chanukah spread — along with serious
foodie bragging rights — is to be had at Shaya, the much-touted
Israeli restaurant whose chef, Alon Shaya, was raised in Philadel-
phia. During the last week of December, Shaya will offer a fam-
ily-style, $65-per-person prix fixe Chanukah dinner that starts
with salmon caviar and caramelized oxtail jam for your latkes,
and ends with sufganiyot garnished with candied satsuma and
black tahini gelato.

Even after the eighth candle snuffs out, those latke bars go on.

There’s a last chance to light the menorah at “Chanukah in the
Quarter,” a Dec. 20 Latin-style fête for the 45-and-under set at
Evangeline. Cocktails, a latke bar, desserts and (of course) a meno-
rah lighting take place in the courtyard of this characteristic French
Quarter spot, sponsored by JNOLA, an organization for young
Jewish professionals.

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If you’re looking for a way to rationalize all this carb-loading,
take heart; nearly every holiday party in this town is a fundraiser
for charity. Those are calories for a cause.

…Or you could head West,
to the capital of holiday kitsch
Ugly sweaters and silly costumes — why should Christmas corner
the market on holiday kitsch? That’s the question asked by a lot of
San Francisco Jews, who celebrate Chanukah with the quirky, ironic
spirit that defines Bay Area culture.

You’ll find that spirit at nightspots around town, at events like
HANUCON, the Chanukah edition of the “Mazel Top!” Gay Jewish
cabaret series at SF Oasis — amazingly, it’s the Bay Area’s only gay
Jewish club night. Or at the Punchline Comedy Club on Dec. 15,
where “undercover” members of the tribe riff on their experiences
as Asian-American and African-American Jews in a show called
“You’re Funny, But You Don’t Look Jewish.”
Only in San Francisco would a nonreligious rock-music pro-
moter team up with Chabad to make Chanukah history. That’s ex-
actly what happened in 1975, when Chabad partnered with Bill Gra-
ham — who also happened to be a Holocaust survivor — to mount
a 25-foot-high menorah in downtown Union Square.

And that’s how San Francisco became the birthplace of the public
menorah-lighting movement. San Francisco designates the first
Sunday of Chanukah as Bill Graham Menorah Day, and the “Mama
Menorah” — so called for the legions of oversized public menorahs
it has spawned in cities across the globe — remains the heart of the
city’s Festival of Lights, drawing more than 5,000 people for latkes,
sufganiyot and singing.

A very different kind of Chanukah party takes place in San Jose,
where Jews who have always secretly coveted those bell-and-
elf-laced Christmas sweaters gather for the Ugly Chanukah Sweater
Party hosted by the Hillel of Silicon Valley. What qualifies a sweater
as ugly in a place as counterculture as San Francisco maybe a matter
of debate. But those looking to appropriate Christmas kitsch can
advance the Jewish argument over donuts and dreidel designs.

And if you land in San Francisco too late for Chanukah, but right
in time for Christmas? You’re in luck — just in time for the 23rd An-
nual Kung Pao Kosher Comedy, San Francisco’s longest-running com-
edy institution and a Christmas ritual for legions of irony-prone Jews.

From Christmas Eve to Boxing Day, choose either the dinner show
(early) or the cocktail show (late) at the New Asia Restaurant, for a
metaphysical sendup of the ultimate American Jewish holiday rite.

Celebrate a Modern Miracle:
Chanukah in Berlin
If Chanukah celebrates a long-ago miracle, what location could
be more fitting for the party then Berlin, the modern miracle of Eu-
ropean Jewish rebirth? Jewish life is flourishing in this least likely
of postwar burgs, fueled by newcomers from the former Soviet
Union and a more recent influx of Israelis, who have imported their
taste for nightlife to a city already humming with after-dark activity.

Even before the menorahs are lit, wintertime Berlin bathes in the
soft glow of candles flickering from the windows of cafés.

There is perhaps no Chanukah sight more indelible then the
massive chanukiah that illuminates the Brandenburg Gate, a land-
mark powerfully associated with the German state and the Nazi
regime. When Yoav Sapir, an Israeli-born tour guide who specializes
in Jewish heritage (berlinjewish.com), takes his visitors past that
site, he talks about the dramatic changes in German-Jewish status
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