Chanukkah on Campus: Pimp My Menorah

This is the first time since I started college that I’m living in an apartment where I’m allowed to light candles, and so don’t have a problem with Chanukkah. But there’s a great article at the Washington Post about how most college students can’t light their own chanukiot because of dorm rules:

It's a common puzzle for rabbis on campus this time of year: how to observe the holiday without breaking school rules. Hanukkah, a Jewish holiday, is celebrated by lighting a menorah each night. What many schools, including American, have done is create a public lighting ceremony that lets students enjoy the holiday -- without torching the dorms.

"It definitely bothers students to not be able to light" menorahs, said Rabbi Eli Backman, director of the Chabad group at the University of Maryland. It's a "tricky little situation. Every year, we've dealt with it differently, trying to find ways to make it work."

I Would Like Christmas More: if it involved more pimping

 On Tuesday, the first night of the eight-night holiday, Strauss-Benjamin held a lighted candle to a menorah in a dormitory common room while a crowd of students sang. The menorah, on a sheet of foil stretched over an overhead projector cart, glowed brightly. A university staff member and a rabbi were there to keep an eye on things at the "Pimp My Menorah" night, at which students were invited to decorate their own menorahs with glitter and paint. Strauss-Benjamin wasn't able to light the menorah with her family back home in Tarrytown, N.Y., "but this is my college family," she said.

That type of lighting is not ideal, said Mindy Hirsch, associate director of American University Hillel, but they're trying to turn a negative into a positive, bringing the campus's Jewish community together.

For some students, it was the beginning of a great new tradition, celebrating with friends at a party. Others switched to an electric menorah without a second thought. And some, like a few of the students at the AU party, said they were still planning to light the candles in their rooms and hope to not get busted.

It's all part of the transition to college life and independence, learning to adapt traditions from home to a new place, Backman said. So observant Jewish students learn to ask for keys to their dorms rather than use electronic swipe cards so they avoid using electricity on the Sabbath, and take fall exams early so they can go home for the High Holidays. Muslims find quiet places to pray during the day, sometimes using hallways outside of classrooms. And Christians learn to choose a church and congregation they're comfortable with, or hang a crucifix in the midst of the chaos of posters in a dorm room.

But Jewish students who grew up lighting the candles at home, Hirsch said, "miss that."

Full story

You know what, who even cares what the article says after it mentions ‘Pimp My Menorah’? Fuckin A!