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Another Hanukka Song

I started writing this on Dec 16, 2023 after Saturday Night Live reprised Adam Sandler's Hanukka song on the 7th night of Hanukka 2023. His song versions featured show biz people , a few sports stars, but legal eagles were notably absent.

My lyrics are not intended to denigrate anyone's religion, but just to join Sandler in celebrating the cultural aspects of Hanukka

I probably should add that there are 3 ways to be "Jewish" = (a) by ancestry, especially through maternal line (b) culturally, or (c) by religious belief (ranging from ultraorthodox to ultra-Reform or Reconstructionist). thus some who consider themselves "Jewish" are only so in (a) and/or (b) senses, being otherwise secular.

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Another Hanukka Song

by Pam Green, copyright Dec 16, 2023

introduction by Adam Sandler, in 1994 on Saturday Night Live :
Chanukah is the festival of lights
Instead of one day of presents, we have eight crazy nights
When you feel like the only kid in town without a Christmas tree
Here's a list of people who are Jewish just like you and me :

but now to update it with non show biz Jews :

Ruth Bader Ginsburg lights the Menorah
So does Elena Kagan
But not Sotomayor-ah

Louis D Brandeis, appointed by FDR as first SCOTUS Jew.
followed by Frankfurter , Cardozo , Goldberg and Breyer too

Abe Fortas resigned for his ethical boo-boo
(We've got a much worse gonif now, but he's not a Jew too)

(spoken) you don't need to be religious to enjoy Hanukka.

you don't even need to be culturally or ancestrally Jewish)

you don't need to wear a yamulka

to celebrate Hanukkah
don't need a funny hat
don't need a Bar or Bat

you can love the cultural traditions
without buying into the religious superstitions

like Cosmos' secular Carl Sagan
atheist like non-Jew Junior Reagan

so celebrate Hanukkah, but don't play a harmonica
unless you're Bobby Zimmerman, Nobel Prize winner,
come gather 'round people for my ham and mac-cheese dinner.

so celebrate Hanukkah, but don't drink gin and tonic-ka
or smoke legal marijuan-ica then drive your car in Santa Monica

celebrate Hanukkah without religious shlock
but you can spin the dreidle with Captain Kirk and Mr Spock.

footnotes :

President Obama invited RBG to celebrate Hanukkah at the White House with him in 2011, so maybe she DID light the menorah on that occasion.

RGB was imbued early in life with the Jewish concepts and duties of tikkun olam (repairing the world) and tzedk, tzedk, tirodof (Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue)

Jimmy Carter was the first US president to recognize Hanukkah with a menorah lighting in 1979. He is also the President who appointed RBG to the DC Circuit Court, thus putting her on the path to being appointed to SCOTUS by Bill Clinton.

It's possible that Sonya Sotomayor might, just might, have some Spanish Jewish ancestry from way back when Queen Isabella evicted all Jews from Spain, giving them the choice to leave or convert (to Catholicism), or be killed. Quite a few stayed, publically converting and practicing as Catholics, but privately at home remaining practicing Jews.

The reference to Santa Monica refers to the Tom Lehrer song "I'm Spending Hanukka in Santa Monica"

in version 2, Sandler did include Bob Dylan "was born a Jew, then he wasn't, but now he's back"

in v 3, Figure Skating "gold medalist Sarah Hughes‹her mama's Jewish" (thererfore she would be counted as Jewish, because in Jewish law it's the mother who counts)

in part 4 he includes Jesus (born Jewish, remember ?) , and "The two guys who founded Google" (Larry Page and Sergey Brin), and "Ice Cream's Ben & Jerry "

surprisingly none of the 4 versions include Barbra Streisand. her Her Jewish grandparents emigrated from Galicia (Poland/Ukraine) and Russia; and she is on record as considering Jewishness essential to her identity.

the Wikipedia page on all 4 versions and spoofs thereof is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chanukah_Song

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site author Pam Green	copyright 2003
Pam's e-mail address has changed	tips on site use
created 12/16/2023	revised 12/29/2023
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