In a culinary confusion that would make any Jewish grandmother clutch her pearls, The New York Times' word puzzle Strands managed to turn Hanukkah into a smorgasbord of random Jewish dishes - and couldn't even spell the holiday right.
Sunday's puzzle, themed "Hannukah Foods" (yes, they misspelled that), threw together a mishmash of Jewish dishes that had about as much connection to Hanukkah as bagels do to Yom Kippur. The Times listed challah bread, brisket, and kugel as holiday foods, apparently missing the memo that these are year-round Jewish staples rather than festival-specific dishes.
"Just commonly eaten Jewish foods which are actually associated with Shabbat," sighed Rand Levin of Congregation Beth Sholom, an Orthodox synagogue in Lawrence, NY. His "thanks for the stereotyping" response suggested this wasn't quite the holiday gift the Times was hoping to deliver.
The mix-up was so comedically off-base it reminded people of the Seinfeld episode "The Fatigues," where a Jewish singles event menu went full mishegoss with its food choices. Life, apparently, does imitate art.
Broadway Museum GM Elie Landau couldn't help but wonder if the Times was working from a "Jewish Food Greatest Hits" compilation. "I was only surprised that one of the words wasn't 'matzoh,'" he quipped.
While some defenders pointed out that Hanukkah has more spelling variations than a deli has pickle varieties, critics maintained the real issue was the Times turning the festival of lights into a festival of "whatever Jewish food we could think of."
The Times has since corrected the spelling to "Hanukkah," though their holiday menu still reads like someone raided every Jewish holiday's cookbook at once. At least they didn't suggest serving latkes with matzah ball soup - yet.
JNS contributed to this article.
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