Hanukkah celebrations and stories from around the world

Be'chol Lashon/In Every Tongue is an organization offering educational resources and programs highlighting the diversity of Jewish customs and practices around the world. They offer here eight bits about Hanukkah as it is practiced by diverse Jewish communities: Chanukah around the World: 8 Ways to Celebrate.

Another custom is practiced in Italy and Yemen--reading a book called Megillat Antiochus.

For more resources on Hanukkah around the world:
Be'chol Lashon: Educational Resources: Holidays: Chanukah

Actual color photo of Bukharan Jews from a Century Ago

A hundred years ago, a color photo was almost always one that had been hand-tinted (painted). I said "almost always" for a reason. In August, the Boston Globe published an amazing series of actual color photos taken between 1909 and 1912, surveying the Russian Empire. They are truly amazing. Image 16 of the ones published by the Globe shows a rabbi and students in Samarkand, the heart of the Bukharan Jewish community.

A group of Jewish children with a teacher in Samarkand, (in modern Uzbekistan), ca. 1910. Google Map, (Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/LOC) #

To see the rest of the photos, click here:
Russia in color, a century ago - The Big Picture - Boston.com

To learn more about the Uzbek, or Bukharan Jews, see: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Bukharan_Jews.html.

Thanks to Jodi Paley for bringing these amazing photos to my attention!

PA adopts textbook, banned in Israel, offering both sides' narratives - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

PA adopts textbook, banned in Israel, offering both sides' narratives - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News