The Festival of Lights: Hanukkah Stories From Across the Nation

HANUKKAH -- December 3, 2010 at 10:34 AM EDT

The Festival of Lights: Hanukkah Stories From Across the Nation

Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday that celebrates the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem, began on Wednesday. The Festival of Lights lasts eight days. Below we highlight some of the stories about the holiday from public media outlets around the nation:

NPR celebrated the 20th anniversary of its "Hanukkah Lights" series this year. It features specially commissioned stories about the holiday, narrated this year by NPR's Susan Stamberg and Murray Horwitz. [Via NPR]

A New York man who designs "high-concept" dreidels, four-sided spinning tops, shares the story behind the art of the dreidel. [Via WNYC]

PBS Parents' Kitchen Explorers provides a recipe for Sweet Potato Pancakes (Hanukkah Latkes) that kids can join in on making. [Via PBS Parents]

A Georgia woman tells the story of her family recipe for burekas, a fried or baked pastry filled with meat, cheese, or vegetables that originated in Turkey and the Mideast. [Via GPB]

A rabbi writes for ' Krista Tippett on Being' about her fear that sending her son to school with gelt (chocolate coins traditionally used when playing with dreidels) might perpetuate negative stereoptypes of Jews. [ Via American Public Media ]

[Ed. note: This was incorrectly attributed to 'This I Believe.' In fact, it is from Krista Tippet's On Being We regret the error]

NPR White House Correspondent Ari Shapiro sings "Ocho Kandelikas" or "Eight Little Candles" to get listeners in the mood for Hanukkah. [Via NPR]

Musician Ben Kweller shares his Hanukkah playlist. [Via The Takeaway ]

PRX compiled their own 'Hanukkah playlist' of radio stories from a wide variety of sources, including the CBC and the Yiddish Radio Project. [Via PRX ]

And finally, the tough question. How DO you spell Hanukkah anyways? [Via WBEZ ]

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