Editing Hanukkah (section)

=== Foods ===
[[File:Classic Hanukkah sufganiyot.JPG|thumb|[[Sufganiyot]]/[[doughnut]]s filled with strawberry jelly]]
There is a custom of eating foods fried or baked in oil (preferably [[olive oil]]) to commemorate the miracle of a small flask of oil keeping the [[Second Temple]]'s [[Menorah (Temple)|Menorah]] alight for eight days.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pjvoice.com/v7/7900food.html |title=Chanukah is upon us |publisher=The Philadelphia Jewish Voice |date=7 January 2006 |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref> Traditional foods include [[potato pancake]]s, known as ''[[Latke|latkes]]'' in [[Yiddish language|Yiddish]], especially among [[Ashkenazi Jews|Ashkenazi]] families. Sephardi, [[History of Jews in Poland|Polish]], and [[Israeli Jews|Israeli]] families eat jam-filled [[doughnut]]s ({{langx|yi|פּאָנטשקעס}} ''[[Pączki|pontshkes]]''), [[Buñuelos|bimuelos]] (fritters) and [[sufganiyot]] which are [[Deep frying|deep-fried]] in oil. [[Italkim]] and [[Hungarian Jews]] traditionally eat cheese pancakes known as "cassola" or "[[cheese latkes]]".<ref>{{cite news |last=Nathan |first=Joan |date=12 December 2006 |title=Hanukkah Q&A |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/12/dining/13hanukkahqa.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref>

Latkes are not popular in Israel, having been largely replaced by sufganiyot due to local economic factors, convenience and the influence of trade unions.<ref>{{cite web |author=Jeffay, Nathan |title=Why Israel is a latke-free zone |url=https://www.thejc.com/lifestyle/food/why-israel-is-a-latke-free-zone-1.13067 |work=thejc.com |date=17 December 2009}}</ref> Bakeries in Israel have popularized many new types of fillings for ''sufganiyot'' besides the traditional strawberry jelly filling, including chocolate cream, vanilla cream, caramel, cappuccino and others.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gur |first=Jana |year=2008 |title=The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey |publisher=Schocken |pages=238–243 |isbn=978-0-8052-1224-2 }}</ref> In recent years, downsized, "mini" sufganiyot containing half the calories of the regular, 400-to-600-calorie version, have become popular.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.jpost.com/Arts-and-Culture/Love-me-dough |title=Love Me Dough |last1=Minsberg |first1=Tali |last2=Lidman |first2=Melanie |date=10 December 2009 |access-date=6 October 2018 |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post}}</ref>

[[File:LatkeFry.JPG|thumb|Potato [[latke]] frying in hot [[olive oil]].]]
Rabbinic literature also records a tradition of eating cheese and other dairy products during Hanukkah.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article_cdo/aid/103095/jewish/Why-All-the-Oil-and-Cheese.htm |title= Why All the Oil and Cheese (and Potatoes)? |last=Soloveitchik |first=Benyamina |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref> This custom, as mentioned above, commemorates the heroism of [[Book of Judith|Judith]] during the Babylonian captivity of the Jews and reminds us that women also played an important role in the events of Hanukkah.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article_cdo/aid/103019/jewish/The-Story-of-Yehudit.htm |title= The Story of Yehudit: The Woman Who Saved the Day |website=Chabad.org |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref> The [[deuterocanonical]] book of Judith (Yehudit or Yehudis in Hebrew), which is not part of the [[Tanakh]], records that [[Holofernes]], an Assyrian general, had surrounded the village of Bethulia as part of his campaign to conquer Judea. After intense fighting, the water supply of the Jews was cut off and the situation became desperate. Judith, a pious widow, told the city leaders that she had a plan to save the city. Judith went to the Assyrian camps and pretended to surrender. She met Holofernes, who was smitten by her beauty. She went back to his tent with him, where she plied him with cheese and wine. When he fell into a drunken sleep, Judith beheaded him and escaped from the camp, taking the severed head with her (the [[Judith Beheading Holofernes|beheading of Holofernes by Judith]] has historically been a popular theme in art). When Holofernes' soldiers found his corpse, they were overcome with fear; the Jews, on the other hand, were emboldened and launched a successful counterattack. The town was saved, and the Assyrians defeated.<ref>[[Mishna Berurah]] 670:2:10</ref>

[[Roast goose]] has historically been a traditional Hanukkah food among Eastern European and American Jews, although the custom has declined in recent decades.<ref>
* {{cite book |title=Eat and be Satisfied: A Social History of Jewish Food |last=Cooper |first=John |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-87668-316-3 |publisher=[[Jason Aronson]] |page=192 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ld7fuK6peH8C}}
* {{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/23/garden/hanukkah-s-a-coming-geese-are-getting-fat.html |title=Hanukkah's a-Coming: Geese Are Getting Fat |last=Fabricant |first=Florence |work=The New York Times |date=23 November 1994 |access-date=6 October 2018}}
* {{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/24/opinion/goose-a-hanukkah-tradition.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/24/opinion/goose-a-hanukkah-tradition.html |archive-date=2022-01-01 |url-access=limited |title=Goose: A Hanukkah Tradition |last=Yoskowitz |first=Jeffrey |work=The New York Times |date=24 December 2016 |access-date=6 October 2018}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

[[Indian Jews]] traditionally consume [[gulab jamun]], fried dough balls soaked in a sweet syrup, similar to [[teiglach]] or [[bimuelos]], as part of their Hanukkah celebrations. 

[[Italian Jews]] eat fried chicken, cassola (a ricotta cheese latke almost similar to a cheesecake), and ''fritelle de riso par Hanukkah'' (a fried sweet rice pancake). 

[[Romanian Jews]] eat [[pasta latke]]s as a traditional Hanukkah dish.

[[Syrian Jews]] consume [[Kibbet Yatkeen]], a dish made with pumpkin and bulgur wheat similar to [[latkes]], as well as their own version of [[keftes de prasa]] spiced with allspice and cinnamon.<ref>{{cite web |title=8 Foods You Didn't Know Jews Eat During Hanukkah |url=https://forward.com/scribe/356515/8-foods-you-didnt-know-jews-eat-during-hanukkah/ |website=My Jewish Learning |date=8 December 2016 |access-date=8 December 2019}}</ref>