Chanukah Cheer

The Golden Dreydl WHYY celebrates the Festival of Lights with recipes, music and more
By Jennifer Fletcher

Join WHYY on Friday, November 29 to celebrate the beginning of Chanukah.

Learn how to prepare new and traditional holiday dishes and sing along to musical celebrations on TV12, and gather with family and friends to learn about the history of Chanukah and listen to a classic holiday story on 91FM (90.9).

On TV12, New Jewish Cuisine chef Jeffrey Nathan prepares classic holiday dishes, such as briskets, potato latkes and challah zeppoles. 12:30 p.m.

In a special Jacques Pépin Celebrates, Jacques and Claudine join with family and friends to celebrate the Jewish "Festival of Lights" with a light, French-inspired Chanukah dinner menu. 1 p.m.

Broadway and film star Theodore Bikel hosts A Taste of Chanukah, a celebration of the rich cultural traditions of the Jewish feast of Chanukah. Musicians from the New England Conservatory of Music and the Boston Community Gospel Choir, led by Hankus Netsky, perform a range of songs, from 1940s swing to traditional versions of well-known songs and prayers, children’s songs and special arrangements. 2 p.m.

Peter Yarrow, Israeli singer Chava Alberstein and New York’s the Klezmatics perform classic and contemporary Jewish music in English, Hebrew and Yiddish in Voices: A Musical Celebration, an evening of passion, reflection and joy at Germany’s New Synagogue. 3 p.m.

On 91FM, WHYY’s Robin Bloom explores the history behind the food, games and gifts of Chanukah and the true meaning of the "Festival of Lights" in What is Chanukah? The program includes interviews with Dr. Dan Gottlieb, host of WHYY-FM’s Voices in the Family; actors Adam Sandler, Lisa Kudrow and Gwyneth Paltrow; religious writer Rabbi Lawrence Kushner and his wife Karen; and Philadelphia broadcaster Larry Kane. 1 p.m.

In The Golden Dreydl: A Klezmer "Nutcracker," a little girl who despises the annual family Chanukah party is catapulted into a magical world of demons and fools, sorcerers and sages when a mysterious party guest gives her a golden dreydl. Written and performed by Sound & Spirit host Ellen Kushner, the story features unique adaptations of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite performed by the popular Shirim Klezmer Orchestra. 2 p.m.