Hanukkah Doughnuts (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between donuts and sufganiyot? ›

Traditionally, they were fried in lard which sets them apart from sufganiyot, which are fried in oil. What is the difference between a yeast doughnut and a regular doughnut? The difference between a yeast doughnut and other types of doughnuts is how they are leavened.

Sufganiyah (Hebrew: סופגנייה or סופגניה, Hebrew: [ˌsufɡaniˈja]; pl. : sufganiyot, Hebrew: סופגניות, Hebrew: [ˌsufɡaniˈjot], or in Yiddish pontshke פּאָנטשקע) is a round jelly doughnut eaten in Israel and around the world on the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

We do have Hanukkah doughnuts at select locations we can check for you.

These potato pancakes (called latkes) are meant to symbolize the miracle of Hanukkah, when the oil of the menorah in the ransacked Second Temple of Jerusalem was able to stay aflame for eight days even though there was only enough oil for one day. The symbolism comes in the form of the oil in which latkes are fried.

Its name derives from the Yiddish word beygal from the German dialect word beugel, meaning 'ring' or 'bracelet'.

Yiddish speakers might wish each other “Ah Freilichin Hanukkah,” (a cheerful Hanukkah) or my favorite Hanukkah salutation, “A Lichtiger Hanukkah,” which means a bright, brilliant, luminous Hanukkah.

The dreidel game is one of the most famous Hanukkah traditions. It was created as a way for Jews to study the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. Christians call these the Old Testament. It was also a way to learn Hebrew, the language of the Jewish people.

In the early 1920s, when immigration to the land of Israel was reaching its peak, immigrant Jews wanted to find a new food with which to honor Hanukkah. Enter the sufganiyah, the jelly-filled doughnut.

In Israel, the sweet smell of jelly-filled donuts radiates from every street corner, and we know it's sufganiyah (סופגניה) season. About 80% of Israelis will eat at least one sufganiyah during the week of Chanukkah, with the average Israeli eating about four over the holiday.

A paczki (pronounced poonch-key) is a jelly donut that's served on Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday.

What do the fried Hanukkah foods symbolize? ›

Fried foods are an important part of the traditional Hanukkah dinner because they represent the small amount of oil that miraculously burned for 8 days instead of just one when the Jews rededicated the Temple after overcoming oppression.

Those coins signified appreciative, though modest, compensation for dedication to Jewish education (also a play on the Hebrew words for education and the holiday). Around that time, too, chocolate arrived in Europe from the Western Hemisphere as a drink.

About 80% of Israelis will eat at least one sufganiyah during the week of Chanukkah, with the average Israeli eating about four over the holiday.