Christmas and Hanukkah celebrations overlapped at the Salvation Army in Miami. NBC6’s Ari Odzer reports
There was a kitchen staff takeover at the Salvation Army in Miami today.
It wasn’t a mutiny, it was all by design. Jewish volunteers prepared the food and served the clients.
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“This is braised beef brisket,” said Chef Gary Lampner, showing us what he was cooking up.
So where was that brisket going?
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“On top of the potato pancakes, on top of the latkes,” he said.
They are serving Hanukkah potato pancakes at the Salvation Army on Christmas Day. That is a true holiday mashup, a mishmash of traditions.
“And we’re very happy to produce a wonderful meal for the residents,” Lampner said.
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Every Christmas, volunteers from the Greater Miami Jewish Federation cook and serve the meals, allowing the Salvation Army staff to celebrate Christmas at home. The volunteers include Rabbi Jonathan Berkun of the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center.
“These holidays often coincide in the December months but it’s rare that the first candle of Hanukkah falls on Christmas Day this year, December 25th, and I think it’s an invitation for us to recognize how much we as fellow human beings have in common while we maintain our own distinct sense of identity and our own individual faith traditions,” Berkun said.
The Hanukkah story has different aspects and often, current events dictate which part of the tale is most meaningful. A small Jewish militia led by the Maccabees overthrew the oppressive, occupying Greek regime and these days, Israel has been fighting wars it did not start, wars of survival on several fronts.
“And I think that many of us look to the time of the Maccabees, which is a little more than a 2,000-year-old story of the victory of the few against the many and we hope that soon, maybe in this coming year, that we will see peace again in that region for Israel and for all of her neighbors,” Berkun said.
