curated by Rabbi Phil Cohen
plus The Meaning of Hanukkah!

Videos:
Mayim Bialik on Hanukkah.  Informative and funny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYeg7QbGR7E

Shmelf the Hanukkah Elf.  A Santa’s elf learns about Hanukkah.
Perhaps a bit of a stretch, as Santa has a role, but it’s nice, a bit funny, and written in the style of Dr. Seuss.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HIQzZC1ejA

The Story of Hanukkah.  A short and mostly kind of accurate rendering of the story. For young kids.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYiTm6fbOLs

A Sesame Street Hanukkah. Very cute.  The animation looks like the old Rocky and Bullwinkle show, and the voices sound like the old cartoon show, too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VfChLAADS8

How to Play Dreidl. An essential skill.  I once knew someone who was unclear about the rules and he lost his house to a dreidl shark!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m7PKnhWEl0

Adam Sandler’s Hanukkah song. A bit outdated, alas, but the message remains clear, and it’s pretty funny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX5Z-HpHH9g

Here’s another version of the Adam Sandler song, updated names of Jews, many I don’t recognize.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YSOZP_M6eM

Woody Guthrie, married to a Jewish woman (Arlo’s bar mitzvah was conducted by Meir Kahane), wrote a bunch of Hanukkah songs.  This video has two such. Not bad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db-4ih0_0No

The Klezmatics singing Hanukkah Gelt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYwE8Wob1os

The Maccabeats.  If you don’t know of these guys, they’re a bunch of Yeshiva University guys who around ten years ago got together as a mostly a cappella group.  Here are a few of their Hanukah songs:

I Have a Little Dreidl. A pretty hip version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgywrSo4o3c

A Hamilton Hanukkah
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3UubcYj49k

A Queen Hanukkah.  If you like Queen this one’s fun a la mode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P30ckBf1wk

All About That Neis (miracle)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wi1H3UnKhk

Itzhak Perlman’s Chanukah Radio Party
https://www.wnyc.org/story/itzhak-perlmans-chanukah-radio-party/

Learning:
A very interesting Hanukkah lecture by Israeli historian Isaiah Gafni about real history of the period in which the Maccabean wars take place. A tad academic, but well delivered and quite interesting.  Thanks to Ben Trachtenberg.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p2IYPssktA

A brief primer on Hanukkah from My Jewish Learning.com
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/hanukkah-2020-2/

And a bit of everything from the Union for Reform Judaism
https://reformjudaism.org/jewish-holidays/hanukkah

Hanukkah Books Available at DBRL
It’s Hanukkah! (Jeanne Modesitt)
A Hanukkah Holiday Cookbook (Emily Raabe)
Hanukkah Moon (Deborah da Costa)
The Best Hanukkah Ever (Barbara Diamond Goldin)
Hanukkah, Shmanukkah! (Esme Raji Codell)
Mrs. Greenberg’s Messy Hanukkah (Linda Glaser)
Herschel and the Hanukkah Goblins (Eric A Kimmel)
All-of-a-kind Family Hanukkah (Emily Jenkins)
Daddy Christmas and Hanukkah Mama (Selina Alko)
Nonna’s Hanukkah Surprise (Karen Fisman)
Moishe’s Miracle (Laura Krauss Melmed)