Thanksgiving in Israel

Jerusalem blogger Brian Blum takes a look at celebrating Thanksgiving in Israel. I partook at a festive meal here many years ago, but - it just didn't feel right, and gave up on celebrating the holiday, for the "local customs," like, y'know, Shabbat:

Every year, just about this time of the month, I get a flurry of emails from friends and colleagues all with pretty much the same message. It goes something like this:

“Happy Thanksgiving, that is if you celebrate it over there…er, do you?”

So, what do immigrants from the U.S. to Israel do on the fourth Thursday of November? Well, for many years, we kept up the traditions of the old country. Together with a group of friends, we got together for a feast of turkey and stuffing, cranberry sauce (if we could find it in the stores…difficult but not impossible), and pumpkin pie.

As a slight twist, we made it an adult only dinner party, to contrast it from the weekly meal with guests that we already celebrated once a week with the whole family…you know, the one called Shabbat…

Read the rest.

More about lighting Shabbat candles.