wine and dine

For Jews from everywhere, a thanksgiving day

Building a jigsaw turkey in the Holy Land: Americans in Israel, Israelis in America

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Thanksgiving is the quintessential American holiday. But what if you’re not in America or you’re not an American? As a Brit married to an American living in Israel, the question of Thanksgiving fascinated me. I set out to understand what Thanksgiving means for Israelis in America and for Americans in Israel. 

Most of my Thanksgiving associations come from TV. Big family dinners with giant turkeys. Or Macaulay Culkin defending his family home. My husband tells me that my Hollywood-fueled Thanksgiving fantasies were not far from the truth, although his limited extended family made do with shop-bought pumpkin pie and the smallest possible turkey.

Here in Israel, my husband has been happy to forgo the Thanksgiving experience, but not everyone feels the same. For some people Thanksgiving was one of the happiest holidays of the year, especially for families that contain members of varying level of religious observance. The secular nature of Thanksgiving allows family members to enjoy each other’s company without any lingering tensions.

This aspect of Thanksgiving, uniting families across difference, made it one of Jolie Greiff’s happiest memories. She still celebrates Thanksgiving from her home in Ramat Beit Shemesh. Now they celebrate by making a potluck dinner with friends. “We make the soup and turkey and the friends bring the rest,” she recounts with a smile. 

Greiff explains that for her Thanksgiving incorporates some very Jewish values. “Hakarat ha-tov (gratitude) is what Thanksgiving is all about.” As Americans in Israel, the Greiffs stick to traditional foods. When I asked if she had incorporated any Israeli foods into her Thanksgiving fare, she shook her head with a laugh, “No way.”

Other Americans in Israel have had to adapt more to local ways. Malka Shore explained that her family had dispensed with the large family dinner on the day of Thanksgiving. Instead, they have a Thanksgiving-style dinner on the Shabbat after Thanksgiving. I’ll take any excuse to eat turkey and stuffing,” she says.

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