What's All The Fuss About Sufganiyot?
Last year, Helping Hand Coalition (one of the ministries we work with in Israel), gave out over 1,300 sufganiyot to Holocaust Survivors around Israel for the Hanukkah holiday. And once again they are gearing up to bless Holocaust Survivors with some joy and celebration for Hanukkah this year! What are Sufganiyot and why are they eaten at Hanukkah? The earliest reference to fried foods being eaten for Hanukkah are in the writings of Rabbi Maimon ben Yosef in the twelfth century. He wrote: “One must not make light of the custom of eating sofganim [fried fritters] on Hanukkah. It is a custom of the Kadmonim [the ancient ones].” It’s most likely, according to food historians, that these fritters would have been more like the sweet, syrup-coated pancakes known in Arabic as svingous, in Ladino as bimuelos and in Persia, Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries as zalabia. The plump sugar coated, jam frilled doughnut we know today is a much more recent addition to the Hanukkah tradition. Ac
