Passing On Our Heritage Between Generations
Jerry Verlin, December 22, 2025
Even we ‘secular’ U.S. Jews feel an obligation to pass on our people’s history and heritage between generations.
One way of course is through celebrating and communicating the meaning of our by-the-people-celebrated holidays – Passover, Purim, Hanukkah. So these past eight nights, we’ve kindled the lights.
My son Jon being for decades a volunteer fireman, we must not leave the room and the menorah (which I’d inherited) unwatched while the candles are burning. Fair enough, they burn down and extinguish themselves fairly quick.
But this year, we bought our candles at the last minute, with only a taller than usual brand left on the shelves. And when lit they didn’t show signs of diminishing. After a while that first night, I asked my increasingly fidgety next generation, “Jon, how long do you think they’ll keep burning?” Without hesitation, he answered: “Eight days.” How’d I do passing on our Hanukkah heritage?
