Thirty years later, the story has quite literally become a classic, a household name, and has even been adapted into plays and musicals - coming to a JCC near you (as soon as it’s safe to gather for theater again). Like A Christmas Carol, which is arguably the most well known, re-adapted, secularized, and spooky (?) Christmas story, Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins has become a holiday staple not only because it creates a compelling story that mimics the historical tale, but largely because it brings fun and magic to the season outside of the holiday’s original traditions.
While not entirely necessary to make comparisons, stick with me here.
Judaism’s very own A Christmas Carol, if you will. This, my friends, is our Hanukkah pop-culture icon. Finally (spoiler alert!), Hershel meets the King of the Goblins and is able to trick him into lighting the menorah, ending the curse and saving Hanukkah for all. Hershel meets a number of strange goblins, and one by one tricks them into leaving him alone to light the menorah and say the Hanukkah blessings by doing pretty normal things like, you know, threatening to crush one like a hard-boiled egg, getting another one’s hand stuck in a pickle jar, and kicking ass at dreidel.
In order to break the curse, Hershel must spend eight nights in the synagogue lighting the festival candles until he is able to convince the King of the Goblins to light the eighth and final candle himself. The townspeople explain to Hershel that they aren’t allowed to celebrate the festival of lights, as goblins who haunt the old synagogue come and blow out the candles on their menorahs, break their dreidels, and throw their latkes on the floor. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the tale, or those of you who need a little refresher, Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins, authored by Eric Kimmel, is an illustrated children’s book that follows the story of Hershel of Ostropol, a man who wanders into a sleepy village plagued by Hanukkah-hating goblins. If you were born any time around or after 1989, chances are you used to read a story called Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins, and you might still read it every year to this day.
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