This was a very nice little book. While it reflects a more traditional view of Hanukkah, it resonates nicely with it's modern stories and my family enjoyed adding it to our holiday reading.

This short volume consists of 10 brief plays and 2 short, very short, stories all centered, as the title clearly tells around the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. Although the back cover indicates that the collection is aimed at “readers young and old” it seems better suited for children even if a couple of the plays may not be entirely suitable.

The book contains works by 10 different authors about whom, unfortunately, little is said in the book. Only a brief description is given for each, such as: “author of educational children’s plays”, “rabbis”, and there isn’t any information on the writers’ countries of origin. Not that it matters much since the stories should stand on their entertaining and educational merits.

The authors are:
Jacob J, Leibson
Alexander Lyons - 2 plays
Irma Kraft
Isaac Loev Peretz - one of the two stories in the book (translated)
Louis Broido
Louis Witt
Elma Levinger - one story and a play
Ruth E. Levi
Joseph Leiser
Solomon Fineberg

The stories and plays are mostly instructive but they may be more entertaining for readers who are already familiar with the Jewish religious background. ( )

This is a collection of plays, curated for this publication. Some are older in language and tone (thy and whilest) and some are more modern. They also range in setting - from a Biblical time period, to the Macabees, to modern day (although modern here is probably the late 1900s). I was hoping for more modern plays that could be used in a religious school (Sunday school) type setting with elementary age students. This won't work for that, as it is a historical overview of the play adaptations of the Channukah story. It could use more introduction and framing of the different plays, but I understand that isn't the style of the publisher. ( )