‘NYT’ misspells Chanukah, cites challah, brisket, kugel as holiday’s foods

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(JNS) The New York Times drew ridicule on social media for its Strands word search game, whose theme on Sunday was “Hannukah Foods.”

Social-media users noted that Times style guide calls for spelling the Jewish holiday “Hanukkah.” (After JNS published this brief, the Times changed the puzzle to reflect the spelling “Hanukkah.”)

Some of the puzzle answers are Chanukah foods, such as “latkes” and “applesauce,” about which there is a debate if it is indeed a good latke companion. But the Times also cited “challah,” “brisket” and “kugel” as Chanukah foods, although they aren’t associated with the holiday.

In the Seinfeld episode “The Fatigues,” a kosher-style menu at a Jewish singles event includes a similar hodgepodge: hamantaschen, kishka and latkes.

“The New York Times” game Strands puzzle on Dec. 29, 2024. Credit: JNS screen capture.
“Not only did the New York Times games department misspell Hanukkah in today’s Strands game, some of the answers are not particularly associated with the holiday and are just commonly eaten Jewish foods which are actually associated with Shabbat,” wrote Rand Levin, executive director of Congregation Beth Sholom, a nearly 100-year-old Orthodox synagogue in Lawrence, N.Y.

“Thanks for the stereotyping,” he added.

Elie Landau, general manager of the Museum of Broadway, wrote that “the ignorance of New York Times Games in today’s ‘Strands’—unable to distinguish between traditionally ‘Jewish’ foods and those specific to Chanukah—is astonishing. Akin to the local supermarket.”

“Indeed, seeing this stupidity, I was only surprised that one of the words wasn’t ‘matzoh,’” he wrote.

When someone responded about Chanukah being misspelled, Landau wrote that “I’ll forgive them that, as there are easily more than a half-dozen common spellings.”

“But three of their foods literally have nothing (zero, zip, bupkis) to do with the holiday,” hew rote. “And they managed to omit the one other (besides latkes) that does (jelly donuts or ‘sufganiyot’).”