America's recognition of Chanukah, the role of Chabad, and the Jewish relationship to Christmas all play a part in this story of how Chanukah came to be celebrated in the White House.

Taught by Jonathan D. Sarna, University Professor and the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professorof American Jewish History at Brandeis University. Sarna is also is the past president of the Association for Jewish Studies and Chief Historian of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia. Author or editor of more than thirty books on American Jewish history and life, his American Judaism: A History, recently published in a second edition, won six awards including the 2004 “Everett Jewish Book of the Year Award” from the Jewish Book Council. Sarna is a fellow both of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Academy of Jewish Research, and he holds four honorary degrees. His most recent books are Coming to Terms with America, a volume of essays; and Yearning to Breathe Free: Jews in Gilded Age America, coedited with Adam Mendelsohn.