This is a Christian festival and has no place in a synagogue. Hannukah should be enough for Jews. Eight days of celebration and eating fried food should suffice no need to clebrate Christian festivals. Not too long ago our ancestors chose death rather than to bow to the cross however in this day and age many Jews happily take on Christian tradition for fun

Thanksgiving is an American holiday, to be celebrated by Americans no matter where they happen to be.

Happy sviatkinukkah, kwanzaanukkah, eidnukkah, and, my favourite, xnukkah! Let's celebrate the modern jewishness to which nothing is sacred! We have way more than enough Jewish holidays, perhaps we should not adopt alien ones.

Some of you can't appear to make it through one day without bitching about something. You know who you are and you should be ashamed of yourselves. Being thankful for something, anything, does not require one religion or the other. I think all religions bamboozle humanity, but I'm still thankfull for my family, my health and my friends. One of the latter happened to be visiting from Petach-Tiqwa and attended Thanksgiving dinner at my daughter's house with 14 members of the family. Had I not asked my daughter not to put cheese on meat dishes, a request with which she complied without question, when I explained it, nobody would have known that my friend is Jewish. Once that fact was established, my family's questions to him had nothing to do with religion, but with Israel, the country, their curiosity as respects the differences between the education systems of both countries and with their admiration for his excellent command of the English language. Oh,and despite the fact that the only "Hebrew" I know is Amen, I was, nevertheless, invited and spent Wednesday evening's candelighting with very Jewish friends of my friend. So, how about let's give the bashing of each other a rest for one day and appreciate what we have in common rather than bemoan our differences.

As an Oleh in Tel Aviv these past 7 years, I've attended some of these dinners for Olim which I suppose can be quite fun on the one hand. However, I hate the name. We are Jews that made Aliyah to Israel, mashing together American and Jewish holidays for me is symbolic of the damage caused by American Jews themselves by marrying out at an alarming rate. It pokes fun at what is an important Jewish culture and in my opinion, belittles it. What I would like to see is more effort made by Oim Hadashim to get out of the Tel Aviv bubble and integrate with Israelis - at all walks of life throughout the country. The value of making Aliyah is only really achieved if the Oleh integrates - starts a family, puts down roots. Otherwise, the way I see it, this is just an Anglo ghetto activity that basically doesn't achieve much and unfotunately events like this are typical - many of the attendees of which will return to the US anyway.

Its a national holiday of America, just like it is in Canada a month earlier, or family day, or the 4th of July, or the Canada day, or Israeli independence day. how ignorant people are! just like with celebrating a new calender year has nothing to do with pope Sylvester. Get over it, and good luck to all the olim. i hope the few barbarian Israelis don't scare you back to your countries of origin!

I honestly cannot believe all the pointless hate I am seeing written here. For all of those who can't seem to wrap their brain around the concept of bringing Thanksgiving into the mix you obviously didn't even bother to read the article. The Thanksgiving aspect of the meal was 2 things; giving thanks for what we are grateful and an excuse to eat whole turkeys, nothing else... I was at the meal and it was wonderful. If anything the community that has been built around these events helps keep me tied to this place and certainly helped make my adjustment period after aliyah go much more smoothly. Events like these make it easier to stay, not leave. If you are all so worried about assimilation stop hating and be a better Jew. Embrace those around you and be proactive rather than negative.

Daniel, I am not hating, I understand the point of the dinner completely and I've been to loads of them, I know who organises them and I know what they are about. I think its you who is missing the point here. Mashing together Thanksgiving and Channukah... you're serious? Its absurd! Trust me, hanging around only Anglos, speaking only English - you think that's what Aliyah is? There's a whole other country out there speaking Hebrew, an Israeli world. This isn't Little America despite what you may think. Get your head out of your Anglo cloud my friend, mingle only with Israelis, hang out less with Anglos, get married and start a family - only then can I take you seriously as an Oleh. Right now, you - your friends, as far as I'm concerned, you're just a bunch of tourists.