Happy Hanukkah! Judaism Unbound and The Torah Studio are thrilled to host Apocry-Fest Havdalah, the best and brightest Hanukkah zoom-event you'll find anywhere. Join us as we share an Apocry-full (GET IT?) Havdalah service, dive into the topic of Jewish Apocrypha, and channel the light our menorahs together to mark the 4th night of Chanukah! Throughout Apocry-Fest, we are celebrating books of the Apocrypha that were never quite canonized as part of the Bible.

The Hanukkah story itself comes from an apocryphal book, the Book of Maccabees, and we believe the “apocryphal festival” of Hanukkah gives us an opportunity to raise critical questions about canon. By considering books and stories excluded from the “official” Jewish biblical literature, we can ask:
- What other stories, held sacred by Jews of the past, have been marginalized and de-centered?
- How can we re-connect to these stories – not merely as books on the sidelines, but as central components of our contemporary Jewish observances?
- What might these histories reflect not only about books, but also about *people* who have been marginalized and de-centered over time?