Chanukah begins at sundown on Sunday, Dec. 22 and lasts until sundown on Monday, Dec. 30.

This Chanukah, Israel’s menorah will be powered by natural gas

By Gary Schiff

(JNS) Right on schedule, by Chanukah, natural gas from Israel’s Leviathan offshore field will begin to flow to shore.

The turn-around in Israel’s energy situation over the past two decades is simply stunning. Just 15 years ago, Israel met 100 percent of its energy needs with imported oil and coal. Today, the vast majority of Israel’s electricity is produced from its own natural-gas fields. With the Leviathan reserves coming online, projections are that within a few years, 85 percent of Israel’s electricity will be supplied from its own gas fields. (Per government targets, the remaining 15 percent will be from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.)

According to Bini Zomer, Noble Energy’s vice president for regional affairs, “Israel is blessed in ways we couldn’t fathom until very recently. The benefits in terms of energy security, tax revenues, a cleaner and healthier environment and increasing ties with neighbors simply cannot be overstated.”

Noble holds a 39 percent interest in the Leviathan field, which it discovered in 2010, as well as a 25 percent interest in Israel’s Tamar gas field.

Even more stunning is that Israel will be exporting natural gas. Customers in Egypt and Jordan–Israel’s one-time adversaries–have signed substantial contracts to purchase Israel’s natural gas. Jordan is expected to save $600 million per year by switching to natural gas. Despite sometimes tense relations with Jordan’s leadership, Israeli decision-makers have endorsed natural gas exports to the Hashemite kingdom.

Furthermore, Egypt, which is gearing up to be the Mediterranean’s primary energy hub, has two LNG (liquified natural gas) terminals, each with demand approximately the same as Israel’s in 2019. Egypt’s goal of being that energy hub is, in part, dependent on imports from Israel–something that has been promoted and touted by the Egyptian government.

Already today existing natural gas reserves provide 70 percent of Israel’s electricity, with the remainder coming from coal and renewables. Between royalty rates, corporate income tax and additional taxes, the Israeli government will receive 60 percent of the natural-gas revenues. Over the next 15 years, the Israeli government expects to receive some NIS 63 billion ($18 billion) from the Leviathan field alone. Industry officials estimate that from today’s known reserves Israel has a 100-year supply of natural gas.

Israel is also looking to diversify and utilize more natural gas in its transportation system. By the end of the next decade, Israel’s Energy Ministry is proposing to power Israel’s buses and heavy-duty trucks with compressed natural gas (CNG). And while some have voiced security concerns advocating for a diversity of energy sources, with multiple lines feeding natural gas to Israel and back-up alternative energy options, those concerns have been largely addressed.

Because of the type of reserves and their location, many of the environmental concerns have also been ameliorated. While most natural-gas wells are usually a mixture of condensate (petroleum liquids) and methane gas, these reserves are more than 99 percent methane, so opportunities for spilling oil into the sea are almost nonexistent. Further, Israel maintains high air quality standards and enforces them in order to protect communities on-shore.

Israel’s renewable energy technologies such as industrial solar are also producing significant and increasing amounts of energy for Israel’s electric grid. Israel is exporting this technology around the world. Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, dreamed about solar energy from the Negev helping to power Israel, and we are witnessing his dream come to fruition.

If we take a step back and look at the big picture, the turnaround in Israel’s energy picture is phenomenal. We celebrate the miracle of Chanukah for the discovery of enough fuel to keep the menorah lit for eight days. This year, we should thank God and celebrate the discovery of enough fuel and alternative energy to keep all of Israel lit and powered for the next century.

Gary Schiff was the energy program leader for the U.S. Forest Service, which manages renewable and non-renewable energy operations on 10 percent of the continental United States. He consults on natural resource opportunities between Israel and the United States.

8 nights of Chanukah that aren’t just about presents

By Kveller Staff

For those looking to avoid eight nights of gift-related mayhem, help is on its way – thanks to Kveller, the online center for advice on Jewish parenting and raising Jewish kids. Kveller moms have come up with all sorts of methods for striking a balance between presents (giving and receiving), spending some quality time as a family, and doing some good deeds. Check out these tried and true alternative options they recommend:

1. Small gift night
Give something simple, like a book,  pajamas, or a puzzle – whatever inexpensive but meaningful gift works for your little ones.

2. Pick a charity night
Choose a charity with your kids and make a donation with their input. This can be to a worthy children’s charity such as Toys for Tots, agencies collecting for families that lost everything in the wildfires, or a Kiva micro-finance gift certificate. Letting your kids choose can be fun and empowering for them and an insight into other families’ realities.

3. Visiting night
Take your kids to celebrate Hanukkah in a Jewish nursing home. They can light candles with the residents, and bring cards or drawings.

4. Animal night
Ask your kids to pick an animal to “adopt” via the World Wildlife Federation. They’ll even send you a stuffed animal! Or you could give to Heifer International and explain how giving an animal not only provides food to a family but can change the course of a family’s life.

5. Make a gift night
Pick a night to create gifts for their friends and family. Some ideas include soap, cookies, hand warmers, or dog toys. Whatever you think they’ll enjoy making the most!

6. Experience night
Give them the gift of an experience. For instance, this can be a museum membership, manicure date with mom, or a visit to a rock-climbing gym. It doesn’t actually need to happen that night, but pick a date so they know it’ll happen soon.

7. Collect and share night
Have your kids clear out old toys they no longer want and then donate them to a children’s home or a school. Giving is better than receiving!

8. One gift they really want night
It is actually fun to give your kids something they really, truly want (see above!). You can save this for the last night so they have a special treat to look forward to. If that kind of build-up doesn’t work for your kids, go ahead and do this earlier in the week.

The true miracle of Chanukah? 

A Chanukah album featuring Haim, Jack Black, The Flaming Lips & more

Have we got a Chanukah gift for you! No, it’s not gelt. Even better, it’s a star-studded Chanukah compilations album called Hanukkah+, featuring the likes of Haim, The Flaming Lips, Jack Black, and more.

The album will be comprised of both original songs and covers – for example, Haim’s contribution will be a cover of the late, great Jewish singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen’s “If It Be Your Will.” Actor and musician Jack Black has two tracks on the album: a cover of the classic “Oh Hanukkah” and a Passover bonus cover of “Chad Gadya” – the latter of which he once declared his love for to Conan O’Brien, calling it “the original heavy metal song.” 

Also on the roster is a new original song called “Eight Candles” from Yo La Tengo, whose annual eight-night Chanukah concert series in New York City inspired the album. In a refreshingly honest statement from the band, they said, “As non-practicing Jews (and non-Jews), truthfully the holiday has little meaning for us (that’s the meta joke behind Yo La Tengo’s Chanukah shows), but we were open to inspiration.”

There are also some non-Jewish contributions to the album. Loudon Wainwright III, who wrote a song for the album called “Eight Nights a Week,” said, “When [producer Randall Poster] asked me to write a Chanukah song my initial thought was ‘Why me, Lord?’ which is always a good question to ask yourself.”

Also included on the album is Adam Green’s “Dreidels of Fire,” and the Flaming Lips’ original song, “Sing it Now, Sing it Somehow.”

The album was released on Nov. 22, via Verve Forecast, and a vinyl followed on Dec. 13.

If you want to get into the Chanukah spirit even further, you might also give Alma’s Chanukah party music playlist a spin.