Hon-ukkah

With Campy Style, Great Food And Rich Jewish History, Baltimore Delights in the Festival of Lights

Why didn't anyone tell me I don't have to schlep all the way to New York for a knish fix? Or that my New York childhood might come wafting back to me in a bakery on Baltimore's Reisterstown Road? Or that a Jewish museum could be touching and funny? After a pre-Hanukkah weekend stocking up on dreidel cookies and little chocolate menorahs and much more, I hereby propose naming Baltimore the Little Apple.

Like New York, the city has a strong Eastern European Jewish heritage. The port of Baltimore was second only to the Big Apple in the number of immigrants who arrived on these shores during the massive emigration of Jews fleeing Poland and Russia in the 40 years after 1880.

Which doesn't exactly explain the Chanukah House, a beloved homegrown holiday display on Park Heights Avenue, about 10 miles northwest of downtown in Baltimore's Pikesville neighborhood. I suspect that those tired, those poor immigrants whom poet Emma Lazarus wrote about couldn't have imagined a house dolled up to its fiddler on the roof with Hanukkah paraphernalia. Or the three-foot-tall blond Barbie lighting a menorah on the front lawn. (Why not? Barbie's creator, Ruth Handler, was Jewish.) But yes, Virginia, and Shoshana, there is such a house this holiday season. A Christmas-mimicking bonanza full of Hanukkah cheer, decorated with a Hershel (not Harry) Potter, a menorah made of two-foot-tall armored men called the Eight Knights of Chanukah, a Mr. Potato Latke Head and dreidels galore all along the lawn.

The two families who live there have been decking the house for Hanukkah for more than 15 years now, and thousands drive by every December. On Tuesday, the fifth night of Hanukkah, the mayor's Office of Neighborhoods will hold its sixth annual community-wide menorah lighting at the house at 7 p.m. (Mayor Martin O'Malley has attended the past five years, but at press time there was no word on whether O'Malley, now governor-elect, would make it this time.)

Irwin Cohen, the display's original creator, started the whole thing with the fiddler on the roof as a way to publicize the miracle of Hanukkah. Cohen has made most of the decorations himself, and still creates new ones as the mood strikes. The house has made the neighborhood famous.

The Chanukah House is at 6211 Park Heights Ave. Menorahs are lighted each night after dark. Directions and info at http://home.nyc.rr.com/thechanukahhouse.

The obvious place for a little nosh before seeing the Festival of Lights house is Corned Beef Row, a two-block downtown stretch of East Lombard Street that is home to three Jewish delis. The neighborhood is a far cry from the bustling restaurant row that existed in the early part of the last century, but these places still make a mean corned beef, turkey breast and chopped-liver sandwich.

"I don't know how to get started on this," said Brian Siffel of Annapolis, sitting at a formica table with his family, staring at a gooey hot corned beef, pastrami and Swiss sandwich, with coleslaw and Russian dressing. The line for takeout sandwiches at Attman's stretched 20 people deep on a Sunday afternoon, with many a patron arriving in church finery. The Kibbitz Room has waitress service, and patrons can while away the time gazing at photos on the walls of the old days.

The delis of Corned Beef Row are Attman's, 1019 E. Lombard St., 410-563-2666; Weiss Deli, 1127 E. Lombard St., 410-276-7910; and Lenny's Delicatessen, 1150 E. Lombard St., 410-327-1177.

Steps away from the delis is the Jewish Museum of Maryland. The current exhibit, "The Other Promised Land: Vacationing, Identity, and the Jewish-American Dream," focuses on the 20th-century lower- and middle-class vacation hot spots of East Coasters back in the day: Atlantic City, Miami Beach and the Catskills in New York. Old home movies, photo postcards, leather suitcases, Brownie cameras and modest wool bathing suits on display transported me to another era. I was shocked to recognize signs from the Pines, Grossinger's and the Concord resorts in the Catskills, where my family vacationed over the years.

The "permanent exhibit" is actually two synagogues from the 19th century, located on either side of the museum proper. They are Jewish time capsules. The Lloyd Street Synagogue, dedicated in 1845, contains a brick matzoh oven, a tiled mikvah (ritual bath) and an archaeological excavation through the basement floor that reveals the corner of the synagogue's original mikvah. B'nai Israel Synagogue, restored in the 1980s, is home to an active congregation.

The Jewish Museum (15 Lloyd St. 410-732-6400, http://www.jewishmuseummd.org) is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. Admission is $8, $4 for students, $3 for children younger than 12. The gift shop offers a wide variety of Hanukkah merchandise.

Baltimore offers not only the food and the historic flavor of the Jewish immigrant experience, but also the friendly irreverence sometimes lacking in Washington. At Schmell & Azman's Bakery, a customer asked for the challah with the fewest seeds.

"You want to help me count them, hon?" asked Marsha Bromberg, a 15-year employee. Unfazed, the customer told her to be sure to tell the baker to go easy on the seeds next time.

And, oh, the bounty at those kosher bakeries. All those fancy cookies by the pound. The mandel bread with nuts, or swirled with chocolate. The kichel in bow ties or squares. The pletzels! And what better gift to bring to a Hanukkah party this year than sugar cookies in the shapes of the Hebrew letters on the dreidel? Or a gaudy sequined pocketbook with a dreidel on it for the 5-year-old girl in your life? Or Hanukkah cookie cutters . . . or maybe just the cookies made with them, in the shapes of a Jewish star, a menorah or a dreidel?

Baltimore's Jewish bakeries include Schmell & Azman's Bakery, 7006 Reisterstown Rd., 410-484-7343; Goldman's Kosher Bakery, 6848 Reisterstown Rd., 410-358-9625; and Pariser's, 6711 Reisterstown Rd., 410-764-1700. Other good Hanukkah shop ops, including food, chocolate Hanukkah gelt (coins) and other seasonal tchochkes, can be found at Central Hebrew Books, Gifts and Jewish Art, 220 Reisterstown Rd., 410-653-0550; the Candy Store (kosher candy from Brooklyn, Israel and elsewhere), 7002 Reisterstown Rd., 410-653-9900; and Seven Mile Market, 4000 Seven Mile Lane, 410-653-2000. Baltimore info: Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association, 877-225-8466, http://www.baltimore.org/.