The coincidence of Hanukkah and Christmas is one of the most provocative challenges in American Jewish life. Jeffrey Shandler examines how the "December Dilemma" has inspired an array of Jewish responses to not only to the holiday season but also to larger concerns about citizenship, multiculturalism, and the place of religion in American public culture.

Jeffrey Shandler is Professor of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University. His most recent book, Jews God, and Videotape: Religion and Media in America (NYU Press, 2009), examines the impact of new media  technologies on the religious life of American Jews over the past century, with examples ranging from early recordings of cantorial music to hasidic outreach on the Internet.