Three years ago, historically Anglican King’s College celebrated Chanukah - and it wasn’t very merry. Mordechai Walfish remembers the experience in the Canadian Jewish News.

The last time there was any sort of Chanukah celebration on campus was when I was in first year and our gracious residence dining hall managers made latkes for dinner one night. Though they had the best of intentions, the latkes were not very successful, for a number of reasons. First of all, the letter “t” was left out of the dinner menu that night, so students were confused as to why (and how) they would be consuming “lakes” for dinner. Secondly, for some strange reason, it was decided that instead of finding an actual latke recipe, the best way to make latkes was to take a normal pancake mix and simply add pureed potatoes and chopped onions. Needless to say, they didn’t taste quite like the home-cooked wonders we Jews were boasting about to our friends.
Many of these said friends ordered pizza that night.
In many ways, our latest Chanukah party rectified this situation, even if it came three years later and I was the only one who remembered the 2003 “lakes” disaster. This year, the latkes were delicious, and the turnout was fantastic – due not only to the generally wide appeal of Chanukah, but also to the need for procrastination that the exam season inevitably heralds, and the fact our party took place during the first snowstorm of the year in Halifax, and people had an extra need for the warm and fuzzies.

Walfish writes he hopes the event “reminded the school that there are Jews on campus and that we have a particular way of celebrating during the holiday season.”