‘Ha Ha Hanukkah’ Aims to Bring Joy and Levity

This month, KGNU is bringing you a series about community members spreading joy during the holiday season. This weekend, to kick off Hanukkah, the Boulder Jewish Community Center (JCC) is hosting a comedy event called Ha Ha Hanukkah: A Festival of Laughs. KGNU sat down with Kari Stern, one of the co-organizers of the event, and Janae Burris, a local comedian who will host the show.

During Hanukkah, said Stern, “we celebrate just resilience and joy and bringing people together. Looking at the real story of Hanukkah, it’s about the miracles that abounded. And now it’s just sort of morphed into, for a lot of families, a time to come together.”

Burris said she feels privileged to be a comedian and help people feel joy. Although she wasn’t raised Jewish, she celebrates Jewish holidays with a friend and her son, who is half Jewish. She finds Hanukkah an opportunity to be joyous and grateful.

“So often I think we don’t just simply get to be happy. There’s so much going on in the world,” said Burris. “We get to just stop and be happy, and the kids get to play with dreidels, and they get to pass around a little bit of chocolate gelt, and I think we just get to love on each other and take the time to be happy and that’s okay…and as a comedian, we really facilitate that.”

The event is this Sunday, Dec. 14 at the Boulder JCC. Tickets can be purchased at boulderjcc.org.

This story aired on the Morning Magazine, KGNU’s weekday morning show featuring in-depth discussions on local news issues. Click here to listen to other episodes of the Morning Magazine.