What to do during Hanukkah

Hanukkah is here and despite one’s best intentions, it can be tough to move beyond the basics of frying latkes, candle-lighting and choosing the best sufganiya.

But if you’re already taking some time off, December is a good time to check out new museum exhibits or take a drive to see what’s happening in the rest of the country.

And if it rains during the holiday of lights, never fear, it’s the week of the Jewish Film Festival, happening at the Jerusalem and Holon Cinematheques. Here are some more ideas for the rest of the week:

1) Tel Aviv’s Nachman Gutman Museum in Neve Tzedek just opened “Shirat Hanoar” (Childhood Poetry), an exhibit of the illustrations of David Ma’aravi, a composer of some of Israel’s best-loved childhood songs who was also an illustration artist. Curator Nurit Tal Tenne, a relative of Ma’aravi, found a cache of his works in her attic and offered them to the museum for a look back at Israel’s more idealistic, pioneering period. Opening December 19.

Also open at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art is “Up in the Air,” by American artist Tom Friedman, the third in a series of site-specific installations. This one is comprised of 900 items suspended from the ceiling, forming a gigantic, scattered still life of objects, forms and images from the early 21st century. At the Herta and Paul Amir Building in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

2) For more museum fun, try Jerusalem’s Israel Museum, which has a host of family-oriented Hanukkah activities from Sunday through Tuesday of the holiday, including a treasure hunt, art workshops and animated films. There’s also the museum’s permanent display of Hanukkah menorahs.

Unrelated to the holiday is the museum’s recently opened exhibit, “Out of the Circle: The Art of Dance in Israel,” which opened December 2. It celebrates Israeli dance and choreography from the 1920s and honors two of the country’s prominent dance institutions, the Batsheva Dance Company on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, and the Suzanne Dallal Centre for Dance and Theatre, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The museum is hosting a series of dance performances throughout the duration of the exhibit, which runs through February 28.

3) We’ve already written about the highlights of the Jerusalem Cinematheque’s Jewish Film Festival, but you may not have known that the Holon Cinematheque — the former home of Cinematheque director Noa Regev, is co-hosting the festival from December 16-22, and offering many of the films being shown in Jerusalem. Check the Cinematheque’s website for movies and times, but know that World War Two noir film “Phoenix”, Ethiopian saga “Red Leaves”, ultra-Orthodox romance “Felix and Meira” and documentary “Sacred Sperm,” and other films, will all be shown in Holon.

4) If you’re heading south, check out Eco-Art Arava, a festival about art in the ecological confines of the south, specifically, Park Sapir in the central Arava. Held December 18-20, the family-friendly event will include activities involving sculpture, drawing, photography and crafts. The best part of the event may be sand drawing with New Zealand artist Jamie Harkins, who will demonstrating his particular brand of sand art. Entry is free on Friday, and NIS 40 per person or NIS 120 per family on Saturday.

5) Here’s another idea. Grab a camera — or smartphone — and look for some agricultural shots and enter one in the Agricultural Gallery, a photo contest for farmers and their friends. Twenty photos will be chosen, and from them, three selected as the winners. The prizes aren’t too shabby, either. An electric bike for first prize, iPhone 6 for the second prize and a Samsung Galaxy tablet for the third prize. Send submissions to gallery@kanat.co.il until February 1.