In yet another shining display of cultural ignorance, The New York Times managed to turn a simple word puzzle into a cringe-worthy exercise in stereotyping, all under the guise of celebrating Jewish traditions.

Sunday’s edition of the paper’s Strands word search game featured the theme “Hannukah Foods” — a charming idea, if not for the glaring fact that The Times couldn’t even spell the holiday correctly. Their own style guide demands “Hanukkah,” yet somehow the game designers opted for the rarely-used “Hannukah.” After public mockery erupted on social media, The Times sheepishly corrected the error.

But the embarrassment didn’t stop there. The answers to the puzzle read less like a Chanukah menu more like a random sampling from Katz’s Deli. Among the “Hanukkah foods” listed were challah, brisket, and kugel — staples of Jewish cuisine, yes, but as closely tied to Chanukah as hamantaschen are to Yom Kippur.

Meanwhile, real Chanukah staples like sufganiyot (jelly donuts) were inexplicably missing. Because why honor actual tradition when you can just slap together a list of vaguely Jewish foods and call it a day?

In a city with one of the largest Jewish populations in the world, this sort of tone-deaf blunder from The New York Times feels less like a simple oversight and more like willful ignorance. At the very least, it suggests that no one in the games department could be bothered to ask a single Jewish person — or Google. Still probably better than two years ago when they published a crossword that looked eerily similar to a swastika.

Perhaps next year, The Times could stick to topics they actually understand. Or better yet, leave Chanukah puzzles to those who know the difference between a Shabbos seuda and Tisha B’av.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)