Yesterday we had our annual family Hanukkah party. This used to be a tradition when I was growing up: the families of my paternal grandmother and her two sisters would get together on Saturday or Sunday evening during Hanukkah at someone’s house or apartment (we were spread from northern New Jersey to the Bronx and Queens, so the location was different ever year) and have latkes and other food, and all us kids — the second cousins — would get presents. By the end of evening, piles of wrapping paper would be everywhere.

The tradition was dormant for many years until being revived last year, but Matt and I couldn’t go last year because we had a chorus concert. Fortunately we were able to go this year, and although there weren’t as many people due to deaths and distance and conflicting commitments, it was still a wonderful time.

The best part of it was that I got to see my 95-year-old great aunt, my grandmother’s sister, who I hadn’t seen since my grandmother’s funeral four years ago. I consider my great aunt to be my last link to my grandma. (The third sister passed away many years ago.) At 95 she’s still sharp as a tack, with a droll sense of humor; although she uses a walker, she can walk a little bit without it. She lives in an assisted living community in Queens; someone comes in a couple of times a day to look after her, but other than that she can manage on her own. God bless her. I cherish her deeply.

I learned a couple of things about my relatives yesterday. One, my dad’s cousin (my great aunt’s son) went to junior high school with Lee Harvey Oswald. Two, my great aunt knew Ethel Rosenberg. I had no idea.

I was also reminded that most of my relatives of my grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ generation were Bundists, which means they were basically socialists and/or communists. This was pretty typical of New York City Ashkenazi Jews in the 1920s and 1930s who emigrated from Russia and Eastern Europe. They all read the Forverts or the Freiheit. Of course, the Cold War came along and made these beliefs dangerous, so they had to tame it down and dropped out of politically questionable organizations. But I think it’s great. I love my radical commie ancestors.