2025 Latke-Hamantash Debate examines: What’s trending?

This year’s Latke-Hamantash Debate was full of firsts. Traditionally held in Mandel Hall, the 78th annual pitting of Jewish holiday foods was held in Rockefeller Chapel for the first time in its long history on the University of Chicago campus to answer this year’s unique question: “What’s trending now: latke or hamantash?” 

“We’re excited to be back in this space,” said Andrea Okun, a third-year student in the College in the debate’s welcome. “Hillel’s first home on campus was right here in Rockefeller [Chapel], so this is kind of a homecoming for us.”

Since 1946, UChicago scholars including Nobel Prize winners, University presidents and renowned scholars have argued over which is the better food: latke (potato pancakes) or hamantaschen (triangular filled pastries). Aside from its location, this year’s debate on March 30 was marked by another possible first: A husband and wife were pitted against each other to debate the merits of the Hanukkah staple versus the Purim favorite. 

Moderated by Rabbi Anna Levin Rosen of UChicago Hillel, the debate was argued by Profs. Seth Himelhoch, chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience; Sheila Jelen, a scholar of Jewish literature and culture; and political scientist Jon Rogowski. Each took their respective sides dressed in academic regalia in accordance with the debate’s time-honored tradition. 

Predicated on the refrain of “Sheila is always right,” Himelhoch argued the case for hamantaschen’s superiority based on gematria, the practice of assigning words numerical values. His research showed the phrases “sheilajelen” and “hamantash” were of equivalent value. Holding true that Sheila was always right, the hamantash’s victory seemed evident.

“I will conclude as I began: Sheila is always right,” Himelhoch said of his spouse. “But sometimes I can be right, too.” 

In her defense of the latke, Jelen turned to Rabbinic literature and her own meditation on the meaning of Jewish holidays. Of a lentil-based fritter mentioned in the Palestinian Talmud Nedarim 6:10, Jelen noted: “...It is the earliest record of a latke in Jewish literature. Is there an early record of hamantaschen? Anyone? Anyone? Absolutely not.”

Rogowski closed out the debate by consulting the words of past presidents, in their presidential proclamations to gauge the trendiness of the latke versus the hamantash.

“The trendline for the amount of proclamations dealing with hamantaschen has remained exactly flat for the last 150 years…because, much to my surprise, there hasn’t been a single proclamation that says anything about hamantaschen,” Rogowski said. “The trendline for proclamations on latkes is exactly the same. Flat at zero.”

Faced by this surprising dearth of results, Rogowski expanded his scope to vice presidents—and finally got a hit. When it comes to trendiness, it seems former Vice President Dan Quayle had the definitive last word, as Rogowski put it: “What could possibly be better than a fried potatoe [sic]?”