Menorah lightings planned around the world for Hanukkah

Public menorah lightings for the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah are planned around the world in locations ranging from ski towns and Caribbean islands to famous landmarks and sports arenas.

Hanukkah begins Tuesday night and lasts for eight days.

Menorah lit in Berlin, Germany, 2016 (Photo: AFP)

If you're traveling or vacationing during the holiday, there may be a menorah lighting near you. The Jewish outreach organization Chabad-Lubavitch plans Hanukkah events in hundreds of cities, from the 50 US states to 100 countries. Celebrations in Vail, Colorado, will include menorahs made from skis. In New Mexico, organizers hope to create a one-of-a-kind menorah made from hot-air balloons on Dec. 17 in Albuquerque's Balloon Fiesta Park, which hosts the International Balloon Fiesta each October. Vacationers in destinations like Cancun, Mexico, and Aruba will also have menorah lightings to attend, along with one in Curacao, home to the oldest synagogue in the Western Hemisphere dating to 1732. Many ceremonies will take place in front of landmarks, including the White House in Washington, D.C., Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Kremlin in Moscow and Germany's Brandenburg Gate. London's Trafalgar Square will host a 30-foot (9-meter) menorah outfitted with specially designed environmentally friendly bulbs, commissioned by the London Climate Change Agency. The world's largest menorah, standing 36 feet high (11 meters), will be lit just outside Central Park in New York City across from the Plaza Hotel at Grand Army Plaza. That menorah lighting began in 1977 and marks its 40th consecutive year this month.

(Photo: AFP)

Sports arenas are also hosting Hanukkah events, including the NBA arenas of the Brooklyn Nets, Orlando Magic, Miami Heat, Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks, Golden State Warriors, Phoenix Suns and Atlanta Hawks; the NHL arenas of the Arizona Coyotes, New York Islanders, Nashville Predators, Tampa Bay Lightning, New Jersey Devils and Columbus Blue Jackets; and the NFL stadium of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Thousands of people are expected Dec. 18 for a Hanukkah concert and menorah lighting at Gulfstream Park, the horse racing track in Hallandale Beach, Florida, near Miami. Elsewhere around the world, events are expected in countries ranging from Australia to Laos to Uganda to Argentina.

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Big Bang Theory star talks about Hanukkah

Hollywood star Mayim Bialik—fondly remembered for beloved nineties sitcom Blossom and currently starring on Big Bang Theory as Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler—uploaded a Facebook video this past weekend illustrating everything you absolutely need to know about Hanukkah—in just five minutes—from the customs of the Festival of Lights to its origin story, refuting several longstanding American myths about it along the way.

 

The video became an instant online sensation with more than three million views and 55,000 shares as of Sunday. Bialik also revealed this year the first day of Hanukkah happens to fallon her birthday—December 12 if you were interested in wishing her mazal tov—and has once again proven that being a successful actress does not stand in the way of her proud orthodox-Jewish identity.

"People have a lot of misconceptions about Hanukkah, so here's a little quiz to help you figure it all out. Take the quiz and prepare to impress your Jewish and gentile friends and family," Bialik opened the video by saying. She then goes on to answer six true or false questions covering the basic tenets of the holiday.

Bialik then attempts to disprove a commonly held belief in the United States that Hanukkah is in fact the Jewish Christmas. "Since Hanukkah tends to fall right around Christmas, a lot of people think that it's the Jewish equivalent of Christmas. It's a holiday with rituals and traditions but it's actually not Jewish Christmas. Christmas celebrates Jesus being born in a manger and because Christians believe Jesus is the son of God, it's a huge deal… Hanukkah is about a group of Jews called the Maccabees defeating the Seleucid army in the 2nd century BC, and its detailed in the apocrypha, not the Old Testament."

Bialik and a friend (Photo: Facebook)

"It's also about a miracle where this oil that was supposed to last for one day lasted eight days, and it's about defeating oppression and religious freedom and believing that what you believe in is worth your life," Bialik explained.

The Jewish actress then helpfully illuminates (pun intended!) the difference between major and minor holidays, and why work is therefore permitted on Hanukkah but forbidden on holidays such as Rosh Hashanah. Another widespread belief, this time justified, has to do with the holiday's rather oily gastronomy. As she says in the video, "Jews eat super unhealthy food for (the) eight days of Hanukkah." "True. Because the story of Hanukkah revolves around oil, we basically eat tons of food fried in oil, like latkes—or potato pancakes. They're this potato-onion fritters and they're amazingly delicious with sour cream or apple sauce or—if you're in my family—ketchup. It's basically an eight-day festival of oily goodness. Yum!" Bialik said with a smile. Other burning issues broached in the video are the myth around eight days of presents (wrong), playing with "little spinning top thingies" (true, and she has the dreidel collection to prove it) and lighting candles in the "menorah" (go ahead and field that one yourselves).

(Photo: Facebook)

The Hanukkah video was not the first time Bialik proudly showcased Jewish tradition. In 2015 she was forced to celebrate Hanukkah at work with her Big Bang Theory castmates, so she placed all of the hanukkiot she owned—and has been collecting since kindergarten, including some blue-white ones—and held an impressive candle-lighting ceremony with all of the Jewish cast and crew in attendance, of which there were quite a few.

In the more than 3,000 comments to the video—most of them coming from non-Jews—it seemed Bialik's fans were quite enthused with her educational explanations. "I was just trying to explain Hanukkah to my seven- year-old-daughter. You've done a better job than I did," wrote one David Berkley, who defines himself as a Buddhist.

Bialik (R) and Big Bang Theory costar Jim Parsons (Photo courtesy yes)

A fan called Jessica Armstrong thanked Bialik and explained, "I don't know any Jews personally, so it was fascinating to get a better understanding. I celebrate Christmas, but am often drawn to Hanukkah gift wraps." Another comment came from a woman named Eileen Copeland-Nixon, who wrote, "Thank you, Mayim, for explaining Jewish holidays to us gentile Christians. Since Jesus was an observant Jew, it's good that I know these things."

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Gothenburg synagogue firebombed

A group of 21 people with covered faces threw Molotov cocktails Saturday at a synagogue in Gothenburg, Sweden, local media reported. No one was hurt in the incident, but a small fire broke out in the synagogue's parking lot. "I saw a ball of fire," one eye witness recounted.

  Emergency services received the call at around 10 pm Saturday reporting burning objects being thrown at a synagogue in the city's center. "We arrived on the scene and put the fire out. A small fire broke out between cars parked in the synagogue's parking lot. We also found some combustible fluids around," said the city's fire station chief, adding they feared the flames would reach the Jewish center itself if they were not put out in time.

A Gothenburg synagogue firebombed Saturday

"The only thing we can say at the moment is that several incendiary objects were thrown at the synagogue. They objects were bottles filled with kerosene," said one of the cops on the scene.

According to a local paper, a group of Jewish youth movement members held an activity in the synagogue's complex at the time of the attack. The mother of one of the girls participating in the activity said, "She texted me, 'Mom, I'm scared' and told me 20 men with covered faces threw burning objects at the complex." The chairman of Gothenburg's Jewish community, who witnessed the event, recounted: "Dozens of men with masks began throwing burning objects at our courtyard."

Emergency services called to the scene

Dvir Maoz, an emissary of the world Bnei Akiva movement to Gothenburg, said, "I popped in to say hello at a party (in the synagogue complex) and sat with one of the guards. As we were talking, I saw a ball of fire out of the corner of my eye. I jumped right into the guardroom and told him a Molotov cocktail was thrown. The children were really stressed out because it was the first time they experienced a terrorist attack so close by." "Parents came around and took the children home. Some of them were really stressed, and one told me he felt unsafe. Another told me because he had a very recognizably Jewish name the Arabs in his school routinely swore at him, bullied him and spat on him. I still can't say we're feeling an increase in anti-Semitism in our daily lives," Maoz added. Saturday's attack came on the heels of a march Friday in which hundreds demonstrated in Malmö against American recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. According to local media outlet, the protesters cried out: "We've declared an intifada in Malmö. We want our freedom back, and we will shoot Jews."

Last week, after President Donald Trump announced US recognition of Jerusalem as capital, a Muslim draped in a Palestinian flag arrived at the Israeli-owned Carmel restaurant in the Netherlands' capital of Amsterdam and broke its display window.

The perpetrator drew nearer to the restaurant while chanting "Allahu akbar" and swung a pole seconds later, which shattered the restaurant's front window, with a pair of local cops standing nearby without intervening.

The man then entered the restaurant, which was empty at the time, and took an Israeli flag from inside intending to deface it. At this point the cops sprang into action and restrained him. The restaurant's owner, Sami Baron, told Ynet: "He was lucky I wasn't there at the time, and the flag had already been hung again."

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Celebrating Hanukkah, Trump lauds ‘enduring bond’ with Israel

President Donald Trump on Thursday celebrated an "especially special" Hanukkah at the White House, announcing he is "proud to stand with the people of Israel and to renew our enduring bond" a day after declaring Jerusalem Israel's capital and setting off criticism and clashes. "Right now I'm thinking about what's going on and the love that's all over Israel and all about Jerusalem," Trump said in the White House East Room to a rapturous applause. The president was flanked by his daughter Ivanka, who converted to Judaism when she married her husband, Jared Kushner, and their three children.

"The miracle of Hanukkah is the miracle of Israel. The descendents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob have endured unthinkable persecution and oppression but no force has ever crushed your spirit and now evil has ever extinguished your faith," Trump said. It was for this reason, he continued, that the Jewish people "shine as a light to all nations."

(Photo: MCT)

Trump also praised the Jewish communities across the US, emphasizing that the Jewish festival of lights was an opportunity to celebrate the past, while looking to a bright the future.

"On behalf of all Americans I also want to say how grateful I am for Jewish congregations throughout our country. You cherish your families, support your communities and uplift our beloved country," Trump said.

Jared and Ivanka Kushner (Photo: EPA)

"Hanukkah is a time for Jewish families around the world to celebrate the miracles of the past and promises of the future. We are proud to stand with the people of Israel and to renew our enduring bond."

 

(Photo: AFP)

 

President Trump's declaration on Jerusalem was welcomed by the Israeli government, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stating afterwards that it was of equal historic magnitude to watershed moments in Israel's history, including the 1917 Balfour Declaration, Israel's founding and unification of Jerusalem in 1967.

Despite a flood of criticism and concern that flowed in from Middle Eastern and world leaders after Trump's declaration, inside the White House Thursday, the president received a warm reception, with his comments interspersed with cheers and thanks from the crowd, which included Vice President Mike Pence, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Holocaust survivor Louise Lawrence-Israels and Orthodox Rabbi Meir Soloveichik.

(Photo: EPA)

Israels spoke of standing up to hate, and Soloveichik recited a traditional prayer that he said has additional meaning this year. "For the first time since the founding of the state of Israel, an American president has courageously declared what we have always proclaimed, which is that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel," Soloveichik said. Struggling to pronounce Soloveichik's name, Trump quipped: "He's so happy with yesterday, that he doesn't care if I get it exact." He also remarked of the holiday, "I think this one will go down as especially special."  

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Jewish cemetery in Poland turned into parking lot

Human remains from an old Jewish burial ground in eastern Poland have been dug up and dumped in an empty lot to make way for the construction of an electrical substation and a parking lot, authorities said Thursday.

Poland's Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich described the excavation as the worst desecration of a Jewish cemetery he has seen during the 17 years he has been a rabbi in the country.

Man holding human remains removed from an old Jewish cemetery and dumped in huge mounds in Siemiatycze, Poland to make way for the construction of a supermarket, parking lot and an electrical transformer station (Photo: AP)

Jewish religious law holds that bodies should only be disturbed once they are buried under limited circumstances, such as saving lives. A day after visiting the construction site in Siemiatycze, a small town that was about 60 percent Jewish before World War II, Schudrich showed The Associated Press photos of large mounds of earth with human bones, including a large part of a human skull. "This is a full-out scandal," the rabbi, who originally is from New York, said. "Sometimes people can do something by mistake and could not realize they are seeing bones, but skulls are hard to miss." An official with the local authorities, Bogumila Kazimierczak, insisted that the building work did not take place on the grounds of the Jewish cemetery, but on already developed land that is managed by an automobile association. The mayor's office had no information indicating construction there should be prohibited, Kazimierczak said.

Human remains removed and dumped in mounds (Photo: AP)

Schudrich disputes that, saying the land in question was part of the old cemetery. He said that while another part of the cemetery owned by the state was returned to the Jewish community after the fall of communism in Poland, the area in question was not because it was private property. The rabbi said he warned local authorities that it was holy ground and asked them to inform him if there was ever a request to build there. "I went there three or four years ago and I told them that if you put a shovel in the ground, you are going to find bones," Schudrich said. Prosecutors have opened an investigation.

The new parking lot (Photo: AP)

Only 70 of the 7,000 Jews estimated to have been living in Siemiatycze on the eve of World War II survived the Holocaust, and none are believed to living there now, Schudrich said. "This is a very egregious violation of the final resting place of the Jews of this town," Gideon Taylor, co-chair of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland, said. Poland, which was home to Europe's largest Jewish community before the Holocaust, has more than 1,000 Jewish cemeteries across Poland. In most cases no Jewish communities are left to look after them, Taylor said. "It's essential that local authorities protect them because there is no local Jewish voice to protect the memory of those who died," Taylor said.

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Little-known face of famed Nazi hunters shown in Paris

Their heroic quest to bring down fugitive Nazis such as the so-called "Butcher of Lyon" is widely known. But there's more—a lot more—to the steely, yet unassuming, married duo of Nazi hunters Beate and Serge Klarsfeld, and a new exhibition in Paris is looking to tell that tale.

The French capital's Shoah Memorial is this week hosting the world's first-ever exhibition into their story. Using personal archives, including previously unseen video, "Beate and Serge Klarsfeld, Fighters for Memory" seeks to explain the couple's fight to a new generation. It opens Thursday and runs until April 29.

New Paris exhibits showcases the life of Nazi hunting couple Beate (L) and Serge Klarsfeld (Photo: AP)

 The aim of the exhibition, say the organizers, is to show how Beate, 78, and Serge, 82, did much more than hunt Nazis, as is often portrayed in the media and in a 1986 film starring the late Farrah Fawcett. Notably, the devoted husband and wife team, married since 1963, played a pivotal role in understanding the horrors of the Final Solution in occupied France. "Yes, parts of their story are known," curator Olivier Lalieu said. "But we are showing that they are not just Nazi hunters ... Serge is a historian and pioneer in the writing about the persecution of Jews. They added much to our understanding of what happened during the Holocaust." The exhibition's timing was chosen carefully, coming five decades since Beate gained international attention for exposing the Nazi ties of West German Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger in 1968, and four decades after the publishing of Serge's book, "Memorial of the Deportation of French Jews."

(Photo: AP)

 Objects steeped in memory add fresh color to their story—such as the lock that Beate used to chain herself to a La Paz bench in a famed 1972 protest against the "Butcher of Lyon," Klaus Barbie, who had fled Europe, changed identity and sought protection by the then Bolivian dictatorship. After the fall of the regime, Barbie was finally extradited to France in 1983, where he was convicted of crimes against humanity. The exhibition also seeks to shed light on the personal dimension to Serge Klarsfeld's fight against impunity for perpetrators of the Holocaust. A French Jew, he managed to escape the Gestapo in Nice in 1943. His father, Arno, was captured and deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where he died. During an interview with The Associated Press, Serge Klarsfeld solemnly located his father's name on the wall at the Shoah Memorial. It lists the names of 76,000 Jews who were deported from France as part of the Nazi plan to eradicate Jews of Europe.

"We must continue fighting every day," he said.

 

(Photo: AP)

The couple hopes that future generations can take something away from their activism against extremism and hatred and quell the rise of the far right. "Young people will perhaps find an example in what we did, hopefully in this retrospective," Serge said. With youthful fire in her eyes, Beate warned against complacency, pointing to the recent successes of nationalist parties in France, Germany and other places in Europe, particularly in the east.

(Photo: AP)

 "The young people have to engage themselves," she said. "They can take this message from our actions, in the photos. We had the strength to do it. If the young people have the strength? I don't know. I hope." As for the media attention, they're used to it following the movies, a myriad of documentaries and a swathe of articles. The real emotion, according to Serge, is being present at the Shoah Memorial and alongside the millions of documents it houses that the Nazi hunting couple relied on to carry out their decades-long investigations and protests around the world.

 

(Photo: AP)

Those archives, bristling with vital information, helped the Klarsfelds—among other things—bring justice to former Nazis Kurt Lischka, Herbert Hagen and Ernst Heinrichsohn who were convicted in the German city of Cologne in 1980 over the deportation and murder of 40,000 French Jews. 

"We always paid homage to the Memorial because they helped us with archives. And today, it is the memorial that pays homage to us when we are old," Serge said, looking to his wife.

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Living history: Rabbi Steinsaltz’s archive comes to light

About a year after being rushed to hospital in serious condition following a stroke, Rabbi Adin Even-Yisrael Steinsaltz—considered one of the greatest minds of our generation in Israel and worldwide—is still recovering.

In honor of his 80th birthday, the Israel Institute for Talmudic Publications, which he founded in 1965, is opening up its archives and bringing to light his extensive correspondence with top Israeli leaders throughout the generations, as well as scholars and statesmen from around the world, revealing a little of Israeli history.

Rabbi Steinsaltz with late President Peres. ‘A quality stamp on the Jewish people’s ways of life’

Organized in chronological order, the letters uncover the rabbi’s comprehensive relationship with different people who supported his life’s work—the Talmud’s translation into Hebrew, which received the name “The Steinsaltz Talmud," the Lubavitcher Rebbe, prime ministers (from David Ben-Gurion to Benjamin Netanyahu), international figures (like former French President Jacques Chirac) and intellectuals and religious figures (like Nobel Prize Laureate Shmuel Agnon, Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and others). In fact, the impressive gallery of names includes almost every significant Israeli public figure (as well as international figures). The correspondences point to different leaders’ deep appreciation of the 80-year-old rabbi’s work over the years.

Rabbi Adin Even Yisrael Steinsaltz was born to a secular family in Jerusalem in 1937. As a teenager, he decided to become religious and joined the Chabad movement. After studying chemistry and physics at the Hebrew University, he worked as a school principal. He holds a degree in mathematics too.

New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s letter to Rabbi Steinsaltz in 1994

Later on, the rabbi decided to focus on writing many diverse books on Judaism. The highlight was “The Steinsaltz Edition,” a Hebrew translation and commentaries on the 2,711 pages of the Babylonian Talmud. His comprehensive work won him the Israel Prize for Jewish studies in 1988, as well as the President’s Prize in 2012. He gained international recognition too. Time Magazine referred to him as “A once-in-a-millennium scholar,” and he was considered to have a particularly close relationship with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who was the subject of his book “My Rebbe.” A moment before completing his monumental commentary of the Bible, he suffered a stroke, which he is still recovering from.

A letter from Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, in 1962. ‘The partition between religious and secular is artificial’

At the Israel Institute for Talmudic Publications, which is now headed by his son, Rabbi Menachem Even-Yisrael, I received a plastic folder which encompasses a glorious history. It starts with a simple notebook page on which David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, wrote his opinion on contemporary Israeli Judaism in 1962: “We must foster more mutual tolerance among our people, and accept the fact (which isn’t new, but has existed in my opinion since our very first day) that there are different opinions on spiritual matters, and bestow upon the entire young generation the recognition of the history of our people and its creation in all stages of its development.” As for the division between “religious” and “secular,” he added that “this distinction between Jews is not, as far as I know, part of the spirit of Judaism.”

The collection includes documents pointing to tight relationships on both sides of the Israeli political spectrum, with letters from late Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Menachem Begin lying side by side.

In his letter, Rabin wrote: “The ‘interpreted Talmud’ opens the gates of Talmud to anyone wishing to study.” He expressed his hope that “this work will expand and deepen the unity among the Jewish people in Israel and in the Diaspora.”

With the Lubavitcher Rebbe

President Shimon Peres wrote, “I would like to congratulate you for the publication of the 25th volume of the Babylonian Talmud. You belong to a handful of people who, through their actions, place a stamp of quality on the Jewish people’s way of life.” In the minutes from his institute’s foundation in 1965, Rabbi Steinsaltz presented his doctrine to the advisory committee members, explaining that the goal of the project was not just to translate and understand the Talmud, but also to impart the Talmudic “ways of thinking.” As he put it, “The problem of studying the Talmud is not in parroting back information studied by others. The essence of the matter is that a person enters what is called ‘the sea of Talmud’ and learns how to swim in it. In other words, the Talmud requires a familiar type of identification with the course of events, with the lines in it, with its ways of thinking, of taking the road of negotiations.”

With late President Zalman Shazar and late Knesset Speaker Kadish Luz

Late Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, who headed the institute during his time in office, even asked other “public figures, activists and intellectuals” to join. In his letter, he stated that “the punctuated text with the full translation from Aramaic, with his commentaries and scientific explanations, are all an important asset for the textbooks of the Jewish people’s writings. Such a publication can facilitate in bringing people closer and attracting anyone interested in these treasures.”

While the initiative was highly appreciated by the religious and secular public, the ultra-Orthodox sector reacted with a public boycott and even slurs. One of the main opponents was Rabbi Elazar Menachem Man Shach, the unshakable leader of the Lithuanian-Haredi community.

Eventually, however, the Haredim gave in and began creating their own versions of the Talmud with translations and interpretations. In fact, they introduced as many as 16 different imitation versions making the Talmudic text more accessible to those who are unfamiliar with it, but the boycott on the rabbi and his work remained unchanged.

French President Jacques Chirac expressed his admiration for the rabbi in a letter from 1994

Below the surface, however, the exchange of letters indicates he had close friendships with people in the Haredi public as well, like Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and other prominent rabbis, whose letters offer a different narrative. Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, for example, referred to the translation volumes as “a valuable asset and a treasure trove.”

Prime Minister Levi Eshkol hoped to turn the rabbi’s work into an Israeli asset

Israel’s former Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau had a lot of appreciation for the rabbi too, as did Rabbi Mordechai Yehudah Leib Sachs, who rushed to issue a letter of support in response to the resistance in the Lithuanian circles. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, who was considered the greatest “posek” (a legal scholar who decides the Halacha) in the United States, expressed his public support for the translation project in several letters.

"The general motto of Father’s entire life’s work was very clear,” says Rabbi Menachem Even-Yisrael. “It’s more important for people to know what they’re doing than how they do it. The goal is knowledge.

With late Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti

“Today people talk about religionization and all that. An organization like ours should have taken the lead on that issue. The goal wasn’t to make people become religious, but to make the Jewish world of knowledge more accessible. Father took a book like the Talmud and made it accessible. “I would like to quote my grandfather, who said it was better to be agnostic than ignorant. This is a state with a Jewish character, let’s say even pluralistic, but what does that actually mean? What is the meaning of this identity? They will tell you to your face: I don’t know.”

Rabbi Menachem Even-Yisrael with his father. ‘Get to know your culture’

Rabbi Even-Yisrael advises all those who are against instilling Jewish knowledge to “simply learn, without being afraid that the child will become religious tomorrow morning. The Jewish folklore, the Sacrifice of Isaac story, is not a religious story. At least get to know your culture. “I was in Rome a couple of weeks ago, and everyone knows where the Colosseum or the Vatican are. Ask an Israeli for the Western Wall’s location, and he’ll tell you it’s in Jerusalem. But have you been there? And where is the Valley of Megiddo, do you know? It’s an amazing place, filled with important events. Knowledge is an important thing, and in the new generation of Israelis it’s super important, because the question being asked is ‘why am I here?’ And many people simply don’t have an answer. Why, actually?”

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