Hanukkah: The freedom to celebrate
December 10, 2009
Today is the 10th of December – a date prominent around the globe as that on which the Nobel Peace Prize is always awarded. Today it is particularly notable because Barack Obama, the first African American President of the United States of America accepted the honor in Oslo, Norway, because President Obama represents for many global citizens the hope for bringing peaceful resolution to places where conflict and repression reign, and because the peace prize represents ultimately the supreme attainment of peace - which is individual and societal freedom from repression and want.
US President Barack Obama wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize
What many people do not know is that the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded on anniversary of the death of its founder, Alfred Bernard Nobel, a Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator, armaments manufacturer and the inventor of dynamite. I know this because it is also the date that marks the anniversary of the death of my mother, Emma Schaefer, whose parents, my grandparents, born in Europe, were denied the freedom from repression. Like so many European Jews, they were persecuted merely because of their choice to practice their religious beliefs freely. Both sets of my grandparents fled that Europe – the Europe of the Pogroms of the late 19th century, the Europe that denied basic freedoms to many groups because of their religion, beliefs, sect, color, or race. That Europe was the same that allowed Adolf Hitler to rise to power in an attempt to ultimately deny the Jews, among others, the freedom to exist, let alone to practice their beliefs.
And so it is fitting and poignant that this outstanding Black man, this global leader, the President of the country of my birth – the country that grants religious freedom to every individual entering its great shores, the country that helped the Allies to end such repression in Europe – should win the greatest honor in the world on the eve of a holiday that represents the celebration of just such freedom – the Jewish Holiday of Hanukkah, the festival of lights.
Photo by Rahel Sharon via Flickr
This year the joyous Jewish holiday of Hanukkah begins at Sundown on Friday, December 11th. Yet it is also poignant that many of my European friends are not aware of any Jewish celebrations and festivals. Here in Maastricht, like so many places in Europe, there are scant traces of Jews or Jewish culture.
In the city of my birth, Philadelphia, diversity became a ‘calling card’. Philadelphia wasn’t always so, but as I grew up, so did my city. In time, next to the gigantic Christmas tree and decorations in the grand City Hall courtyard, a giant Menorah was placed, the nine-stemmed candelabra that is the symbol of Hanukkah and the Jewish people. So, too, did Philadelphia eventually learn to mark Kwanza, an African holiday celebrated by many African Americans, and eventually the city began to note celebrations of many other cultural and religious groups as well.
Since this year since I will spend Hanukkah in Maastricht, where Sinterklaas, Christmas and Carnival are still the only public celebrations, I have decided to invite friends to share and learn about this festive and meaningful holiday. We will light the Menorah candelabra together, sing songs, share poems and stories, and of course, food and wine.
Perhaps someday Maastricht will grow more diverse and mark the various cultural rituals in a more open way. Until then, please let me share a brief description and explanation of this, my favorite Jewish holiday:
Many Americans are aware of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, with its ritual lighting of candles for eight nights, dreidel games, and festive mood, because it sometimes coincides with Christmas. But the Jewish calendar is lunar-based, having fewer months than the Julian calendar, and while Hanukkah is indeed a time for celebration amongst the Jewish people, the fact that it falls in winter near to Christmas is a coincidence – the two holidays have no common link, as do Passover and Easter. (Easter is determined the old fashioned way, by the moon.)
A Dreidel is a four-sided spinning top, used to play a traditional Hanukkah game
The Hanukkah celebration, like all Jewish holidays, centers on remembrance, song and foods. Although the terms “festival” and “miracle” are commonly associated with Hanukkah (which has accepted alternative spellings), its literal translation, “dedication”, is integral to the story of the first Hanukkah. In fact, the lighting of the candles symbolizes more than the well-known miracle of the bit of oil that lasted for eight days and nights: the act also represents the rekindling of the spirit of courage and dedication to preserving religious freedom.
It was in the second century B.C. that the Jews of Palestine found themselves once again being persecuted for their religious beliefs. Around 168 B.C., a wicked Syrian king named Antiochus Epiphanies, who had openly proclaimed his hatred of the Jews, intensified his campaign to obliterate the Jewish religion and replace it with Hellenism. His torture of Jews is said to have included forcing them to pay homage to Greek gods and perform blood sacrifices at the pagan altars of Hellenism.
Such practices were against the very heart of Judaism, but the ultimate act of indignity committed against the Jewish people was Antiochus’ erecting such an altar in the most sacred Temple in Jerusalem. An aged Jewish priest, Mahathais Maecabaeus, living nearby Jerusalem in the city Modin, not only refused to engage in blood sacrifice, he slew an apostate Jew who was about to do so, and thus, struck the first blow against this persecution in those times. For the next three years the aged rebel and his five sons led a revolt against Antiochus, Hellenism and religious persecution.
Maastricht synagogue
After Mahathais died, his third son, Judas, continued the revolt, finally defeating the well-fed, well-equipped army of Antiochus with his own raggedy troops. His ultimate triumph, however, was the restoration of the sacred Temple in Jerusalem. He and his followers cleaned and purified the desecrated Temple, expelling false idols and scrubbing the blood of heathen sacrifice.
And so, it was during this restoration that they discovered the precious vial of oil which had been used to fuel the Temple’s Eternal Light. On 25 Kislew, in the year 165 B.C., Judas and his people rededicated the sacred Temple, and although there was only enough oil to burn for one day, it miraculously lasted eight days and nights.
Hanukkah, therefore, represents far more than a miracle of lights, it represents the dedication of a people to the ideal of freedom. It seems so fitting that President Obama’s prestigious award in Norway, so close to Maastricht, sets the mood for this holiday precisely. May all of us, always have the freedom to celebrate our own customs in our own ways.
by Susan Schaefer
Schaefer Communications, LLC
December 10, 2009
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