1-
Aserka lavish Periodical Cotter
CLIFTON AMUR • CINCINNATI 20, OHIO
Detroit Jewish Chroniclle
THIS PAPER PRINTED IN 3 SECTIONS
and The Legal Chronicle
SECTION TWO
10 Cents Single Copy: $3.00 per Yes.
DETROIT, MICHIGAN, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1940
VOLUME 43, No. 52
LIGHT ON CHANUKAH
CHANUKAH AT HOME
CHANUKAH
It Happened on the 25th of Kislev
By Justice Louis D. Brandeis
By BERNARD POSTAL
The Jewish calendar has many
sorrowful Holy Days. Chanukah
—the Feast of Maccabees—is one
of the few joyous Red Letter
days. It celebrates a victory-
-not a military victory only, but
a victory also of the spirit over
things material. Not a victory
only over external enemies—the
Sadducees. A victory of the many
over the ease-loving, safety-play-
ing. privileged, powerful few,
Who in their pliancy would have
betrayed the best interests of
the people, a victory of democ-
racy over aristocracy.
As part of the eternal world-
wide struggle for democracy, the
struggle of the Maccabees is of
eternal world-wide interest. It is
the struggle of the Jews of to-
day as well as of those 2,000
years ago. It is a struggle in
which all Americans, non-Jews
as well as Jews, should be vitally
interested because they are vi-
tally affected.
For the Zionists, the day has
special significance. The Macca-
bees' victory proved that the
Jews—then already an old peo-
ple—possessed the secret of eter-
nal youth. The ability to reju-
venate itself through courage,
hope, enthusiasm, devotion and
self-sacrifice of the plain people.
Then they achieved a rebirth.
"Chanukah at Home" is one of
They will bring again a Jewish
Renaissance.
the famous genre paintings of
Moritz Daniel Oppenheim (1801
Jerusalem was liberated from
the Turks on Chanukah in 1917, 1882), reproduced here by the
General Allenby having entered courtesy of the Jewish Theolog-
the city during the Feast of ical Seminary of America.
Oppenheim studied at the
Lights.
Munich Academy of Fine Arts
and later in Paris and Rome.
He settled in Frankfort-am-Main
in 1825 and achieved such fame
Chanukah Greetings!
for his portraits and Jewish
scenes that, at the instance of
Editor's Note: If you're getting up a quiz program on Jewish
holidays; if you're interested in the quaint origins of Jewish
customs; if you like latkes and light Chanukah candles; or if you
don't know that Christmas and the first day of Chanukah coincide
this year, this compendium of facts, strange and otherwise, about
the Feast of Lights, prepared by Bernard Postal, Bnai Brith's pub-
licity director, will be worth reading and saving.
Jewish women for the soldiers
of Maccabeus when they halted
for rest while pursuing the troops
of the Syrians. So strengthened
*
were the Maccabean wanders by
The story of Chanukah does those pancakes, that Judas Mac-
not appear in the Old Testament cabeus is supposed to have de-
but is recounted in the post- creed that Jews should eat latkes
Biblical Books of the Maccabees, on Chanukah. * *
all written in Greek by Palestin-
The traditional Chanukah drei-
ian, Alexandrian and Cyrenese
Jewish writers within a half a del's four Hebrew letters on each
century after the events por- side — Nun, Gimmel, . Hay and
trayed in the Chanukah saga.. Shin, are the initials of the He-
The writers were followers of brew words Ness Godol Hoyoh
Shorn, meaning •"a great miracle
the Maccabeans.
occurred there," the miracle be-
* *
The 25th day of the Hebrew ing the eight days during which
in the Temple. .
month of Kislev, on which we the oil burned
* * *
celebrate the first day of Chanu-
Among the many explanations
kah, was sacred to the pagan
Greeks before it became a Jew- advanced for the origin of the
ish festival. Antiochus Epiphanes, name Chanukah is that it comes
the Greek ruler who is the vil- from Chanok, or Enoch, a char-
lain of the Chanukah story, of- acter in Genesis, the great-great-
fered a burnt offering in the great-grandson of Adam, who
Temple of Jerusalem on that day lived 465 years, and who is asso-
ciated by mystics with light be-
Goethe, he received the honorary three years before the Macca- cause his years on earth equalled
beans
instituted
Chanukah.
title of Professor from Grand
the number of days of the sun's
* * *
Weimar.
journey.
The first day of Chanukah can
* * «
Duke Karl August of Saxe-
This is a scene of a German never occur on a Tuesday. This
Weddings
may take place on
family gathered to celebrate year it falls on Wednesday, Dec. Chanukah, but not on Purim, al-
25,
which
is
also
Christmas.
Chanukah, showing the tradition-
though both are minor festivals
* * *
al lighting of the candles, the
in the Hebrew calendar.
Today
we
light
one
candle
on
trendel (tops), and the general
games of cards, chess and the first day of Chanukah and
trendel (tops), and the general an additional one on each suc-
atmosphere of comfort and home- cessive day of the festival, but
ly pleasure associated with the once it was customary to light
A Joyous Chanukah to AU
eight candles on the first day
holiday.
and to reduce the number on
each successive night.
* * *
It was once the custom to place
the Chanukah lights outside the
house.
* * *
NEW YORK. — Fifty under- America, which maintains the vil-
The kindling of Chanukah
privileged children from all parts lage.
lights was prohibited in the third
The boys and girls who range
of Palestine, including five who between 1l and 14 years of age, century of the Christian era in
were orphaned during the recent were selected from among 300 Persia because the fire-worship-
ping Magians, to whom fire was
Italian air raid on Tel-Aviv, were applicants recommended by the sacred, were in power.
admitted to the Children's Vil- Jewish Social Service Department
* * *
1530 WASHINGTON BLVD.
lage of Meier Shfeyah, accord- of Palestine. The applicants were
The quaint origin of latkes as
ing to information received here interviewed in Haifa, Tiberias the most popular Chanukah deli-
by Junior Hadassah, the Young and Tel-Aviv, and the most cacy is supposed to be the pan-
Women's Zionist Organization of urgent cases were chosen. They cakes hastily prepared by the
are replacing an equal number
who have graduated from the in
stitution.
Meier Shfeyah, which is situ-
ated in Samaria, about 35 miles
from Haifa, has been maintained
by Junior Hadassah since 1925
as its chief Palestinian project.
The home-school, regarded as a
model of its kind, now has 165
children, most 'of them rescued
from unfit home conditions, some
of them orphans, others young
refugees from Rumania and
Greater Germany. Its education
system is based on the study-
work plan, which provides for
half day's academic study and
half a day's work in the fields
and shops. The children have a
program 'of self-government
through democratically elected
committees.
Chanukah is the only Jewish
festival based on a Jewish tri-
umph of arms against its ene-
mies.
•
TEL-AVIV AIR RAID ORPHANS
DAUBERGER
ADMITTED TO MEIER SHFEYAH
SHIRTMAKER
IRVING, INC.
154 W. LAFAYETTE
CADILLAC 5574
Chanukah
Greetings
Chanukah
Greetings
To You and to Those
UPON THIS OCCASION WE
TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY
TO EXTEND OUR BEST
WISHES TO THE ENTIRE
JEWISH COMMUNITY FOR
A JOYOUS HOLIDAY!
KERN'S
WOODWARD AT GRATIOT
Seek to Encourage
The Observance of
Sabbath in Detroit
Under the direction of the Wo-
men's Branch of the Michigan
Synagogue Conference, a move-
ment has been started to encour-
age the closing of stores in Jew-
.ish neighborhoods on the Sab-
bath.
Committees in charge, which
have the endorsement of the rab-
bis and laymen of the conference,
aim to secure the cooperation of
food stores as well as other busi-
ness houses.
It is announced that to achieve
this end business men will be ap-
proached by committees during
the coming weeks.
One of the monarchs of the
Chazars, a South Russian people
who were converted to Judaism
in the eighth century, was
named Chanukah.
Whose Happiness Is
Yours, a Very Joyous
Holiday.
•
_ _ vVois:
As -
eler
J:
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—
1426 WOODWARD AVE.