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: - — 1426 WOODWARD AVE.