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November 28, 1980 - Image 7

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1980-11-28

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Hanuka Customs Throughout the World

By RABBI SHMUEL
HIMELSTEIN

World Zionist Press Service

JERUSALEM — Hanuka
is the time for dreidel, for
latkes and for Ma'oz Tzur
for Jews throughout the
world, right? Well, actually,
that is only true for those
Jews whose forebears came
from either Central or East-
ern Europe; for Jews whose
ancestors hailed from Spain
(including most of those
who lived in the Near East
rid North Africa), these
Moms are completely
eign.

We must remember that
Jewish practice is divided
into two parts: Jewish law,
which is a constant, regard-
less of where one lives, and
custom, which evolves in
each environment. Jewish
law requires one to light the
Hanuka menora, and that
is a practice found through-
out the world; Jewish cus-
tom in Europe had its latkes
and dreidlakh — but these
customs were limited to the
Ashkenazic Jews.

You probably haven't
heard of the song "Yatza
Limlokh," sung yearly in
the traditional melody —

but then again, neither
have the Jews of Iraq, who
sing this particular song on
Hanuka, heard of Ma'oz
Tzur.
Iraqi Jewish students
used to receive a gift for
Hanuka which was
called a menora — a page
printed in the form of a
menora on colored
paper, using gold-
colored ink. It contained
various quotations about
Hanuka, and had a space
for the student's name to
be inscribed. The pages
were specially printed
for the students in Cal-
cutta.
Another gift was the
complete story of Hanuka in
booklet form, written in
Arabic, but using Hebrew
type.
It is traditional that
whenever there is the read-
ing of the Torah, the first
person called up is a Kohen,
or priest — one of the de-
scendants of Aaron the
High Priest, brother of
Moses. In Libya, there was a
custom for the Gabbai (war-
den) of the synagogue to be
called up first to the Torah
on the first day of Hanuka,
as a symbol of the thanks

the congregation owed him
for his dedicated work
throughout the year.
The Jews of Morocco had
a custom of reciting eight
different verses of the Bible '
on Hanuka when taking out
the Torah scroll from the
Ark. Each verse mentioned
the word "light." Instead of
latkes, though, they used
doughnuts.
Another Moroccan
custom was a fast day
that was held on either
the second or third of the
month of Tevet, or the
last day of the holiday.
This was not a conven-
tional fast day — that
would be forbidden on a
holiday — but was a day
that everyone stopped

Friday, November 28, 1980 7

CREATIVE TABLES, INC. LTD.

talking for the entire day,
in order to atone for all
those things that he had
said that he shouldn't
have!

In Tunis, the first day of
the month of Tevet (the
sixth day of Hanuka), was a
special day for girls, and
was called "the Rosh
Hodesh (New Month) of the
Girls." On that day the
women baked honey cakes,
and everyone sent along
gifts to the girls. Every man
who was engaged would
send along gifts to his bet-
rothed. A special festive
meal was also held on that
day in each home, to com-
memorate how Judith had
managed to overcome
Holofernes.

• custom made just for you
• laminates, glass, lucite, marble
• tables, wall units, credenzas, etc.
• delightfully fine workmanship

• delightfully low prices

Muriel Wetsman
3544126

Vicky Leebove
851-0789

A 19th Century menora from Poland, top photo-
graph, is shown with a stone menora from Yemen that
was made early in this century.

Terrorists Injured in Plan
to Bomb Swiss Synagogue

GENEVA (JTA)— A link
Alleween an "Armenian Lib-
t ion Front" and the
Palestine Liberation
Organization has surfaced
in connection with the ar-
rests of Syrian terrorists of
Armenian origin who ap-
parently were planning to
bomb the main synagogue
in Geneva.
Both were injured when
explosives they were han-
dling in their hotel room
near the synagogue deto-
nated prematurely. They
are being held in prison
pending trial. The suspects
were described as a student
who lived in Beirut and a
24-year-old woman who
lived in the U.S. They ad-

mitted to having been re-
cruited by the PLO in Be-
irut.
The so-called "Secret
Army for the Liberation of
Armenia" in Beirut pub-
lished a warning that if the
two were not released im-
mediately, the group would
strike at Swiss and
"Zionist" targets around the
world. The communique
charged that the pair were
being tortured in the
Geneva jail by the CIA and
the Mossad, Israel's exter-
nal intelligence agency, and
that they had gone on a
hunger strike. The suspects
have denied being tortured
and are not on a hunger
strike.

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