Those of us with Jewish ancestors may reflect at this time of year of our forebears’ experiences of the annual festival of Chanukah (Hanukkah/חֲנֻכָּה). This year, in 2021, Chanukah (or ‘Festival of Lights’) begins on Sunday 28 November, at sundown.
On this day, the first candle of the Chanukiah (eight-branched menorah) is lit. The festival lasts for eight days: each night from then until Monday 6 December, an additional candle is lit until all nine (the night candle lights the others) are lit.
The festival celebrates the recovery of Jerusalem and the rededication of the Second Temple by Judas Maccabeus (Judah Maccabee), after he and his fellow Jewish rebel warriors (later known as the Maccabees) defeated the armies of the Seleucid empire (now Syria) in 2nd century BCE Judea. Chanukah means ‘dedication’ in Hebrew.
The rebellion began after King Antiochus IV Epiphanes began a campaign of repression against the Jews, banning Jewish practices, seizing Jerusalem, and turning the city’s Second Temple into a site of pagan worship. After the Maccabees had recovered the Temple, they celebrated for eight days, cleansing the ruins, and rebuilding and rededicating the altar. Although there was only one cruse of oil – enough for one day’s light – a miracle occurred as the oil lasted eight days.
Lighting the menorah’s candles during Chanukah recall the miracle of one cruse of oil lasting all eight days. The light from the candles reminds the triumph of light over darkness. Our Jewish ancestors also marked the festival by giving money to charity, allowing the poor to have candles.
Traditional ways to celebrate Chanukah now include giving Chanukah gelt (money) to children, playing games with a dreidel, and eating latkes (fried potato pancakes) and doughnuts. The dreidel is a four-sided spinning top with the Hebrew letters on the four sides forming an acronym of the phrase Nes Gadol Hayah Sham, “a great miracle happened there”.
On 16 December 1914, just four months into what would become the First World War, page 6 of the Newcastle Journal reported the following:
A deeper significance than usual will attach this
year to the Feast of Hanukah, which the Jewish
community celebrates this week, seeing that it
commemorates the prowess of Jews on the field of
battle, and very many thousands of them are at
the present time endeavouring to emulate the
deeds of the ancient Maccabees when they heroically
resisted the Grecian tyranny which sought to make
an end to Judaism and of the Hebrew race. The
events with which the festival is associated took
place more than 2,000 years ago, but the spirit
of the lessons associated with those events lives as
strongly to-day as it did then. The proud record
of Jews in the present campaign is eloquent of the
fact.
In 1900, fourteen years earlier, the Jewish population of Newcastle was around 2,000. It is interesting to see the local newspaper of the time comparing the bravery of Jewish soldiers on the Western Front in 1914 with their counterparts in Jerusalem in 164 BCE.
In reflecting on what our non-Jewish ancestors knew of Chanukah, it is worth noting that although the story is little told outside Jewish cultural references, there is one celebrated exception. In 1746, five years after he completed The Messiah, a work associated with the Christian festival of Easter, composer George Frideric Handel composed the oratorio, Judas Maccabaeus. This tells the story of Chanukah via a three-act dramatization of the Maccabean Revolt (167-160 BC).
Under the Nazi regime, a process of “aryanising” cultural works took place to disassociate them from Judaism. The Nazis were quick to target the oratorios of German-born Handel. As early as 2 November 1936, the Daily Mirror reported that a Catholic German newspaper had protested at what it described as “the mutilation of Handel’s Judas Maccabeus, showing the human connection in the story. Sadly, the protest was in vain and under Nazi rule, the work became known as William of Nassau.
In 1752, when the 5th Duke of Argyll was 29 years old, the date of New Year was changed in the rest of Britain to 1 January. This dating system is the present Gregorian calendar. Until then, the Duke would have needed to check what year the same day in January, February or March (up to 24th) was for different years.
Although this can be confusing, it is a useful tip to bear in mind when researching across British historical records.
Even in the darkest times during the war, Jews would do everything they could to celebrate this festival of light over dark – good over evil. At the end of the war, the aryanised works reverted to their original state. The best-known part of Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus is the chorus, ‘See, the Conquering Hero Comes!’.
Handel had composed this originally for his 1747 oratorio, Joshua, but the popular response to the work led him to include it in Judas Maccabaeus. The tune is used for the hymn Thine Be The Glory, but it is also used for the Chanukah song, Hava Narima. The aryanisation failed: once again, the miracle of light had conquered the dark.
Please contact us for more information