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Greetings
My Papa and Hanukah
bv ALFRED SEGAL
Bailey’s Supreme Coffee
THE MAR-GOLD CORPORATION
Greetings
GOODMAN DECORATING CO.
HARRY GOODMAN LEONARD DIAMOND
Greetings
♦ ♦
MORTON FROZEN FOODS
Division of
Continental Baking Co.
HOLIDAY
GREETINGS
Tennessee Egg Co., Inc.
448 Georgia Ave., S.W. Atlanta, Ga.
JA. 2-6775
Yes, my papa . . . when I was a
kid, long, long, long ago. My papa
and Hanukah! He made a noble
occasion of it . . . not just one of
the lighting the candles and mut
tering the prescribed blessings. He
gave a sermon of his own at the
lighting of the first candle. And at
the lighting of each of the other
candles he would say to us all . . .
there were 7 of us ... ‘I hope you’ll
remember what this is all about.”
All seven of us would stand
with him and mama at the front
window of the small house in
which we lived. The house was in
a neighborhood in which no other
Jewish families resided. It was
called “Over-the-Rhine” because
the community was all German,
and German was spoken on all the
streets in the neighborhood. (And
I was taught German in the ele
mentary public school across the
street. Indeed in our town German
was taught in all the public schools
from the first grade up in that
period of the city’s existence.)
Yes, at our front window Hanu
kah was quite a public occasion.
Seeing those candle lights in the
front window, our German neigh
bors would gather there to look in.
And some of them would come in
by the front door to listen in on
papa saying the blessings.
I remember one of them in par
ticular . . . Herr Schultz ... a
native German with a gray beard.
He said to papa, ‘‘I come to join
you in your good religion,” and
papa replied, “Come right in, I’m
happy to have fine neighbors who
so well know that God is One for
all of us.”
Papa recited the Hanukah serv
ice in Hebrew and he let me . . .
since I was the oldest of the kids
. . . light the first candle of Hanu
kah. Then he turned to Mr.
Schultz, saying, “I was saying this
in Hebrew, now I’ll try to tell it
all to you in English. First of all
Mr. Schultz, maybe I should tell
what it’s all about. It has to do
with religious freedom which was
taken away from us Jews, long,
long ago and which we regained by
battle and a lot of the Jews perish
ed, but anyway, we won the battle
for religious liberty and returned
to worship in our temple from
which we had been driven.”
“Congratulations on such a holy
day!” exclaimed Mr. Schultz, “con
gratulations on your victory of
freedom for your religion.”
(Though I was about 13 years
old at the time, I keep remember
ing that Hanukah, because through
many years afterward, at Hanukah
time papa kept on telling about
the incident in which Mr. Schultz
joined in Hanukah at our front
window. He was a Lutheran and
papa used to say “I’ll never forget
Mr. Schultz at our Hanukah serv-
The Southern Israelite
ice. His joining with us there
helped along the high ideal of re
ligious liberty which we were cele
brating on Hanukah.”)
Well, the candle light was grow
ing brighter at our front window
as papa kept telling Mr. Schultz all
about Hanukah . . . about the his
toric date ever so long ago ... the
year 168 before the Christian era
. . . when the Syrians took over
our Temple in Jerusalem and drove
us out and set up an image of their
god in it.
Then, as papa used to tell us . . .
and as he told Mr. Schultz . . . our
Maccabees came along to make
war for religious freedom . . . “One
of the finer purposes of all the
wars of history,” papa time and
again used to tell us in front of
the Hanukah lights in our house
through many years.
I remember him saying to Mr.
Schultz, “Yes, it was one of the
few wars that were really worth
while in the world.”
And Mr. Schultz asked "And
why, Mr. Segal, are you lighting
those candles in the window?” So
papa told him about the miracle
in the temple, which was discover
ed when, by battle, the Temple
was restored to the worship of the
One God . . . “Yes, Mr. Schultz, a
small jar of oil was found in our
Temple which had been in black
darkness in the time we Jewish
people were out of it. So, the oil
was poured in a golden candle
stick on the temple altar, until
more oil could be had. The oil
burned eight days in the temple,
and for that reason, Mr. Schultz,
we burn these candles for eight
days . . . one more candle each
day.”
Papa then recited to Mr. Schultz
in rather stumbling English the
blessing he had given in Hebrew
at the lighting of the candles:
“Yes, Mr. Schultz, I was blessing
God who commanded us to kindle
these lights this holy day of Hanu
kah, as we call it.”
He put in my own hands the
prayer book, saying, “Read this
English translation to Mr. Schultz,
pointing to the final paragraph in
the blessing. Atid I read: “We kin
dle these lights on account of the
miracles the deliverances and the
wonders which Thou didst work
for our fathers. During all the
eight days of Hanukah these lights
are sacred. . . . We are only to look
at them in order that we may give
thanks unto Thy name for Thy
miracles, Thy deliverances and
Thy wonders.”
“Thanks, thanks,” exclaimed Mr
Schultz, “for revealing to me such
fineness of religion.”
And papa replied, “Please, Mr.
Schultz, call on us again next
Hanukah.”