Jewish Kids Press Olive Oil in Preparation for Chanukah

Kids crowded the Chabad Jewish Community Center of Riverside, CA to learn how to make olive oil on Sunday, Nov. 10.

Why? Because the oil is central to an important chapter in Jewish history, which is celebrated in the upcoming eight-day festival of Hanukkah, said visiting Rabbi Sender Engel.

A “mean king,” the Syrian-Greek emperor Antiochus who ruled the Holy Land in 168 BCE, tried to force the Jewish people to worship Greek gods, the rabbi told his audience. The king’s soldiers invaded and defiled the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

When a group of Jews called the Maccabees fought back and regained control of the temple, they sought to purify and rededicate it but discovered that only one day of pure olive oil was available to light the Menorah, he said. They lit the first candle, which burned for eight days until more pure oil could be obtained.

With the help of several volunteers, Rabbi Engel then demonstrated how olive oil is made today. You start with “black juicy olives,” he said. Young assistants passed around baskets of olives and each person selected three, which they dropped into pitchers.

Those olives were placed in a hand press and weighted down, and then another young volunteer worked the handle until olive juice began to trickle out. That juice was poured into four test tubes and placed into a centrifuge. As the tubes spun, the lighter oil rose to the top, separated from the juice by a layer of pulp. The rabbi poured off some of the oil into a candle for the Chanukia — a Menorah with eight lights used for the holiday.

Two more volunteers made wicks by rolling pieces of cotton back and forth in their palms. Then the rabbi inserted a wick into the oil and lit it.

Rabbi Engel, who is based in Huntington Beach, was invited to Riverside by Rabbi Shmuel Fuss, executive director of the Riverside Chabad center.