Hadassah Backman remembers her first public menorah lighting nearly 10 years ago.
As she stood in the throngs of people crowded into New York City’s Central Park, she could feel their differences melt away under the menorah’s soft glow.
Jews mark Hanukkah as a festive triumph of the spirit
Hadassah Backman remembers her first public menorah lighting nearly 10 years ago.
As she stood in the throngs of people crowded into New York City’s Central Park, she could feel their differences melt away under the menorah’s soft glow.
“So many people were connected by these lights,” says Backman, 25. “So many people were inspired by these lights.”
At sundown, she and her husband, Rabbi Levi Backman, will begin celebrating their first Hanukkah in Bellingham. The Backmans are directors of Chabad of Bellingham, a Jewish enrichment and education center that is one of more than 3,000 locations worldwide. This year, Chabad is organizing a community menorah lighting in the Fairhaven Village Green.
“For a lot of people in Whatcom County, this time will be the first time,” says Rabbi Levi Backman, 26.
Though the scale will be smaller, Hadassah Backman thinks this year’s public menorah lighting will have a similar effect to her Central Park experience.
“That light of kindness that connects us as humans … I’m confident that it’s there,” she says. “I can’t think of a city in the world that is warmer than Bellingham.”
The lighting will be followed by a party at the Fairhaven Library, where the public is welcome to experience Hanukkah traditions. Though Judaism does not promote proselytizing or conversion, the eight days of Hanukkah are meant to be shared, with menorahs placed in windows, doorways or outside.
“We don’t take the light for ourselves,” Rabbi Levi Backman says. “For Hanukkah, it’s sort of our duty to spread the message and spread the word.”
And the word is thanks — thank you to God for three miracles that happened around 165 B.C.E. years ago when the Assyrians were trying to impose their culture upon the Israelites, and the Maccabees rebelled. The first miracle is how the Maccabees won the war against the Assyrians despite being vastly outnumbered. After defeating the Assyrians, the Maccabees rededicated their temple in Jerusalem, where all but one container of oil had been destroyed and their menorah taken. The second miracle is the single unharmed container of oil, and the third is that the oil lasted for eight days, long enough to press olives into more oil.
“We had to make a holiday from this to celebrate forever the freedom of life and the freedom of values,” Backman says.
To recall the oil that lasted, people eat doughnuts and latkes — potato pancakes — fried in oil. In memory of those eight days, a candle is lit each night on the menorah.
“The flames talk to us every year,” he says. “They say, ‘hang in there.’ ”
For many, these eight days are a time to rededicate themselves to their faith and come together with family. Because Hanukkah falls on the 25th day of the month of Kislev on the Hebrew lunar calendar, it begins at a different time on the secular calendar each year. This year the timing was great for Robin Zemble, a senior at Western Washington University, where the last day of finals is today. She plans on eating lots of latkes at her parents’ Hanukkah party. “It’s nice to be able to go home,” she says.
Mimi Notik
Woohoo! Go Backmans! Happy Channukah! And keep up the good work…
Saacks Family in Chciago
Levi and Hadassah,
Keep up the good work and may have lots and lots of Nachas.
Assyria
Historically your story is wrong.The ancient Assyrians in 165 B.C. were not ruling but it was the Greek-Syrians who had ruled over the Middle East at that time.So to falsely claim something that didn’t happen is to be telling history backwards.
Check your facts and history correctly and don’t impose wrong and false information on the public because it is rediculous to defame a people that didn’t rule during the time that the story took place.
Levi-s sis
omg wow levi u famous! im so proud to be your when i see these things. meir is so small compareed to the draidel its probbly frighttening to play with. have a happy chanuka, luv all u guyz
ISchier
That error regarding Assyria, and it is a major error, is the fault of the small town paper (The Bellingham Herald) from which the original article was taken. It could be sloppy journalism or a simple computer software spellcheck generated typo.
Complain to the paper; we are here to share the meaning of our holiday and not to defame anyone.
Mashi Benzaquen
Levi and Hadassah,
What a nice surprise to see you featured here! Happy Chanukah! I hope the weather is not disrupting your activities! I am probably one of the few who can comment and say that I have been to Bellingham and can testify to the amazing work you are doing with the college students there! Thanks again for a moving Shabbos and for all of your help and kindness. Our kids are still talking about Meir!
chaya
hadassah is my sisters freind