14
The Underground The Hague
Community
December 2011
The Festival of Lights
• In this festive season Andy Paterson looks at the history of The Hague’s Jewish community
Mark Waldman lighting the menorah with his son Rafael
H
anukkah is known as the ‘festival of lights’ and this year will be celebrated between 20 -28 December. It commemorates the Maccabees military victory over the Greek Syrians in the second century BCE and the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. When the Temple was rededicated it was discovered that only one vial of the holy oil remained for lighting the Temple’s menorah which was only enough for one day. Yet when they lit the oil it burned for a miraculous eight days, the exact amount of time needed to press more oil. Hanukkah is a celebration of that miracle.
latkes, or potato pancakes. Children will play a dreidel game with a four-sided spinning top whereby they can win chocolate coins. As with Christmas and Sinterklaas, some families will also give their children presents during Hanukkah.
There has been a Jewish presence in The Hague since the late 17th century. The first arrivals were Portuguese Jews in search of religious freedom. Today the members of the Jewish Liberal Community of The Hague attend services during Hanukkah in their synagogue that has been a place of worship for over two and a half centuries. The synagogue of the Jewish Liberal Traditionally, as part of the Hanukkah celebration, families light Community, originally commissioned by the Honen Dal one candle each night till all the eight candles are lit. Placed in congregation, was designed by celebrated architect Daniel Marot a menorah, the candles burn for half an hour after sunset. The and completed in 1726. A separate congregation of Portuguese menorah is placed at a window or somewhere visible to the Jews, the Beth Jacob congregation, had built a synagogue on public, to remind the community of the miracle at the Korte Voorhout in 1707. By 1743 the two congregations had Temple. As these merged and were using the synagogue designed by Marot as their lights are not to place of worship. In addition to the Portuguese Jews there were be used for any- also Ashkenazic Jews, descended from medieval Jewish commuthing other than nities along the Rhine, who lived and worshiped in The Hague. commemorating They also built a synagogue, in 1723, on the Voldergracht. the Hanukkah miracle, meno- Throughout the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, the rahs also contain Jewish population of The Hague continued to increase, with an ‘attendant’ members attaining important positions in business, government light which is and the arts. By the time the Nazis occupied the Netherlands, used to light the there were more than 10,000 Jews in The Hague, and the Marot other eight synagogue had over 400 members in its congregation. candles. Over the course of the Second World War, the synagogue’s There are also congregation diminished dramatically and eventually the other traditions Portuguese Jewish Community was officially dissolved. that go along with the Hanuk- In 1974, the Jewish Liberal Community acquired the synagogue kah celebration, and two years later, after extensive renovations and upgrades, it such as eating was once again consecrated as a place of worship. food fried in oil, Happy Hanukkah! most notably