A miraculous menorah that has symbolized Jewish resilience has made its way to the front lines of the war between Israel and Hamas.
The historic piece is famous for its iconic 1931 photograph taken by Rachel Posner, a Jewish mother of three living in Kiel, Germany.
The image defiantly shows a menorah on a windowsill, all eight candles lit, as a Nazi party flag flies outside.
On Sunday, December 10, the fourth day of Hanukkah, Posner’s great-grandson Raziel Gilo, a 35-year-old Israel Defense Forces reservist, brought a menorah to the Gaza border to inspire his unit.
“We face a brutal and terrifying enemy who wants to destroy Israel,” Gilo told The Post. “This enemy does not separate a religious Jew from a non-religious Jew. They want to kill every Jew because he is a Jew — just like the Nazis tried to do.”
Her great-grandmother Rachel, with her rabbi husband and three young children, lived across from the Nazi headquarters in Kiel and had to flee Germany by 1933.
Jewish mother Rachel Posner took this photo from her home — across from Nazi headquarters — in Kiel, Germany, on the last day of Hanukkah in 1931. Yad Vashem Photo Archive Posner’s grandson Raziel displays the menorah, and the photo, at an IDF base on December 10, fourth day of Hanukkah 2023. Courtesy o Raziel Gil
They arrived in Palestine during Hanukkah 1934 — escaping persecution with a simple copper menorah behind them, as well as a photo of Rachel.
On the back of the photo, he wrote what his grandson Nava Gilo now calls a “prophetic” speech: “Death to Judah – so the flag says / Judah will live forever – so the light answers.”
Since 1974, when Posner sent the picture to the Kiel museum, it has become an iconic symbol. Dani Dayan, Israel’s former Consul General to New York and current chairman of Yad Vashem — Israel’s Holocaust Memorial — previously told The Post that she posts a photo of the menorah on her social media channels every year for Hanukkah.
The Posner family menorah is now on display at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Israel. Yad Vashem Photo Archive On the back of the photo, Rachel Posner wrote: “Death to Judah — so the flag says/ Judah will live forever — so the light answers.” Yad Vashem Photo Archive
Last year, Nava, who lives in the central Israeli town of Rehovot, and his brother Yehuda Mansbach brought the menorah to Germany for the first time in nearly 90 years, meeting President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin to light it on the second day. from Hanukkah.
It’s usually displayed at Yad Vashem except for Hanukkah, when the Posner family takes it to one of their homes and Mansbach takes it to an Israeli school to share “our important history and message” with children, Nava said. “It’s very important that it doesn’t get stuck in my generation.”
Rabbi Dr. Akiva Posner, his wife Rachel and their three children: (from left) Shulamit, Tova and Avraham Chaim, at the train station in Kiel after leaving Germany in 1933. Yad Vashem Photo Archive
“It’s amazing the difference between past Hanukkahs [and this year],” said Nava. “Has this Hanukkah a new dimension to the story. The war reminds us that we still have a long way to go but we take it with our heads held high and with great confidence. As my grandmother wrote: ‘Judah will live forever.’”
This year, Nava’s son Raziel, a rabbi for his unit, asked to take the menorah with him to a base near the Gaza border where, on Sunday, he pulled the precious family memento from his backpack and shared his story of survival.
“To continue humane life we need to destroy evil. We cannot accept or swallow it — we have to destroy evil,” Raziel, who lives in Lod, told his team as he lit a candle. “Today we see it in a clear way, if we do not win, the darkness will swallow us. But this will not happen. We are here because previous generations fought evil and we will win…
In 2022, Posner’s grandson Yehuda Mansbach (right) brought the menorah from Israel back to Germany, where he lit it in front of German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier and First Lady Elke Büdenbender. Bundesregierung / Sandra Steins
“This is a war of many years between the forces of light and the forces of darkness and [we] believe that one day will come when the light will surely win. This is the meaning of the small light of the Hanukkah candle … My grandmother saw two things: One that the candle will win, and the second thing is the eternity of Israel.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
