As Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Light, approaches, a Brussels-based organization BASSAD has distributed more than 50,000 kits that include menorahs, candles and explanation brochures in 8 languages to 32 European Jewish communities.
The 8-day Jewish holiday, which begins on the eve of the 25th of the Jewish month of Kislev – which is on sunset December 20 - celebrates the triumph of light over drakness, of purity over adulteration, of spirituality over materiality.
More than twenty-one centuries ago, the Holy Land was ruled by the Syrian-Greek Seleucids who sought to forcefully Hellenize the people of Israel.
Against all odds, a small band of faithful Jews defeated one of the mightiest armies on earth, drove the Greeks from the land, reclaimed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and rededicated it.
When they sought to light the Temple's menorah (the seven branched candelabrum), they found only a single cruse of olive oil that had escaped contamination by the Greeks. Miraculously, the one-day supply burned for eight days, until new oil could be prepared under conditions of ritual purity.
To commemorate and publicize these miracles, the sages instituted the festival of Hanukkah. At the heart of the festival is the nightly menorah lighting: a single flame on the first night, two on the second evening, and so on till the eighth night of Chanukah, when all eight lights are kindled.
BASSAD was established to strengthen Jewish identity among Jews across Europe and facilitate the access to the mainstays of Jewish observance.
"Assisting communities in practicing their heritage consistently, proudly and fully is integral part of the growth of Jewish life in Europe," says Rabbi Yehuda Reichman, BASSAD’s director, who explains that even well established communities have sometimes extremely limited access to holiday symbols which makes it difficult to maintain a normative community life.