Blog Posts Related to the American Jewish Community

Hanukkah at the White House 2013/5774

On Thursday, December 5, the President and Mrs. Obama welcomed members of the American Jewish community to the White House to celebrate Hanukkah.  They hosted two receptions in the Grand Foyer of the White House.  Guests included leaders from a broad range of national and local Jewish organizations; Supreme Court Justices; Administration officials; Members of Congress; leaders from the religious community,  representing an array of denominations and organizations; athletes; actors; academics; musicians; authors; journalists; and other community stakeholders.  The U.S. Marine Band, America’s oldest continuously active professional music organization, known as “the President’s own,” performed in the East Room.

At both receptions, the food preparation occurred under the strict rabbinical supervision of Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Lubavitch Center of Washington (Chabad), in cooperation with the Rabbinical Council of Greater Washington.  Watch this remarkable still-camera video that captures the koshering of the White House kitchen.  

Afternoon Hanukkah Reception

At the afternoon reception, arriving guests were welcomed into the White House to the sounds of Zemer Chai (“living song”), a choir of 30 singers from the Washington, DC metropolitan area dedicated to sharing the rich and diverse musical heritage of the Jewish people. Founded in 1976, the choir sings the full range of the Jewish repertoire.

The President and Mrs. Obama joined guests for the ceremonial candlelighting program as the eighth day of Hanukkah was drawing to a close.  The President made remarks, recognizing the creators of “Thanksgivukkah” and the 10-year-old inventor of the “Menurkey,” created because of the intersection this year of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving.  He then invited a military chaplain, Rabbi Amanda Lurer to recite an appropriate blessing to remind the gathering and the world of the meaning of this holiday.  Rabbi Lurer serves in the U.S. Navy and recently returned from a nine-month deployment in the Eastern Mediterranean. 

Following the blessing, Lainey and Kylie Schmitter, ages 8 and 4, respectively, lit the candles with a little help from their mom, Drew Schmitter.  A military family, Lainey’s and Kylie’s Dad, Jacob Schmitter, is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy currently on his fifth deployment to a forward operating base in Afghanistan. 

The Menorah

President Barack Obama holds up Kylie Schmitter as she and her sister Lainey Schmitter light the menorah during the Hanukkah reception in the Grand Foyer of the White House, Dec. 5, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

The Schmitters lit Manfred Anson’s Statue of Liberty Menorah, which pays tribute to the promise of America for Jews who have emigrated here to find new opportunity and, in many cases, rebuild their lives.  In 1986, to celebrate the centennial of the Statue of Liberty, Anson created the Statue of Liberty Menorah, taking the design of a century-old Polish seven-branched menorah and adapting it for Hanukkah.  He used a Statue of Liberty statuette for each branch of the menorah, transforming Lady Liberty’s torch of freedom into the candleholder for each night of Hanukkah and for the service candle.   Also, he inscribed important events in Jewish history – from the Exodus from Egypt to the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel –onto the base of each statuette and crowned the menorah with the American bald eagle.  The Statue of Liberty Menorah being used this year at the White House was cast from the original mold in 2011 at the request of Dr. Aaron Feingold, who donated it to the National Museum of American Jewish History.  

Evening Hanukkah Reception

At the evening Hanukkah Reception, guests were treated to the sounds of Pizmon, the coed Jewish a cappella group of Columbia University, Barnard College, and The Jewish Theological Seminary of America.  Pizmon (Hebrew for the chorus of a song), performing Jewish music as a source of inspiration and community outreach, was founded in 1987 and is the first collegiate Jewish a cappella group. 

The President and Mrs. Obama joined guests in the Grand Foyer for remarks and a candlelighting program.  On a serious note, President Obama noted the passing, a few hours earlier, of former South African President Nelson Mandela.  He spoke of Hanukkah as “a story of miracles, of a light that burned for eight days when it should have only lasted for one and a people who surmounted overwhelming odds to reclaim their historic homeland, so they could live their lives in peace and practice their religion in peace.”

The President then invited Rabbi Joshua Sherwin, a military chaplain who serves as the rabbi at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, to offer an appropriate blessing to remind the gathering and the world of the meaning of this holiday.  The candles on a special menorah brought from the Jewish Museum in Prague were lit by two Holocaust survivors from the former Czechoslovakia, Margit Meissner and Martin Weiss, from Bethesda, Maryland.  Both are volunteers at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

The Menorah

Holocaust survivors Margit Meissner and Martin Weiss participate in the Menorah lighting with President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama during the Hanukkah reception in the Grand Foyer of the White House, Dec. 5, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

The nineteenth-century brass menorah used at the evening reception – and the fate of the couple who owned it – illuminates the turbulent history of the Jewish community in Bohemia and Moravia during the first half of the twentieth century and the ultimate triumph of good over evil.  In 1922, Abraham Isaac and Hayyah Ettinger, a husband and wife who lived in the Czech town of Hrušov, donated the 19^th century brass menorah to the local prayer hall.  They are named in the Hebrew inscription engraved on the menorah’s base:

The menorah was used in the prayer hall until the Nazis burned it down on the night of June 11, 1939, and demolished the rest of the building during the following winter.  On November 23, 1939, after the annexation of the Czechoslovak border area (the Sudetenland), the Nazis expelled the Ettingers and their three children and deported them to Poland.  The Ettingers were murdered by the Nazis in an unknown place in 1943.

Today, the menorah has been used to celebrate Hanukkah at the U.S. Ambassador’s Residence in Prague, a mansion that was built by a Jewish family in the 1920s and seized by the Nazis and used as a headquarters for their leaders during the German occupation. 

The First Vice Presidential Sukkah

Last night, the Vice President and Dr. Jill Biden hosted their fall Jewish Community reception at the Vice President’s residence. To mark the occasion, which took place during the seven-day festival of Sukkot, the Vice President and Dr. Biden welcomed their guests with the first-ever Vice Presidential sukkah. 

Sukkot is an especially joyous holiday, because it falls right after the days of prayer and introspection that characterize the High Holidays, and it is known as the “season of our rejoicing.”  This annual fall harvest festival also commemorates the 40-year journey of the Jewish people from Egypt through the desert to the Land of Israel.

To recall the journey through the wilderness to the Land of Israel, Jews build and decorate a temporary hut at their homes or synagogues, and the Torah commands that they dwell in them for seven days. Jews most commonly observe this command by eating all of their meals in the sukkah. Additionally, in keeping with the joyous and inclusive nature of the holiday, Jews extend hospitality towards others by inviting guests to dine with them in the sukkah.

Before the reception, sukkah builders from American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) came to the Vice President’s official residence to build the sukkah….

(by Matt Nosanchuk)

After the sukkah was built, a group of Jewish children with disabilities from local area schools, joined by their parents, came to decorate the sukkah. . . 

(by Matt Nosanchuk)

After the sukkah was up, Dr. Biden (and Champ) made a surprise visit to the sukkah….

Dr. Jill Biden joins guests under the sukkah (by Matt Nosanchuk)

And the sukkah, which is a symbol of hospitality and inclusion, was ready for the guests.  Read more about the Vice Presidential sukkah here.

 Matt Nosanchuk is an Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Engagement.

Rosh Hashanah Greetings From the White House

Shanah Tovah from the White House!  At sundown on Wednesday evening, the Jewish community here in the United States and all over the world will begin celebrating Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. 

Over the course of the High Holidays, we reflect on the past year and recommit ourselves to our core values.  This year, the American Jewish community had the opportunity to do this as Jews and as Americans.  That is because Rosh Hashanah this year falls just one week after our entire nation had the occasion to reflect on our values during the historic 50^th anniversary of the March on the Washington. 

 In his 2013 video message for the High Holy Days, President Obama says:

“Fifty years ago last week, Rabbi Joachim Prinz stood with Dr. King on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.  Representing the thousands of Jews there that day, he told the marchers, “When God created man, he created him as everybody's neighbor. Neighbor is not a geographic term. It is a moral concept.”

“For millions of Jews, this moral concept is at the heart of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  As the high holidays begin, it’s a chance not just to celebrate with friends and family, but to ask some of life’s most piercing questions.  Am I treating strangers with kindness?  Am I living not just for myself, but for others?  Am I doing my part to repair the world?  Where we fall short, the New Year is a new opportunity to get things right. 

“And where we still have work to do, the New Year is a chance to reaffirm our commitments.  At home, we must continue building an economy that gives all people willing to work hard a fair shot at a middle-class life.  Beyond our borders, we must stand for the security of our allies, even as we take new steps in the pursuit of peace.  I was proud to visit Israel earlier this year to renew the unbreakable bond between our two countries, and to talk directly with young Israelis about the future we share. 

 “Just like the generations that came before us, we live in challenging times.  But I know that if we work together we can make this moment one of hope for all our neighbors – in America, in Israel, and around the world.  In that spirit, Michelle and I wish you and your family a sweet, happy, healthy, and peaceful New Year.”

 Matt Nosanchuk is an Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Engagement