This is a poster advertising the celebration of lighting the eighth Chanukah candle that was held on Sunday, December 27, 1981 in Tel Aviv. The poster, written in English, states that the event was sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism and was to include lighting the Chanukah candles and music. A picture of a chanukiya with eight lit candles is also featured on the poster. The event was held with “the generous contribution” of Israeli companies of the time: Shiff Hotel Chain, Osem, “West” Wine, Monford, and Discount Bank. The programme included music from the Kfar Chabad Orchestra, a singer called Gabi Berlin, and a choir from the school Kiryat Chinuch Yaffo. The bright and colourful illustration at the bottom of the poster depicts eight people joining arms and dancing. Each of the eight people is dressed in a different style, depicting different groups in Jewish Israeli society: a kibbutznik, a Chasid, a tourist with a camera around her neck, a Yemenite Jews, a typical sabra, and a businessman. The overall image is of a diverse group of Jews, men and women, singing and dancing together.
It is interesting to note the venue of the event: Kikar Namir. This is a square, also known as Atarim Square, which is situated near the beach in Tel Aviv and connected to the promenade. Once a neighbourhood of shacks and shanties built to house Jewish refugees who were banished from Jaffa in 1921, it became a tourist centre and the centre of Tel Aviv night life in the 1970s and 1980s. The area has declined ever since, and all attempts to renovate the square have failed.
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Chanuka - Chanuka celebrates the rededication of the Temple by Judah the Maccabee and his army after their victory over the Greeks in 165 BCE. One of the well-known miracles of the Chanukah story is the small portion of oil that was able to light the Menorah in the Temple and burn for eight nights. Chanukah begins on 25 Kislev and is celebrated by lighting a Chanukiya for eight nights. It is also traditional to eat fried foods (to symbolise the oil) and play with spinning tops known as dreidles.
Chanukiya - A chanukiya is the special menorah (candelabra) that is lit on the holiday of Chanukah. Candles are lit to commemorate the miracle of the oil, which despite being enough to last for only one day, miraculously lasted for eight days. The chanukiyah is lit every night of the eight-day festival with an additional candle being added each day, so that by the last night, all eight are lit. Chanukiyot are traditionally placed in the window or by the door of the house in order to publically proclaim the Chanukah miracle. Ideally it is lit with oil, preferably olive oil, but candles are also permissible and are more common nowadays. The chanukiyah is often wrongly called a menora, which was the seven-branched candelabra lit as part of the daily worship in the temple. The chanukiya, however, has nine branches, one for each of the days of Chanukah and one for the shamash, the candle which is used to light the others.
Tel Aviv-Jaffa – Founded in 1909 by a small group of Jews on the outskirts of old Jaffa, Tel Aviv is now Israel’s second largest city and the cultural, financial, and technological centre of the country. It is located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the heart of the Gush Dan Metropolitan area. The original founders of Tel Aviv were looking for a healthier environment outside of the crowded city of Jaffa. With the help of the Jewish National Fund, they purchased 12 acres of sand dunes and called their new city Tel Aviv (spring hill). “Tel Aviv” was the name given by Nahum Sokolow to his Hebrew translation of Theodor Herzl’s classic, Altneuland. Meir Dizengoff was the first mayor of Tel Aviv and served for 25 years. In 1917, the Ottoman rulers expelled most of the Jewish community from Tel Aviv. With the end of World War I and the start of British rule the following year, the Jews were invited back to Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv is sometimes called the “White City” due to the 4000 or more buildings built in the Bauhaus style. The mostly white Bauhaus buildings were built in the 1930s by German Jewish architects who immigrated to pre-state Israel during the British Mandate after the rise of the Nazis in Germany. Tel Aviv has the largest number of Bauhaus buildings of any city in the world. On May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was declared in the art museum that was located in Dizengoff House. By 1950, the city of Tel Aviv had grown and expanded, and it was renamed Tel Aviv-Jaffa to reflect the unified city and to preserve the historical name of Jaffa. Tel Aviv is the home of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and the financial capital of Israel. It is also the centre of high-tech and start-up companies and a major centre of culture and entertainment, known for its active nightlife and the variety and quality of its restaurants.
