This Saturday, December 14th the last event of the “Meeting Jewish holidays” took place, organized by the Foundation within the Shtetl of Tsanz initiative with cooperation of the Voivodeship Pedagogical Library and Regional Museum in Nowy Sącz.

Hanukkah is one of the most family-cincentrated Jewish holidays and lasts eight days. It is often called the “holiday of lights”, which refers to the miracle, that took place after the Maccabean revolt. Then, after overthrowing of the Seleucid rule and re-dedication of the Jerusalem Temple, oil lamps were ritually lit. Despite the small amount of oil, the light was burning for eight days, which was taken as miracle.

On Sunday, December 14th at 17:00 in the Old Synagogue at 12 Berka Joselewicza str. the significance of the Hanukkah holiday was explained by thechief rabbi of Kraków Eliezer Gurary. Together with the representatives of Nowy Sącz authorities they symbolically lit hanukkiah – a holiday candlestand. The events from the Book of the Maccabees were presented by the actors of the Nomina Rosae Theatre: Jan Korwin Kochanowski, Anna Jurczak, Karolina Fortuna and Karolina Lisik. We also had a chance to listen to the christian priests from Nowy Sącz – fr. Dariusz Chwastek, pastor Jacek Orłowski and fr. Jan Polak – who explained the significance of light in other religions. The meeting was concluded with the summary of the activities of the “Shtetl of Tsanz” in 2014. We’ve spoken a little about plans for the next year.

The event was the last from the “Meeting Jewish holidays” series, which aimed to propagate knowledge about Jewish holidays and culture, started on initiative of the Shtetl of Tsanz.

The event admission is free. The organizers of the meeting are: Nomina Rosae Foundation (Shtetl of Tsanz), Regional Museum in Nowy Sącz and Voivodship Pedagogical Library.