Obj. ID: 11625 Hanukkah lamp, Algeria, circa 1930
sub-set tree:
The following description was prepared by William Gross:
The festival of Chanukah is celebrated in the winter period around December and commemorates a Biblical story in which the Jews of the Land of Israel rebel against the Greek occupiers. They reclaim the desecrated Holy Temple in Jerusalem and, miraculously, the small amount of pure oil remaining is enough to keep the Temple light going for eight days. Lamps with eight burners are lit during this holiday, both in the synagogue and at home. Through the centuries, such lamps have taken a wide variety of forms.
Almost all Chanukah lamps made in North Africa are either of artisan worked sheet brass or of sand cast brass. This example is made of cut sheet metal with hand die-stamped decoration on the back wall and the sides. This method of die stamping brass was also common in the production of Jewish objects by the Jewish artisans of Morocco and produces a particularly balanced and aesthetic grace to the lamp. The star and crescent, so prominent at the top of the back wall of this Chanukah menorah, is seen regularly on the Judaica of Algeria and is on another Algerian lamp in the Gross Family Collection, 010.002.009.