Obj. ID: 39150 Hanukkah lamp, Baghdad, circa 1925
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.
This is an example of the 20th-century Iraqi Chanukah lamp which can be used either standing or on the wall by means of a hinge arrangement under the arms of the lighting section. The round style, generally considered not kosher for Chanukah use, received a special dispensation and ruling from the rabbis of Baghdad at the end of the 19th century. The European style of the lamp shows the foreign influences in Iraq, especially from France, that helped shape the various types of ritual objects produced there.