Obj. ID: 37523  Hanukkah lamp, USA, circa 1870

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.

Tin lamps as a rule did not survive. They were not considered valuable enough to merit saving them. As a result, lamps from this material are far and few between. The European models that are seen from time to time in collections are usually from southern Germany or Alsace. This lamp was found in the United States and is marked with the name of its probable owner, Isaac Levi. The spelling of the name would most likely indicate a Germanic origin, but the spelling would indicate that the person was already in the United States. This is reasonable as the majority of the Jewish immigration at the likely time of the fashioning of this lamp was from Germany. Such Chanukah lamps of American origin are of extreme rarity. There is one probable example in the Jewish Museum in New York.