It Was A Simple Photo

Certain photos are timeless.  They may be many years old, but still tell a story we instantly recognize today.

These photos don't need to be complex.  Nor, do they need to be taken by a professional photographer.  They don't need to be in color. 

The photo I'm thinking of is none of these. 

It's a photo I saw recently on social media.  It humbled me, because I immediately understood the meaning. I felt as though it was speaking personally to me.

Too bad I can't show you the photo, but I can link to an article about it, so you can see it.  I'll do that in a minute.

It's a simple photo.  It shows a candelabra (let's call it that for now) with nine candles in it, sitting in a window.  The picture was taken by a woman named Rachel Posner.

You can see the photo and read its amazing story here.   

Side note:  the  date is given as 1932 on a note on the back of the photo but the note also gives the year in the Hebrew calendar as 5692.  Hanukkah in that year would have fallen during our secular year of 1931. It's possible the picture wasn't developed until 1932, according to an Internet source.  Let's call it 1931.  The year is important.

Here's the story in brief.  The photo was taken in Kiel, Germany during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah,(story of the holiday here), by a Rabbi's wife. It's a picture of their hanukkiah in a window.  The hanukkiah (the proper name of something we commonly call a menorah) holds candles lit each night for eight nights to celebrate a miracle that will be commemorated, once again, starting tonight. The candles should be lit in a window so they can be seen.  Indeed, Rabbi Dr. Akiva Posner and his wife Rose, along with their three children, placed the hanukkiah in a window facing the street.

Across the street is a building flying a Nazi flag.

On the back of the photo is this message (translated into English): 'Death to Judah' so the flag says, 'Judah will live forever', So the light answers."

The family still uses the hanukkiah during Hanukkah,, but it resides in a Holocaust museum for the rest of the year.  The hanukkiah has left Israel a couple of times, most recently in 2022, when it was returned to Germany and lit on the second night of Hanukkah with the President of Germany present.

We live in perilous times.  Hatred is on the rise.  This photo spoke to me.  "Many have come before you", says this photo.  "The time has come once again to stand up to hate.  That light could not be extinguished in times past despite great suffering. It must not go out now.  Keep the faith."

As I've done for many years, I will light the first of the Hanukkah candles tonight, following footsteps thousands of years old.

Rachel Posner and her family survived the war along with many of the 600 Jewish people in their small town. The family was able to flee Germany in 1933.  Rachel Posner died in 1982, at the age of 81, in Haifa, Israel. 

Hate doesn't always win.  May it not win this time.

Today, I wish those of my readers who commemorate Hanukkah "Hanukkah sameach", or a "Happy Hanukkah".