Chanuka Festivities Planned

The Jewish community prepared today to celebrate the Chanuka festival which begins at sundown tomorrow marking the victory of the Maccabees more than 2000 years ago over the Syrian tyrant, Antiochus Epiphanes. Political leaders issued greetings on the occasion of the Festival of Lights as various Jewish organizations and leaders announced plans for community-wide festivities.

Mayor John V. Lindsay said in a message from City Hall that “There is a need for Maccabees today, not only in Israel, where the Jewish people are following the tradition of their ancient heroes, but elsewhere, for there are forces we must struggle against to enhance the dignity of our fellow man.” Lindsay said he accepted with “honor and pride” the gift of a Chanuka menorah designed and made by students of the ORT vocational school in Jerusalem. He said the gift would be displayed on his television show Sunday evening, Dec. 3, when his guest will be Mayor Teddy Kollek of Jerusalem.

City Comptroller Abraham D. Beam said in a Chanuka message, “May the candles that shine from our windows during this festival tell all men that we are brothers. We have much to share with them in the pursuit of a better world.” In Washington, Sen. Charles E. Percy (R.Ill.) issued a message stating that “At Chanuka I join with the Jewish community in its determination that Israel shall be fully supported in her Maccabean struggle to defend her land against aggression. We must do everything possible in support of Israel’s legitimate aspirations for peace and security, and we must never compromise her security in the name of peace.”

SOVIET JEWS ARE NEW MACCABEES

Lawrence B. Buttenwieser, president of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, noted in a message to the Jewish community that “Chanuka commemorates not the spirit of power but the power of spirit.” He said that “While it is a time of rejoicing, it is also a time of re-affirmation of our people’s faith and spirit, which over the centuries, has symbolized human values and human dignity.”

Buttenwieser said that Chanuka happenings will usher in the festival throughout the Federation’s 130 agencies, beginning with a candle-lighting service Dec. 1. He said parties, gift-giving, holiday programs, and book fairs will be among the events held at Federation-sponsored hospitals, homes for the aged, family service and child care agencies, community centers and Ys throughout metropolitan New York.

Richard Maass, chairman of the National Conference for Soviet Jewry, said in a Chanuka massage, “The struggle of Soviet Jews is a constant reminder of the historical struggle of Jews to live as Jews, especially as free Jews in their own land. Today we recognize that Soviet Jews are the new Maccabees. During this Chanuka season we in America extend to Soviet Jews our hope that those of our brethren who wish to emigrate to Israel to be able to live as Jews will soon be able to do so.”

Mrs. Eleanor Marvin, national president of the National Council of Jewish Women, said in a Chanuka message, “With Maccabean courage, let us support the rights of our beleaguered fellow Jews in Soviet Russia to worship, live and emigrate in freedom. And may our light, our thoughts and acts reach beyond our fellow Jews in the fight to erase poverty and hunger from our society, racism from among people, and violence from our lands and skies.”

The Jewish Braille Institute of America announced here that it will be host to a group of six-year-old sighted children at a special Chanuka festival tomorrow. Nat Seaman, legislative chairman of the NY State Federation of the Workers for the Blind, will read from Braille the story of Chanuka. The American Committee for Israel’s 25th Anniversary Celebration announced that it would sponsor a candle-lighting ceremony at the Vivian Beaumont Theater of Lincoln Center on Dec. 6.

ARTS FESTIVAL, INTERFAITH BANQUET PLANNED

A group of Jewish students at Brandeis University announced today that they have prepared a radio broadcast on the plight of Soviet Jews to be aired over more than 35 stations nationwide tomorrow at 9 p.m. The broadcast, “In Remembrance of a Miracle,” features the voices of two English-speaking Soviet Jewish activists recorded during telephone calls to the USSR made by Brandeis students. The interviewees are Mrs. Esther Markish, widow of the Soviet Jewish writer, Peretz Markish, who was permitted to emigrate to Israel this month and Aleksander Lerner, a scientist who lost his job after he applied for an exit visa.

The Hillel Foundation at City University, New York, opened a special Chanuka-Jewish Festival of the Arts at the Hillel House today which will run through Dec. 7. It will feature paintings and etchings by the Israeli artist Shulamith Wittenberg Miller; a screening of the film, “The Fixer,” which deals with a Jew accused of ritual murder in Czarist Russia, and a student-faculty Chanuka dinner.

The Hillel Foundation at CUNY also announced that relay runners will carry a burning torch flown in from Israel to the campus on Dec. 6. A similar ritual was announced by Masada, the youth organization of the Zionist Organization of Chicago, to be held there tomorrow afternoon. Charles Steiner, executive director of the Jewish National Fund in San Francisco, said the eight-day Chanuka celebration would be climaxed by an interfaith observance at a banquet of the JNF Dec. 10 at the Fairmont Hotel. He said the 1000 guests would be addressed by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D. Mass.).