Less than a month after signing a landmark religious freedom bill, President Clinton honored a much earlier battle for religious freedom by hosting a White House Chanukah celebration.
A menorah, a dreidel and Chanukah gelt found their way onto Clinton’s desk as 21 children from the Washington, D.C., Jewish Community Center’s after-school program joined the president in the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon.
Clinton received lessons in the fine art of dreidels from the children.
When, on his first attempt, he came up with a “gimel,” thus theoretically entitling him to all the gelt on his Oval Office desk, he quipped, “Beginner’s luck.”
The president, wearing a black yarmulke, sat on his desk with the children clustered around him. Clinton was lavish with his praise, telling the children repeatedly that the menorah was “so beautiful.”
And he applauded heartily after the children’s rendition of “I Have a Little Dreidel.”
The one moment of drama came after the children, ages 4 to 7, and a teacher lit one candle for the first night of Chanukah.
One girl, standing next to Clinton, leaned too close to the menorah and burned her hair.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
