Vaclav Havel, who died last week at the age of 75, was honored by Prague’s Jewish community during a Hanukkah lighting ceremony in a square of the centre of the capital, the Czech media reported.
Jewish leaders, along with diplomats and the mayor of Prague, said the festival celebrates the same values Vaclav Havel always stood up for.
The former Czech president was praised during his presidency for his efforts to tackle anti-Semitism, further Holocaust education and encourage a revival in Jewish life after the Communist era.
Some 150 people watched as Rabbi Manis Barash, along with the mayor of Prague Bohuslav Svoboda, US ambassador Norman Eisen and former Czech Prime Mminister Jan Fischer ascended an aerial platform which took them to the top of the Hanukkah menorah, a nine-branch candelabrum standing in the middle of the square.
"This evening, the Hanukkah light is very symbolic. Our president Vaclav Havel passed away, and for us, he was light. We now kindled the lights here and I’m very happy that today, we lit the Hanu"kkah light and remembered him at the same time,"Hanu said Mayor Svoboda.
Also known as the Festival of Lights, Hanukkah commemorates a successful revolt of a Jewish rebel group called the Maccabees against foreign oppression – very much like Vaclav Havel stood up against oppression in his own country, said Rabbi Barash.
I think that Vaclav Havel was a modern-day Maccabee. It was Mr Havel who said that ‘truth and love must prevail over lies and hatred," he said. and that’s really the message of Chanukah. The Maccabees, few and weak, fought courageously against a stronger force in order that truth and love prevail over lies and hatred.
This year marked the 14th time that Jews have gathered in the center Prague for the festival since the Velvet Revolution.