One day after reaching an agreement with Israel on the EU controversial settlement guidelines which will enable Israeli participation in a major EU research and innovation program, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton hosted Wednesday a EuroChanukah ceremony in the European Commission on the first of the eight-day Jewish festival of lights.
‘’It is a great honor and privilege to be able to host this important celebration. It is one of my favourite celebrations. I have the best of memories of my children visiting friends who would each day invite us to watch the lighting of the candles,’’ Ashton told attendees at the event in the Berlaymont building, seat of the European Commission in Brussels, with the participation of Princess Lea of Belgium, French writer and promoter of peace and interfaith tolerance, Marek Halter, diplomats and members of the Jewish community.
In her address, Ashton, who is also Vice-President of the European Commission, mentioned her phone conversation the day before with ''my friend'' Israel’s Minister of Justice Tzipi Livni during which they had a lengthy talk on the agreement between the EU and Israel.
‘’Our thoughts are to the Jewish people everywhere and to the people in Israel, Happy Chanukah,’’ she said, before lighting the ‘shamash’ the source candle which is used to light the other candles on a traditional Menorah, the nine-branched candelabrum, that was especially designed for this occasion.
Ashton continued, ‘’Chanukah is a moment to remember family, tradition and hope. The lighting of candles plays such an important part in shining the light of hope across the world. As millions of Jewish families begin their celebrations, we stand with them in a belief in freedom for all people to be who they are, to be of the faith they wish to be.’’
‘' We stand for peace and security, knowing that they fit together. In order to have peace, we need security and in order to have security you need peace. The European Union is founded on the ashes of what happened during WWII. We have built a community of nations who stand together in real values and traditions for not just the people of Europe but to send the light across the world.’’
She expressed the hope that in this generation ''those of us who have the privilege to serve the cause of the European Union can make common cause with all those who seek the light, peace, freedom and security.’’
The Chanukah festival of light, which begins on the eve of the 25th of the Jewish month of Kislev, celebrates the triumph of light over darkness, of purity over adulteration, of spirituality over materiality.
More than twenty-one centuries ago, the Holy Land was ruled by the Seleucids (Syrian-Greeks), who sought to forcefully Hellenize the people of Israel. Against all odds, a small band of faithful Jews defeated one of the mightiest armies on earth, drove the Greeks from the land, reclaimed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and rededicated it to the service of God.
When they sought to light the Temple's menorah (the seven branched candelabrum), they found only a single cruse of olive oil that had escaped contamination by the Greeks. Miraculously, the one-day supply burned for eight days, until new oil could be prepared under conditions of ritual purity.
To commemorate and publicize these miracles, the sages instituted the festival of Chanukah.
The Chanukah celebration at the European Commission is organized every year at the initiative of Rabbi Avi Tawil and his wife Nehama Tawil from the European Jewish Community Centre (EJCC) with the participation of the European Jewish Association and the European Jewish Development Fund.
EJCC is a cultural centre created several years ago in the EU capital to promote Jewish culture in the European Union and its institutions.