That holiday feeling
Children in the Lauder-Morasha School lit Hanukkah candles for the first time in their new Warsaw school building on ulica Wawelberga as part of an eight-day festival commemorating Jewish culture and history.
Also called the Festival of Lights, Hanukkah tradition called for lighting a candle on Dec. 3, the first day of the celebration this year. One new candle was added every day. Kosher paczki and latkes, or potato pancakes, are the most sought-after sweets during the festivities. At the school, children also performed for the first time in their new environs for parents and teachers last week.
The Lauder-Morasha School, the only Jewish school in Warsaw, was set up in 1994 by Ronald Lauder, though the first schoolhouse was located in Wilanow. Last year, Lauder purchased the building on ulica Wawelberga and the school's new site, which before World War II was a home for the elderly in the Jewish community. The building's renovation lasted less than one year, and in October the school was officially opened at its new location. In addition, the Lauder-Morasha School launched a high school curriculum with its first-year class this fall. The school has grown 10-fold during its five-year history, with 156 pupils currently enrolled.
"Hanukkah is not one of the main Jewish holidays," said Ninel Kameraz-Kos, a researcher at the Institute of Jewish History in Warsaw. "It is not even mentioned in the Torah, and that is why next to Purim, Hanukkah is perceived as a secular one."
A young holiday, being 2,166 years old, she said, it's also unusual. "Gambling and playing games are seen as good during that period of time," Kameraz-Kos said.
Hanukkah commemorates the victorious uprising of the Maccabees over the Greeks, Kameraz-Kos said. Following the rebellion, the kingdom of Israel was restored for 200 years, until the destruction of the Second Temple, she said. The festival also commemorates the miracle of oil, she added.
"After the victory, the Maccabees wanted to light the Temple Menorah," Kameraz-Kos said. "They found only one small jug of oil, sufficient for one day only. But it sufficed for eight days."
In the school's kitchen last Thursday a couple of women prepared kosher food. Alfreda Budzka, a cook who has been with school from the very beginning, took charge of baking paczki.
"These paczki are prepared in the same way as regular Polish paczki, but according to the kosher rules of Jewish cuisine," Budzka said.
The basic principle is that contact with meat is removed from the process and that means using utensils that have no contact with meat as well as separating egg yolks from the whites before adding them to the batter.
She and others started preparing paczki on Tuesday. "We've been making 300 paczki every day," she added. Paczki were prepared for afternoon gatherings last week, during which children performed for parents and teachers. "Paczki are the heart of the show," she said.
The school's kitchen served latkes last Monday and all these sweets are fried in oil, Budzka said.
"A lot of people celebrate Hanukkah and it became popular because of the Christmas season," said Helise Lieberman, Lauder-Morasha School director.
"But the story is not only about the oil, paczki and latkes," she said. "Hanukkah has a lot of messages: freedom of religious expression, family, rededication of religious tradition."
