At the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, Andrzej Duda and his wife Agata Kornhauser-Duda took part in the Hanukkah candle lighting ceremony. The President said that Hanukkah is a symbol of Israel’s survival in the worst moments of history.

“This is a celebration of a double victory – Israel’s victory over the occupiers, as a people faithful to God and God’s victory as the one who had custody of the chosen people”, said Andrzej Duda.

The President also thanked the Jewish community for their support and welcome to the Ukrainians in Poland. He called this hospitality a great act of brotherhood and humanity. He stressed that the Jewish community around the world knows what it means to leave one’s home and live elsewhere, which is why it prepared a letter of solidarity and support immediately after the Russian attack on Ukraine. “Ukrainians are not refugees for us – they are our guests”, pointed out the Polish leader.

Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich said that the Jewish community cannot remain silent when Putin commits acts of crime in Ukraine. He recalled that Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights and it is precisely this light that is now missing across Poland’s eastern border.

“This is our common challenge, during the joyful festival of light, to remember those who do not have it”, the rabbi said. He added that next year’s Hanukkah will also be a light in Ukraine.

The tradition of lighting the Hanukkah lights at the Presidential Palace was started by President Lech Kaczyński.

Hanukkah is a commemoration of the miraculous events at the Jerusalem temple in 164 BC. After the conquest of Jerusalem by the Maccabees, the ritual oil burned in the local temple for eight days.

Hanukkah begins after sunset. Jews then light the first of the candles on a nine-branched candlestick and place it in the windows. Each following day, another candle is lit.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński