Jewish communities celebrate Hanukkah

Julie Lazarus has been painting colorful menorahs for 15 years, images she hopes will inspire personal reflection during Hanukkah.

“They are about the experience of celebrating the holiday, of lighting the candles and the sense of joy and happiness to have another year to celebrate with friends and family,” said Lazarus, a Fort Worth artist.

She has created more than 30 paintings of the nine- and seven-branched candelabra that are showcased during Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish celebration that begins at sundown Tuesday and ends Dec. 24.

Thirteen of Lazarus’ oil paintings are on display at Beth-El Congregation in Fort Worth this month.

Hanukkah commemorates the Maccabees’ triumph over the armies of Syria, about 160 years before Christ. The quest for religious freedom includes a story of how an eternal light burned for eight days even though there was only enough oil for it to burn one day.

During Hanukkah, Jewish families reflect and light a candle each night on their menorahs.

The menorah paintings capture that spirit, said Rabbi Ralph Mecklenburger of Beth-El Congregation. They are abstract and use color in a free form style to depict the menorah, he said.

“This was a natural for Hanukkah,” Mecklenburger said.

Touched by a painting

Lazarus’ menorahs are a recurring motif at Beth-El. The bronze ark doors in the sanctuary feature a large menorah inspired by some of her paintings. Some of her earlier menorah paintings hang in the temple’s education wing. Thirteen artworks are displayed at the congregation boardroom for public viewing.

Lazarus, who began taking painting lessons at age 11, said she has been creating her menorahs about 15 years. She said the paintings can be interpreted by the viewers.

“You need to see something different every time you look at it,” she said.

Ilana Knust, director of education at the Beth-El Religious School, said she was touched by one of the paintings that featured a menorah in cobalt blue and red.

“I felt the the movement in the picture,” Knust said. “Most of my life I lived by water so I saw the water. I saw the menorahs always striving to go up.”

Knust said the menorahs reaching up reminded her of a Jewish teaching: “That a good deed takes you one step higher, closer to God.”

Lazarus said she spends a lot of time near her menorah during Hanukkah season.

“I love to watch the lights go down,” she said. “I like to look at the wax burn and the candles melt.”

Nature, music, dance, architecture and light are inspirations for this abstract art, Lazarus said.

“It is thinking about those different art forms and trying to come up with something that is for the most part joyful and is reflective of light,” she said. “My mind is full of these organic, figurative type forms and so these are just an extension.”

Over the years, Lazarus has painted about 36 menorahs. Each is different, she said.

“It’s almost magical how it all comes about because I can’t explain it,” she said.

‘A festive, happy time’

The menorah art display and several other events tie into this year’s Hanukkah season. At Beth-El Congregation, a fair was held during a recent Sunday school session. Children lit a menorah to remember the miracle of oil lasting for eight days. They also decorated menorah cookies and said blessings in Hebrew.

“It’s a festive, happy time,” Mecklenburger said.

At Congregation Ahavath Sholom in Fort Worth, the public is invited to a citywide celebration Dec. 20.

At Colleyville’s Congregation Beth Israel, a number of special events are scheduled, including a Wednesday vegetarian potluck dinner and candle-lighting ceremony.

During Hanukkah, Jewish children are taught the story of the Maccabees’ battle for religious freedom against the Seleucid Empire, an ancient state that promoted Greek culture.

“The Seleucids were pushing Hellenistic culture and there were Jews who thought that was very nice and there were other Jews who thought it was horrible — who continued to be rebellious,” Mecklenburger explained.

To put down a series of rebellions, the Seleucids made it illegal to practice Judaism and converted the Temple at Jerusalem into a pagan shrine, Mecklenburger said. The Maccabees, a family that led the revolution, wanted “to recapture and purify the temple,” he said

The Maccabees rededicated the temple, but there was only enough oil to burn the temple’s eternal light for one night, he said.

“Legend has it that it burned for eight days,” he said.

Whether God made the oil burn for eight days is not the point, Mecklenburger said.

“The point is that a small group of people fighting for religious freedom was able to overthrow this great empire,” he said.

This story was originally published December 15, 2014 at 4:28 PM with the headline "Jewish communities celebrate Hanukkah."