‘Christmas’ Menorahs Popular in Ireland
A surprising fact about the Irish: they love menorahs, apparently.
So says IrishCentral, which reports that “you can count them by the hundred” each December between Dublin and Galway. It’s unlikely the candelabras belong to actual Jews — just 2,000 of the country’s 4.4 million citizens are Jewish, the piece says.
The trend has gone straight to the top of the political system, apparently: Malcolm Lewis, the president of Dublin’s Progressive Jewish Congregation, tells the site that Irish President Mary McAleese “always” puts a menorah in the window of her official residence, though in her case the decoration is explicitly in honor of Hanukkah.
For most Irish menorah users, however, the candle holder has merely become part of celebrating Christmas, and they may not even be aware of its religious significance.
Though the menorah’s popularity is new — the site traces it back only to the mid-’90s — the reasons for the “craze” have “already been lost in time and space,” the article says.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!