2016 First-Class Forever Stamp,Hanukkah

U.S. #5153
2016 47c Hanukkah
Value:  47c
Issued: November 1, 2016
First Day City:  Boca Raton FL
Type of Stamp:  First Class Mail
Printed by:  Banknote Corporation of America
Method:  Offset, Microprint
Self-Adhesive
Quantity Printed:  15,000,000
 

Menorahs are a crucial part of the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah.  One of these religious symbols has recently been found to have survived the horrors of World War II.

When Germany invaded Holland in May 1940, Gerard and Jan Richel joined the Dutch Resistance.  They hid a Jewish mother, father, and teenage boy in their attic for five years.  Their home was searched many times by the Nazis, but the family was never found.  This is likely because the only way to the attic was through a door in the bedroom of the Richel’s ill five-year-old son. Soldiers who searched the boy’s bedroom left fairly quickly once they realized how sick he was.

When the war ended, the Jewish family gave the Richels their menorah as a thank you.  The heirloom was passed down three generations to Susan Bloomfield.  Eventually, Bloomfield decided to give the menorah back to the Jewish community, saying, “We kind of felt like imposters having this beautiful piece that is not being used the way it should be.”

The menorah now resides at Chabad Torah Center in Ottawa, Canada.  According to the synagogue’s Rabbi Mendel Blum, “It strengthens our connection to that generation and to the same traditions we practice today, as they practiced.”