Washington – An 11-year-old Mequon girl is en route Wednesday to the White House, where she will read her award-winning essay on the meaning of Hanukkah as part of the annual menorah lighting ceremony.
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Liora Bushee, a fifth-grader at Hillel Academy in Whitefish Bay, penned the piece, titled “Light” – that’s also the meaning of her name – as part of a national contest.
The ceremony, sponsored by the Washington-based American Friends of Lubavitch, will include performances by internationally known violinist Itzhak Perlman and cantor Itche Meir Helfgot. Jack Lew, director of the United States Office of Management and Budget and the Obama administration’s highest-ranking Jewish official, will light the menorah.
Hanukkah, the eight-day festival of lights, begins at sundown Wednesday. It commemorates the cleansing and rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem after the Maccabees defeated their Greek-Syrian oppressors around 165 B.C.
Tradition holds that the Maccabees found only enough oil to illuminate the temple’s lamp for a day, yet the flames burned miraculously for eight.
A beautifu;l voice in chasidich malbishim, what more do you want
Go Wisconsin!
Take Yaakov Shwekey with you to the White House and sing Hamavdil, just like you guys did in Caessearra (whatever that place is called) that should get Obama going…
For obama it would be more likely to let lipa sing…
Not helfgot not Lipa but what’s his face called ? Slipped my mind -he sings ragee ahh mattisyahu !