Hanukkah surprises in the university library

The team at the university library came up with a few surprises for the younger members of the Friedensau community to mark the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. On Tuesday, December 12, 2023, children of different age groups and their parents saw a small exhibition on the history and significance of the festival. They sang "Ocho Kandelikas", a Spanish-Israeli version of a Hanukkah song, and later read a story about the Hanukkah celebration. The children were thrilled when popcorn was prepared in the library kitchen – who doesn't like that!
The program for Wednesday, 13 December, included a presentation of an Israeli folk dance – a round dance to typical Israeli music. A children's story was read, games were played and a cake was baked at the end.
On Thursday, 14 December, there was another surprise program for children at the end. The touching story "Oscar and the Eight Blessings" by Richard Simon and Tanya Simon, illustrated by Mark Siegel, was read aloud: "The boy Oskar arrives in New York City by ship as a refugee seeking refuge from the horrors of Kristallnacht with only a photo and the address of an aunt he has never met in his pocket. It is the seventh day of Hanukkah and also Christmas Eve in 1938. As Oskar wanders through Manhattan to his new home in the north of the city, he marvels at the city's many sights and meets various people. Everyone shows Oskar a small gesture of kindness and welcomes him to the city. This is how he takes his first steps into a new life."
Immediately afterwards, there was a switch to New York: a film of the concert "A Night of Light: A Concert to bring Communities together" from the American metropolis, which was held there on the occasion of Hanukkah on December 12, 2023. After the New York concert, there was an opportunity to talk to each other in the lobby area of the library over pastries and juice and to look back on the Hanukkah events (Text: Andrea Cramer | Photos: University Library).