Europe's largest menorah set up at Kyiv's Maidan square
Hanukkah, an annual festival marking Jewish suffering, liberation and redemption, has a resonance in Ukraine, a nation still fighting off the Russian invasion launched in 2022
In Kyiv's famous Independence Square, also known as Maidan, the 39-feet high Hanukkah menorah (a nine-branched candelabrum), said to be the largest in Europe, was set up and ready to be illuminated for the annual festival.
This year, Hanukkah begins at sundown on Sunday, December 14, and lasts until sundown on Monday, December 22.
The festival of hope and liberation is this year tinged with tragedy. In Ukraine, the devastating war launched by Russia in 2022 is still ongoing.
In Israel, while all but one of the hostages were brought back from Gaza captivity, only days earlier the IDF released the full, harrowing footage showing six Israeli hostages lighting Hanukkah candles at the bottom of a Hamas tunnel, just weeks before their murder.
The footage reveals Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lubanov, Almog Sarusi, and Carmel Gat, filmed in extreme conditions. Despite the darkness of the tunnel and the evident presence of their captors, the six hostages appear standing, lighting the candles for the holiday, a gesture filled with dignity and spirituality at the heart of their captivity.
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