Editing Hanukkah (section)

=== Hanukkah in the White House ===
{{Main|White House Hanukkah Party}}
[[File:Truman receives menorah.jpg|thumb|Israeli Prime Minister [[David Ben-Gurion|Ben-Gurion]] (center) gives President [[Harry S. Truman|Truman]] (left) a Hanukkah menorah as ambassador [[Abba Eban]] watches in the [[Oval Office]]]]
The earliest Hanukkah link with the White House occurred in 1951 when Israeli Prime Minister [[David Ben-Gurion]] presented United States President [[Harry Truman]] with a Hanukkah menorah. In 1979 President [[Jimmy Carter]] took part in the first public Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony of the [[National Menorah]] held across the White House lawn. In 1989, President [[George H. W. Bush]] displayed a menorah in the White House. In 1993, President [[Bill Clinton]] invited a group of schoolchildren to the [[Oval Office]] for a small ceremony.<ref name="whitehouse" />

The [[United States Postal Service]] has released several [[Hanukkah stamps|Hanukkah-themed]] postage stamps. In 1996, the United States Postal Service (USPS) issued a 32 cent Hanukkah stamp as a [[joint issue]] with [[Israel]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/mfa-archive/1996/pages/israeli-american%20hanukkah%20stamp.aspx |title=Israeli-American Hanukkah Stamp |publisher=Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs |date=22 October 1996 |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref> In 2004, after eight years of reissuing the menorah design, the USPS issued a dreidel design for the Hanukkah stamp. The dreidel design was used through 2008. In 2009 a Hanukkah stamp was issued with a design featured a photograph of a menorah with nine lit candles.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2009/pb22267/html/info1_005.htm |title=Stamp Announcement 09-47: Hanukkah |first=United States Postal |last=Service |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref> In 2008, President [[George W. Bush]] held an official Hanukkah reception in the White House where he linked the occasion to the 1951 gift by using that menorah for the ceremony, with a grandson of Ben-Gurion and a grandson of Truman lighting the candles.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2013/12/05/archives-hanukkah-white-house |title=From the Archives: Hanukkah at the White House |date=5 December 2013 |last=Donius |first=Susan K. |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref>

In December 2014, two Hanukkah celebrations were held at the White House. The [[White House]] commissioned a menorah made by students at the Max Rayne school in Israel and invited two of its students to join U.S. President [[Barack Obama]] and First Lady [[Michelle Obama]] as they welcomed over 500 guests to the celebration. The students' school in Israel had been subjected to arson by extremists. President Obama said these "students teach us an important lesson for this time in our history. The light of hope must outlast the fires of hate. That's what the Hanukkah story teaches us. It's what our young people can teach us – that one act of faith can make a miracle, that love is stronger than hate, that peace can triumph over conflict."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/hand-in-hand-schools-menorah-lights-up-white-house-hanukkah-party/ |title=Arab–Jewish school's menorah lights up White House Hanukkah party |date=18 December 2014 |last=Ghert-Zand |first=Renee |website=TimesOfIsrael.com |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref> Rabbi [[Angela Warnick Buchdahl]], in leading prayers at the ceremony commented on the how special the scene was, asking the President if he believed America's founding fathers could possibly have pictured that a female Asian-American rabbi would one day be at the White House leading Jewish prayers in front of the African-American president.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://forward.com/opinion/211168/a-most-inspiring-hanukkah-at-the-white-house/ |title=A Most Inspiring Hanukkah at the White House |website=Forward.com |date=18 December 2014 |last=Eisner |first=Jane |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref>