Happy 8th Night of Hanukkah!

For the last night of this pandemic Hanukkah, we share a selection of White House Hanukkah party invites.  Note first the menorah and then Xmas tree motifs.  

Last in our first-ever 8 days of Hanukkah Tumblr series of Hanukkah-related National Archives records. By Miriam Kleiman, Public Affairs.

Hanukkah 2001

Hanukkah Reception - Invitations, George W. Bush Library, NARA ID 148028551

Hanukkah 2002

12/04/2002 - Hanukkah Reception - Invitations, George W. Bush Library, NARA ID 148028703.

Hanukkah 2003

12/22/2003 - Hanukkah Reception - Invitations, George W. Bush Library,  NARA ID 148028931

Hanukkah 2004

12/09/2004 - Hanukkah Reception - Invitations, George W. Bush Library, NARA ID 148029061.

Hanukkah 2005

12/06/2005- Hanukkah Reception - Invitations, George W. Bush Library, NARA ID 148029197.

Hanukkah 2007 - see:  White House Hanukkah invite with a Xmas tree!

Hanukkah 2008

12/15/2008, Hanukkah Reception - Invitations, George W. Bush Library, NARA ID 148029657.

ICYMI:

• 1st Night: 1956 patent application for an unusual menorah with cowboys, horses, tassels, and perhaps mistletoe.
• 2nd Night: 1926 Sefer Sipur Nes Hanukkah from Baghdad.
• 3rd Night: the White House Hanukkah party invite with a Xmas tree!
• 4th Night: mention of Hanukkah in Rosenberg Trial Grand Jury testimony.
• 5th Night: 1st Pandemic Hanukkah, 1918.
• 6th Night:  Hanukkah speech tips to NSC staffer Blinken 1998!
• 7th Night: Candy Cane Menorah?

See also:  Hanukkah at the White House, Pieces of History blog by Susan Donius, Executive for Legislative Archives, Presidential Libraries, and Museum Services.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the electric menorah, or “electric Hanukkah lamp,” is here to stay. And many Hanukkah observers, when pressed, may admit to having a relative who proudly displays one (or more) in a window…

LED Rope Light Menorah Motif Kit from AQ lighting, online here. 

From Shutterstock via Tablet Magazine.

Given the interest in our cowboy-themed menorah post, today we share two electric menorah patents.  

Sixth in our first-ever 8 days of Hanukkah Tumblr series of surprising Hanukkah-related National Archives records. By Miriam Kleiman, Public Affairs.  

Design Patent Case File No. D185,199 - Design for an Electric Hanukkah Lamp, submitted by Ernest Goldberg, NARA ID 167821649. filed 8/13/1958, patented 5/19/1959. 

“Electric Hanukkah Lamp” - rejected, then approved

Ernest Goldberg’s menorah featured the Magen David, Star of David, as the key design feature, to be viewed from front or back, and illuminated “by a new method of wiring, that of distributing the wires through the side arms and then connecting it with the nine individual sockets.“

Goldberg’s initial patent application was rejected. He was instructed to:

• Remove the words “utilizing the Jewish Star of David” 
• Change the description to “electric Hanukkah lamp” 
• Redo his messy drawings. 

The “Chief Draftsman” criticized the drawing’s “pale, blurred and indistinct” lines, and demanded a better drawing:

Goldberg resubmitted his design and it was approved. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Records (RG 241), nearly 5 million files, are held at the National Archives at Kansas City. Explore highlights from his incredible collection in the National Archives Catalog online.  

CANDY CANE MENORAH?

Candy cane menorah US20060044790A1. “The illumination members include a translucent fixture having the shape and appearance of a candy cane.” Application submitted by John Crawley, 2004. 

Happy 7th Night of Hanukkah!

Please note: the National Archives does not endorse or recommend any particular Menorah, electric or otherwise. 

ICYMI:

• 1st Night: 1956 patent application for an unusual menorah with cowboys, horses, tassels, and perhaps mistletoe.

• 2nd Night: 1926 Sefer Sipur Nes Hanukkah from Baghdad.
  
• 3rd Night: the White House Hanukkah party invite with a Xmas tree!
  
• 4th Night: mention of Hanukkah in Rosenberg Trial Grand Jury testimony.
• 5th Night: 1st Pandemic Hanukkah, 1918.
• 6th Night:  Hanukkah speech tips to NSC staffer Blinken 1998!

From here.  

From Israeli gov’t speechwriter to Clinton NSC staffer Blinken, 1998

Middle East Trip - Menorah Lighting 12/98, from Anthony Blinken’s Files, ca. 1994-1998, Records of the National Security Council Speechwriting Office (Clinton Admin.), ca.1993 -2001.Clinton Presidential Library. NARA ID 23903818. 

–Sixth in our first-ever 8 days of Hanukkah Tumblr series of surprising Hanukkah-related National Archives records. By Miriam Kleiman, Public Affairs–

Suggested Hanukkah joke, part of guidance from an Israeli gov’t speechwriter to Anthony Blinken, for President Clinton’s December 1998 visit to Israel:

President Clinton visited Israel four times during his two terms, and his 1998 visit overlapped with Hanukkah. Clinton Presidential Library records include this fascinating memo from Israeli gov’t speechwriter Jacob Maor to Clinton NSC staffer Anthony Blinken (12/3/1998).

Maor noted that the tremendous Israeli support for the President (after his “Shalom Haver” eulogy for Rabin) had dropped. Maor assured Blinken that these “anecdotes and humor” will help “recreate the warm loving attitude for your boss” and “will be highly appreciated by the Jewish people.”

SUGGESTED  Hanukkah “Ideas and humor”

For President Clinton’s 1998 Israel trip. From Jacob Maor to Anthony Blinken, 12/3/1998. Emphases added. 

* Make a joke about Hanukkah gelt! Suggestion: “Uncle Sam came to visit you [on] Hanukah, and is bringing you some Hanukah Money.”

* Use traditional Hanukkah greeting - “might have an effect like… ‘Shalom Haver.’ Great impact.”

* Relate the Middle East peace process to Hanukah symbolism!

• Hanukkah is 8 days, Wye River Accord negotiations were 8 days!
• The Wye Accord, like Hanukkah candles, brightens our world!
• The peace process is like a dreidl - when it stops moving, it falls!
• President Clinton is like the Shamash candle, the worker, “the servant of the Menorah.”
• Israelis may need a broader perspective. Suggested wording: “sometimes it seems to me that you revolve around yourselves” like a  dreidl. 

EXTRA CREDIT!!!

* Note the Hebrew letters on the dreidl and cite David Ben Gurion: “In Israel, in order to be realistic, you have to believe in miracles.

Extra, extra credit: “You’ll surprise them even more, if you’ll note that he passed away exactly 25 years ago last week.”

*** Use the oil/falafel joke (top of post) at tonight’s candle lighting! Hag Hanukkah Sameach!  

FYI - in contrast to the tone of these suggestions, here’s President Clinton’s 1998 Hanukkah greeting:

ICYMI:

• 1st Night: 1956 patent application for an unusual menorah with cowboys, horses, tassels, and perhaps mistletoe.
• 2nd Night: 1926 Sefer Sipur Nes Hanukkah from Baghdad.
• 3rd Night: the White House Hanukkah party invite with a Xmas tree!
• 4th Night: mention of Hanukkah in the Rosenberg Trial Grand Jury testimony.
• 5th Night: 1st Pandemic Hanukkah, 1918

WWI soldiers mark Thanksgivukkah

The 5th of our first-ever 8 days of Hanukkah Tumblr series featuring surprising Hanukkah-related National Archives records. By Miriam Kleiman, Program Director for Public Affairs. 

Original caption: Dr. David De Sola Pool lighting the first Chanukah Candle at Jewish Welfare Hut in Seward Park, New York City. NARA ID 45560983.

Not only did Jewish soldiers in 1918 have to mark the holiday during a war and a pandemic, they also had to combine the Festival of Lights with the Festival of the Harvest. Pictures follow from the combined 1918 Hanukah/Thanksgiving celebration at the Jewish Welfare Hut in Seward Park, NYC. 

The Jewish Welfare Board was formed on April 9, 1917, three days after the United States declared war on Germany, to support Jewish soldiers in the U.S. military during World War I. See related records in our online catalog.

Original caption: The Jewish Welfare Board. United War Work Campaign- Week of November 11, 1918. NARA ID 512486.

Original caption: Soldiers enjoying a Thanksgiving and Chanukah dinner at Jewish Welfare Hut, Seward Park, New York City. December 1918. NARA ID 45561003.

Jewish Welfare Board poster, United War Work Campaign, 11/11/1918. NARA ID 512688.

Jewish Welfare Board poster in Yiddish: “Don’t worry, he’ll be alright.” NARA ID 45538782.

Jewish Welfare Board poster in Yiddish: ”Don’t worry, he provides them with everything.” NARA ID 45538774.

ICYMI:

• 1st Night: 1956 patent application for an unusual menorah with cowboys, horses, tassels, and perhaps mistletoe.
• 2nd Night: 1926 Sefer Sipur Nes Hanukkah from Baghdad.
• 3rd Night: the White House Hanukkah party invite with a Xmas tree!
• 4th Night: mention of Hanukkah in the Rosenberg Trial Grand Jury testimony.

DID YOU KNOW that the Rosenberg Grand Jury testimony (opened in 2008) mentions Hanukkah?

Fourth in our first-ever 8 days of Hanukkah Tumblr series featuring surprising Hanukkah-related National Archives records. By Miriam Kleiman, Program Director for Public Affairs.

In her Grand Jury testimony, Helene Elitcher (wife of Max, who cooperated with the gov’t to escape a perjury sentence) described a Dec. 1946 visit to Ethel and Julius (”Julie”) Rosenberg’s Knickerbocker Village apartment on the Lower East Side. She noted the presence of a Christmas tree.

Helene Elitcher’s Grand Jury testimony, released pursuant to a court order in the case In re Petition of National Security Archive (S.D.N.Y. 2008). NARA ID 2364117. All related transcripts and evidence are held by the National Archives at New York.

Here’s what the Rosenberg’s older son Michael (Meeropol) wrote about that visit and subsequent testimony (emphasis added).

My parents’ Christmas tree sparked a heated controversy about what to tell your children about Christmas and Chanukah. The women with children were very concerned about what to say, but the bachelors with no child-rearing experience or concerns, were adamant that you could tell the children whatever you wanted and it wouldn’t make any difference.

I was fascinated by these glimpses into my parents’ lives. But you might wonder, what does this have to do with stealing the secret of the atomic bomb?

FYI - the final Rosenberg Grand Jury testimony was released in March 2017.

Letter from Michael Rosenberg (age 9) to President Eisenhower, 2/16/53, NARA ID 7861671. Displayed in the National Archives “Making Their Mark: Stories through Signatures” exhibit.

Telegram from Michael Rosenberg (age 10), 6/17/53, to President Eisenhower, NARA ID 12608528. 

Additional Rosenberg-related records at the National Archives:

• Universal News Clip, 4/5/1951, announcing the death penalty verdict.
• Jell-O Box exhibit used in the espionage trial. See related Pieces of History post about this unusual piece of evidence.
• Records from the Eisenhower Presidential Library detailing his decision whether or not to grant executive clemency.
• Ethel’s appeal to Ike to “take counsel with your good wife…” 
• Julius’s mother reached out to Mamie directly: “I beg of you to act… for an old woman whose days are spent weeping.”

Facsimile Jell-O Box exhibit used in the espionage trial. NARA 278774. Introduced by the prosecution to represent the recognition signal supposedly devised by Julius Rosenberg for David and Ruth Greenglass and Harry Gold. 

ICYMI:

• 1st Night: 1956 patent application for an unusual menorah with cowboys, horses, tassels, and perhaps mistletoe. 
• 2nd Night: 1926 Sefer Sipur Nes Hanukkah from Baghdad
• 3rd Night: the White House Hanukkah party invite with a Xmas tree!

HAG HANUKKAH SAMEACH!

HAG HANUKKAH SAMEACH!

By Miriam Kleiman, Program Director for Public Affairs

DID YOU KNOW… the 2007 White House Hanukkah reception invite featured not a menorah or dreidl, but a Christmas tree? 

Red circle emphasis added, 12/10/2007. George W. Bush Administration, Records of the Calligraphy Office, NARA ID 148029435.

Third post of our first-ever 8 days of Hanukkah Tumblr celebration featuring surprising Hanukkah-related National Archives records!

While White House Christmas celebrations date back to the 1800s, such Hanukkah celebrations are quite new (by National Archives standards…). President Jimmy Carter was the first president to recognize Hanukkah with a menorah lighting in 1979. The first official White House Hanukkah party took place 22 years later, in 2001, hosted by President George W. Bush, and it became an annual tradition. 

ICYMI:

• 1st Night: 1956 patent application for an unusual menorah with cowboys, horses, tassels, and perhaps mistletoe.
• 2nd Night: 1926 Sefer Sipur Nes Hanukkah from Baghdad

President Carter lights the menorah, 12/17/1979, NARA ID 6783241. See related Pieces of History post: Hanukkah at the White House, by Susan Donius, Executive for Legislative Archives, Presidential Libraries, and Museum Services.

HAG HANUKKAH SAMEACH!

This is the 2nd post of our first-ever 8 days of Hanukkah Tumblr celebration featuring surprising Hanukkah-related records from our holdings.

By Miriam Kleiman, Program Director for Public Affairs

The 1926 Sefer Sipur Nes Hanukkah (Book of the Story of the Miracle of Hanukkah) pictured below is from Baghdad, Iraq. How it became part of our holdings is almost as dramatic as the Hanukkah story itself!

From the Iraqi Jewish Archive online here.

On May 6, 2003, just days after the Coalition forces took over Baghdad, American soldiers searching for nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons entered Saddam Hussein’s flooded intelligence headquarters. In the basement, under four feet of water, they found thousands of books and documents relating to the Iraqi Jewish community, dating from 1540 to the 1970s. This book was part of that cache.

The water-logged materials quickly became moldy in Baghdad’s intense heat and humidity. National Archives experts were flown to Baghdad via military transport to assess the damage and recommend preservation treatment. The National Archives and its partners painstakingly preserved, cataloged, and digitized the books and documents.  

The Sefer Sipur Nes Hanukkah, written in Judeo-Arabic, includes the Hanukkah blessings and the story of the miracle of Hanukkah: that enough oil to light the menorah in the temple in Jerusalem for a single night lasted, instead, for 8 days. To celebrate this miracle, it is customary to lots of fried foods including latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts). The once-vibrant Iraqi Jewish community celebrated Hanukkah with a traditional local delicacy - a sort of Iraqi funnel cake known as zengoula (or jalabi). 

Learn more in this “Behind the Scenes” video of the Discovery and Recovery of the Iraqi Jewish Archive!

Go into the state-of-the-art Conservation Lab at the National Archives at College Park to see the work done to save this collection!

For the first time EVER, the National Archives Tumblr will feature 8 days of Hanukkah! Not the typical “Hanukkah at the White House” photos,* but some unusual records from our holdings, including this:

1956 patent application for a Menorah! Featuring… cowboys, horses, tassels, and what may be mistletoe, along with traditional Jewish stars and dreidels!

Design Patent Case File No. D179,212 - Design for a Menorah, NARA ID167821631.

“Marked up” version:

Closeup of Hanukkah cowboys!

* But if you are interested in Hanukkah at the White House, see: Hanukkah at the White House, Pieces of History blog by Susan Donius, Executive for Legislative Archives, Presidential Libraries, and Museum Services.

From PS for Private Secretaries, Department of Labor, NARA ID 7280715.

As we mark the close of the 2020 centennial of Women’s Suffrage (see the great Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote exhibit), we reflect on what’s changed… and what hasn’t. Our records include government guidance on “appropriate” office attire. Here’s a snapshot, circa 1959, from the Labor Department’s Manpower Admin. training records, that underscores the so-called “Grooming Gap” (gendered expectations around appearance). 

So…, put away your sweats, go far back into your closet to rescue your abandoned “work clothes (be sure to jump ahead 3 seasons), and follow “proper fit” girdle guidance from The Corset and Brassiere Council. And see patents showing the engineering challenges of such shapewear!

Another quirky post by Miriam Kleiman, who’s worn “athleisure wear” (hybrid of PJs and workout clothes) only since March 5.

US Patent #2381232A, filed by inventor C. STONE, 8/7/1945, online here. 

QUIZ:  DOES YOUR GIRDLE FIT CORRECTLY? 

Guidance from The Corset and Brassiere Council, online here and here:

• Is there a bulge above the girdle?
• Does the girdle control without constricting?
• Does the girdle give you a smooth line?
• Can you sit down? (very important unless you have a standing desk)
• What three measurements are needed for proper girdle size?
• Which garters should be fastened first? Front or back?
• Is the girdle long enough to stay down as you move about? Long enough to mold hips and thighs without making a bulge at the lower edge?
• Does it ride up?

How on earth do you put it on? 

• For roll-on girdles: “fold it in half with the top toward the bottom. Step into it and pull to proper position on hips.”
• For roll-top girdles: “Roll top into place and center the front. Fasten back garters first.”
• For regular girdles: “Step into it and pull slightly above wearing position. Center it, fasten hooks and zipper, then ease it down over your hips. Fasten back garters first.”

MOST IMPORTANTLY:

But surely girdles improved by the 1970s, right? Here’s the updated version, circa 1973.

US Patent application 3734101,5/22/1973, online here.

Based on the Text Message blog post: “No Girdle Can Do it All and Other Grooming Tips for Secretaries,” by National Archives at Fort Worth archivist Ketina Taylor and education specialist Jenny Sweeney.

ICYMI:  PANDEMIC PERSONALITY QUIZ!  Do YOU have what it takes to be a 1950s secretary?

COMING SOON:  PHONE PERSONALITY QUIZ!
Learn to create a “voice with a smile” because now more than ever, “a smile in your voice attitude is as important as a smile on your face.”