The Festival of Lights: Hanukkah in the USSR

In the history of the Soviet period, the celebration of Hanukkah acquired a special meaning that went far beyond the boundaries of a religious holiday. Two historical documents — a 1970 information report by the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR and a 1976 appeal by the organising committee of the symposium “Jewish Culture in the USSR” — show how this ancient holiday became a symbol of resistance to assimilation and of the struggle to preserve Jewish identity.

According to the KGB, during the celebration of Hanukkah in December 1970 there was a significant increase in international correspondence addressed to Soviet Jews. In just three regions of the Ukrainian SSR — Chernivtsi, Odesa, and Zhytomyr — more than three hundred letters were recorded. The geography of the senders was broad: the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom, and other countries.

The letters contained not only holiday greetings, but also messages of solidarity: “Jews in Russia are remembered and not forgotten in Israel,” “we, the Jews of America, do not forget you; we will not remain silent.” This intensity of international contact caused serious concern among the Soviet authorities, who described these letters as “ideologically harmful documents.”

The meaning of Hanukkah for Soviet Jews is revealed even more deeply in a 1976 document: the appeal by members of the organising committee of the symposium “Jewish Culture in the USSR.” It describes the dramatic situation of Soviet Jewry at the time, which the authors characterised as a “deep crisis.”

They pointed to the mass assimilation of Jews, the absence of Jewish cultural and public institutions in the USSR, the catastrophic lack of knowledge among Jews about the customs, traditions, and history of their people, and the alienation of Soviet Jewry from the global Jewish community.

At the same time, the authors also noted positive developments: the growing interest of some Jews in national culture, the desire of thousands of people to study Hebrew, increased attention to Jewish history and traditions, and the revival of a national spirit among Soviet Jews.

The authors of the appeal drew a profound historical parallel between the events commemorated by Hanukkah and the contemporary situation of Soviet Jewry. Just as in antiquity Jews had faced the threat of mass Hellenisation and spiritual subjugation, so in the USSR of the 1970s there was a danger of losing Jewish identity through assimilation.

They analysed the process of assimilation in detail, calling it “tragic” and emphasising its two-sided nature: “It is not enough for one people to wish to merge with another; the other must also be willing to accept this.”

The document pays special attention to the psychological aspects of assimilation. A person who renounces their national identity finds themselves in a difficult position: they lose their connection with their own people, yet do not gain full acceptance in their new environment. The authors emphasise that even an assimilated Jew “continues to be seen by others as a Jew,” and that attempts to renounce one’s identity are often met with contempt.

The document quotes the Torah: “And He said to Abraham: Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land not their own; they will serve them, and they will be oppressed by them,” stressing the inevitability of preserving Jewish identity even when attempts are made to abandon it.

The events of the mid-1970s — Jewish repatriation to Israel, the revival of interest in national culture and language — were seen by the authors as evidence that it was possible to “reshape their lives in a Jewish way.” They called for the words “I am a Jew” to be “filled with deep meaning,” rather than remembered only “when faced with an antisemite.”

In this context, Hanukkah became not merely a reminder of ancient events, but a symbol of responsibility for the national future and for preserving cultural heritage for the next generations.

Thus, under the conditions of the USSR, Hanukkah acquired a special significance. It became not only a religious holiday, but also a symbol of national self-awareness and resistance to assimilation — a reminder to Jews in the Soviet republics of their people’s historical struggle to preserve their identity.

Freddy Rotman