The Israel Postal Authority and the United States Postal Service have jointly released separate postage stamps honoring the Jewish Festival of Lights – Hanukkah. The design to be used by both countries shows a symbolic menorah with nine brightly burning candles.
The Hanukkah postage stamp design was created by Hannah Smotrich, a bright and talented 31 year-old graphic artist who before going off to college, grew up and attended schools in Westchester. NY. Growing up, Hannah was raised with a strong Jewish identity.
Smotrich graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University in 1987 with a bachelor of arts degree in History, having written a thesis titled “Deserted: Jewish Immigrant Women and the National Desertion Bureau.”
After graduating from Harvard, Smotrich decided to spend a year in Israel from 1987-1988 with the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS). The first half of the WUJS program was spent in the southern Israeli town of Arad where she and other members of the program took Hebrew languages lessons at an ulpan. The second half of the year, the participants were encouraged to work in the field of their professional interest.
Although she majored in history at Harvard, Smotrich’s involvement in the arts – primarily photography and graphic design – was continuous from high school through college. In Israel, Hannah finished the year with the WUJS by working as a graphic artist for the firm of Superstudio in the capital city of Jerusalem.
In 1989, she enrolled at the Yale School of Art, earning a master of fine arts degree in 1991. In her last semester, she began her teaching career as a teaching assistant in a course titled “Word & Image: Intermediate Graphic Design.” The class dealt with word-image concepts as well as basic typographic and formal principles. Since 1994, Smotrich has been on the faculty of the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC as adjunct professor in graphic design.
Hannah’s master’s thesis at Yale, again demonstrated her strong interest in Judaism. Her thesis was titled “Opening the Text: A Multi-Voiced Reconsideration of the Passover Haggadah.”
Upon graduating from Yale, Smotrich worked for two years. 1991-1993 at Carbone Smolan Associates in New York City. In 1993, Smotrich relocated to Washington, DC where she had the opportunity to open her own studio and work for herself.
For the last three years, Hannah Smotrich Graphic Design & Consulting has served a growing list of corporate and non-profit, educational and cultural clients. When asked to describe her professional philosophy, Smotrich declares, “What I enjoy most about graphic design is the mix of intellectual problem solving and artistic expression.”
“It is the challenge of integrating these two aspects of design which make my work enjoyable. As a designer, I do not consider myself to be a fine artist and my work tends to reflect the character of my client and not myself.”
She was first approached about a year and a half ago by the United States Postal Service with a commission to submit a design for a Hanukkah stamp. They paid her a standard fee to prepare a design and gave her three to four months in which to complete her design concept.
The holiday of Hanukkah lasts eight days. Hannah’s stamp designs show eight Hanukkah candles and the Shamash or servant candle burning. Beginning on the first day of the festival, which begins in the evening after sunset, one candle is lit by the shamash candle.
On each subsequent night, an additional candle is lit, until on the eight and last day, all the candles are burning brightly as shown on the Israeli and US stamps designed by Smotrich.
The holiday commemorates the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and the victory of a small band of Jewish patriots against the larger numbers of Greek Syrian soldiers, who not only controlled the Holy Land, but also were committed to stamping out Jewish religious practices.
It was some 2,160 years ago, in the year 164 Before the Common Era that the Jewish revolt against Antiochus Epinhenes, the Greek Syrian leader, broke out in the little village of Modin. The climax occurred with the liberation of the Holy City of Jerusalem from pagan hands.
When the Hasmoneans began the difficult process of purifying the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, they found only one jar of pure olive oil that had not been tampered with by the Greeks. This oil was need to light the special Menorah in the Temple.
It would take eight days before a new supply of the holy olive oil could be created. The jar contained only enough oil for just a single day. However, after the Menorah was lit, the oil was not used up in one day as was expected. Instead, the oil burned for eight continuous days until a new supply of consecrated olive oil was delivered to the Jewish Temple of Jerusalem.
Those interested in the Israeli Hanukkah stamp and other philatelic gift ideas combining both the Israel and USA Joint Hanukkah stamps can contact a stamp agent or the Israel Philatelic Agency, 535 Fifth Avenue, Suite 300, New York, NY 10017, Telephone (800) 607-2799.