Benyamin Korn: Happy Hanukkah from Sarah Palin

The eight-day Jewish festival Hannukah (or Chanukkah) started on Wednesday night.  On Thursday, Governor Palin posted a Facebook Note, wishing the Jewish community a Happy Hannukah.  On behalf of our authors at the Sarah Palin Information Blog, I would also like to wish our Jewish friends and readers a Happy Hannukah as their festival continues.

Benyamin Korn, director of Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin and JewsforSarah.com, has posted an excellent commentary on Governor Palin’s Hanukkah greeting:

Governor Palin’s Jewish holiday messages are always extraordinary. They are, first of all, very well-informed Jewishly and accurate in their references to the holidays, underlying concepts and use of Hebrew. In her Passover message last spring, for example, she wishes her readers a “chag kasher v’sameach” – “a happy and kosher Passover” – a traditional greeting which reflects an understanding of our observance of very strict dietary laws during Passover’s 8 days.

But beyond the sensitivity to our tradition is Gov. Palin’s deep identification with our national and spiritual identity as Jews. In writing (below) about the modern Jewish state that “a great miracle is still happening there,” she connects with the astonishing achievements of Israeli society today in almost every area of human endeavor – politics, economics, the military, science, religion, education, art and literature, medicine, agriculture, green technology, social work, and on and on. Gov. Palin “gets it” when it comes to the miraculously redemptive power of modern Israeli life.

But most of all, Sarah Palin sees what a strong Israel means for America. That, of course, is not a subject for holiday greetings, but she makes frequent mention of it in other public addresses and statements.