Item: i111697

Authentic Coin of:

Israel – 26th Anniversary of Independence
1974 
BU Silver 10 Lirot 34mm (19.97 grams) 0.500 Silver (0.3215 oz. ASW)
Reference: KM# 78
Damascus Menorah. (18th century)
Outline of Damascus lamp.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured,  provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of  Authenticity.  

The Hanukkah menorah, also chanukiah or hanukkiah (Hebrew: מנורת חנוכה‎ menorat ḥanukkah, pl. menorot; also Hebrew: חַנֻכִּיָּה‎ ḥanukkiyah, or chanukkiyah, pl. ḥanukkiyot/chanukkiyot, or Yiddish: חנוכּה לאָמפּ‎ khanike lomp, lit.: Hanukkah lamp), is a nine-branched candelabrum lit during the eight-day holiday of Hanukkah, as opposed to the seven-branched menorah used in the ancient Temple or as a symbol.

On each night of Hanukkah, a new branch is lit. The ninth holder, called the shamash (“helper” or “servant”), is for a candle used to light all other candles or to be used as an extra light. To be kosher, the shamash must be offset on a higher or lower plane than the main eight candles or oil lamps, but there are differing opinions as to whether all the lights must be arranged in a straight line, or if the chanukiah can be arranged in a curve.

The hanukkiah, along with the seven-branched menorah and the Star of David, is among the most widely produced articles of Jewish ceremonial art.

The hanukkiah is often displayed in public around Hanukkah time in December. Elected officials often participate in publicly lighting the hanukkiah. The Chabad-Lubavitch movement is well associated with public lighting ceremonies, which it has done since a directive from their last Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, in 1987. In the book A Kosher Christmas: ‘Tis the Season to Be Jewish,author Rabbi Joshua Plaut, Ph.D. details the history of public displays of the hanukkiah across the United States, summarizes the court cases associated with this issue, and explains how Presidents of the United States came to embrace lighting the hanukkiah during Hanukkah.

Since 1979, the White House has been represented at the lighting of the National Menorah in celebration of Hanukkah, beginning with the attendance of President Jimmy Carter in the ceremony in Lafayette Park. Additionally, beginning with President Bill Clinton in 1993, a hanukkiah is lit at the White House, and in 2001, President George W. Bush began the annual tradition of a White House Hanukkah Party in the White House residence, which includes a hanukkiah candle lighting ceremony.

In the United Kingdom, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom each year holds a hanukkiah lighting at the official residence of the Speaker of the House of Commons, located in the Palace of Westminster. The hanukkiah currently used was commissioned by the Rt. Hon. Michael Martin MP, then Speaker of the House of Commons.Martin is a Roman Catholic; his successor, John Bercow, was coincidentally the first Jewish Speaker of the House of Commons.

Two large hanukkiahs are in New York City, each standing at 32 feet. One is at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, and the other is at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street in Manhattan near Central Park. A 4,000-pound structure, it is the work of Israeli artist Yaacov Agam. Because of the hanukkiah’s height, Con Edison assists the lighting by using a crane to lift each person to the top.

Israel,  is a sovereign state in Western Asia . The country is situated in the Middle East at the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea . It shares land borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan on the east, the Palestinian territories (which are claimed by  the State of Palestine and are partially controlled  by Israel) comprising the West Bank and Gaza Strip to the east and west, respectively,  and Egypt to the southwest. It contains  geographically diverse features within its relatively small area. Israel’s financial and technology center is Tel Aviv while Jerusalem is both the self-designated capital  and most populous individual city under the  country’s governmental administration. Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem is internationally unrecognized .

On  29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly recommended the  adoption and implementation of the Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine . This UN plan specified  borders for new Arab and Jewish states and also specified an area of Jerusalem and its environs which was to be  administered by the UN under an international regime. The end of the British Mandate for Palestine was set for  midnight on 14 May 1948. That day, David Ben-Gurion , the executive head of the Zionist Organization and president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine , declared “the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel , to be known as the State of  Israel,” which would start to function from the termination of the mandate. The  borders of the new state were not specified in the declaration. Neighboring Arab  armies invaded the former Palestinian mandate on the  next day and fought the Israeli forces. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in  the course of which it has occupied the West Bank, Sinai Peninsula (1956–57, 1967–82), part of Southern Lebanon (1982–2000), Gaza Strip  (1967–2005; still considered occupied after 2005 disengagement ) and the Golan Heights . It extended its laws to the  Golan Heights and East Jerusalem , but not the West Bank. Efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted  in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been signed. Israel’s  occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem is the world’s longest military occupation in modern times.

The population of Israel , as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , was  estimated in 2016 to be 8,476,600 people. It is the world’s only Jewish-majority state , with 6,345,400 citizens,  or 74.9%, being designated as Jewish . The country’s second largest group of  citizens are denoted as Arabs , numbering 1,760,400 people (including  the Druze and most East Jerusalem Arabs). The great majority of Israeli Arabs  are Sunni Muslims , with smaller but significant numbers  of semi-settled Negev Bedouins ; the rest are Christians and Druze . Other far smaller minorities include Maronites , Samaritans , Dom people and Roma , Black Hebrew Israelites , other Sub-Saharan Africans , Armenians , Circassians , Vietnamese boat people , and others. Israel also  hosts a significant population of non-citizen foreign workers and asylum seekers  from Africa and Asia.

In its Basic Laws , Israel defines itself as a Jewish and democratic state . Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary  system, proportional representation and universal suffrage . The prime minister serves as head of government and  the Knesset serves as the legislature . Israel is a developed country and an OECD member, with the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic  product as of 2015. The country benefits from a highly skilled workforce and is  among the most educated countries in the world with the one of the highest  percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. The country has  the highest standard of living in the Middle East   and the fourth highest in Asia , and has one of the highest life expectancies in the  world.