Statue of Liberty Hanukkah Lamp, 1986

Many immigrants to the United States sought to preserve their cultural heritage while at the same time embracing their new identity as Americans. Manfred Anson did so in designing this Hanukkah lamp to mark the centennial of the Statue of Liberty in 1986. Anson, who escaped Nazi Germany as a teenager, later reunited with family who had immigrated to the United States. For this lamp, Anson combined a traditional Polish menorah and figurines cast from a 19th century Statue of Liberty souvenir. The nine Statue of Liberty figurines are engraved with the names of a person or event central to Jewish history including (L-to-R) the founding of the State of Israel, 1948; the Holocaust or Shoah, 1939-1945; Theodore Herl's meeting of the Zionist Congress of 1897; Galut; the First and Second Jewish Revolts against the Romans; the Revolt led by Judah Maccabee, 188 BCE; the Babylonian Exile of 597-537 BCE; and the Exodus from Egypt.