Washington’s Account of the Jewish Patriot
General Washington proceeded to explain to the Harts “how the Hanukah festival had inspired him during the previous year, when encamped at Valley Forge morale had sunk to its lowest ebb.” Due to the lack of warm clothes and protective footwear among Washington’s men, the severity of the winter had caused a feeling of despair to descend upon the commander-in-chief, and it was in this context that “a young Jewish private tendered the General a ray of hope.” The soldier, an emigrant out of Poland, was “proud to be a soldier for freedom and liberty.”
“It was the night of December 25, 1777. Christmas Day had been observed glumly and after eating their rations the men were bedded down for the night -- all except the Jew. [Actually, the first night of Hanukah -- beginning on the 25th of Kislev, 5538, on the Hebrew calendar -- would have begun at sundown on December 24, 1777.] In a corner of the drafty wooden shack that served as their barracks, as quietly as possible, he lit his menorah, an eight-branched candelabrum that he had carried with him from overseas in his knapsack ever since the war had begun.” As he lit his menorah, the Jewish soldier wept softly to himself, a detail that did not escape the notice of General Washington, as he was making his appointed rounds. Approaching the soldier and touching him on the shoulder, as an aide-de-camp looked on, the general proceeded to ask, “Why do you cry, son?” to which the soldier replied, “Actually, I am not crying. I’m praying with tears for your victory.”
Per Rabbi Sharfman, the rest of the conversation went something like this:
“And what is this strange lamp?” asked the commander.
“This is my Hanukah lamp,” and the young man related briefly the ancient story -- how long ago a small bedraggled but patriotic army routed a huge and powerful foe.
“You are a Jew, a son of the Prophets, and you say we will be victorious?” the general declared, his eyes fixed on the flickering flames of the menorah.
“Yes,” the soldier unhesitatingly replied. “The God of Israel who helped the Maccabeans will help to build here a land of freedom for the oppressed.”