Hanukka Lamp (″Hanukkiya″) from Damascus

Hanukka Lamp from Damascus
Hanukka Coin 5735-1974

The ninth in the series of Hanukka coins depicts a Damascus lamp dating from the 18th Century. Syria, which gained its independence in 1946, made life impossible for its Jewish minority. Of thirty thousand Jews who lived there, some twenty thousand made their way to Palestine within two years, and during the 1950s, another five thousand managed to escape. The Syrian Hanukka lamp was meant to serve as a reminder that the remnants of the Jewish communities in Damascus, Allepo and Kamishli were slowly dying in captivity, locked in ghettos, exposed to humiliation, denied elementary rights, cut off from any source of livelihood, awaiting the day they could emerge from darkness into light, from servitude to freedom.

Obverse:
Within an incuse, depicting a three arched gate - the face value "10 Lirot" in Hebrew and above, the mint year "5735-1974". Leaves adorn the lamp and the word "Israel" appears below in Hebrew, Arabic and English.

Reverse:
An 18th century Damascus Hanukka lamp inside an incuse figure of a gate with three arches. The backplate of the lamp is embellished on either side with two elaborately spiralled pillars and a decorative pattern of branches and leaves. In the upper part of the backplate, within the leaf designm two birds are perched with a rosette between them. Beneath the lamp, around the lower border of the coin, is the Hebrew inscription "18th Century Hanukka lamp from Damascus."

Edge:
The B.U. has a smooth edge. The proof is milled.

Mint Marks:
On the obverse of the B.U. coin, a Star of David. On the obverse of the proof coin, the Hebrew letter "mem" centered in the lower border.

Designer:
The Shamir Brothers.

Mint:
Israel Government Mint, Jerusalem.