White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel plans to light the National Menorah in front of the White House Sunday afternoon in celebration of the Jewish festival of Chanukah. The ceremony will mark the 30th anniversary of the first National Menorah lighting in 1979 attended by then-U.S. President Jimmy Carter. The eight day festival, which also celebrates the victory of Jewish patriots against those who sought to assimilate Western values into Jewish culture, began last Friday night.
Emanuel, the son of Zionist freedom fighter Binyamin Emanuel of the pre-state Irgun militia, who defines himself as an observant Jew, has been seen as instrumental in pressuring the State of Israel into concessions during both the current Barack Obama administration as well as the Bill Clinton administration, where he directed the details of the Rose Garden ceremony for the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993.