On Tuesday, September 29, the United States Postal Service issued its ninth Hanukkah stamp, continuing its tradition of honoring the eight-day Jewish holiday observed by millions of people in the United States and around the world. A dedication ceremony was held at the Touro Synagogue.
The stamp design features a digital illustration of a dreidel, a traditional toy played with by children during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. Antonio Alcalá, an art director for USPS, designed the stamp with original artwork by illustrator Lisa Perrin, featuring a dark blue dreidel with rust-colored Hebrew letters set against a turquoise background. Framing the dreidel with decorative elements like flowers and foliage in light and dark orange, cream, and shades of blue.
“The Postal Service takes immense pride in issuing stamps that celebrate the rich cultural traditions and shared history of the American people. With this new Hanukkah stamp, we are honored to highlight a story of resilience, hope, and religious freedom that continues to inspire millions around the globe,” said Deputy General Counsel Carrie Rieger Brownlie.
Today the Festival of Lights is celebrated by lighting a nine-branched candelabra known as a Hanukkiah, singing holiday songs and eating traditional fried foods such as latkes and sufganiyot to commemorate the miracle of light.
The holiday also includes playing with a spinning top known as a dreidel, a Yiddish word meaning “to turn.” Each of the toy’s four sides commonly bears a Hebrew letter: nun, gimel, heh, and shin, representing the phrase “Nes gadol haya sham,” meaning “A great miracle happened there.” Instead of the letter shin, dreidels created in Israel use the letter peh for the word poe, meaning “here.”
