(Ha'aretz) Yuval Azoulay - More than 55 million colorful Hanukkah candles were made by the Menorah Candle Company factory in Sderot in the past two months. The owner of the company, Holocaust survivor Yisrael Sheiner, 82, spent most of World War Two in the Polish woods, hiding with his family from Nazi soldiers. Sheiner sees it as symbolic that Sderot, the most-bombarded city in Israel, is producing millions of candles that stand for Jewish heroism and resilience. Two years ago, a Kassam rocket hit the plant. The blast sent doors flying off their hinges and blew out the factory windows. Sheiner recounts that when he was 11, he, his parents and his three siblings escaped from the Polish town of Pinczow into the woods. Hanukkah came as they were on the run. "I drew the hanukkiah I remembered from home, took a piece of wood and carved it out," he says. "We celebrated Hanukkah in some bunker in the middle of the woods, but the important thing is that we all survived."
2009-12-11 08:23:46Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive