WASHINGTON — Oy vey!
Just days after rival Rick Perry accused him of fighting a “war on religion,” President Obama looked more like a schlemiel fighting a war on decorum when the White House lit all the candles on the menorah at its official Hanukkah party.
“He’s not supposed to. The first night of Hanukkah, you light the first one,” said Rabbi Chava Koster of B’nai Israel, a reformed temple in Greenwich Village.
Even worse, the official celebration occurred almost two weeks too early.
Hanukkah begins at sundown Dec. 20.
At the ceremony Thursday evening, Obama stood before a hanukkiyah (a special nine-candle menorah) with all the candles lit. He said the holiday represented “right over might, faith over doubt” and called it a reminder that “miracles come in all sizes.”
Obama may have been getting an early start on the holiday festivities to make way for his scheduled family vacation in Hawaii next week.
“I think it’s kind of sad if you want this to be an embracing of the entire community. You can light a hanukkiyah in Hawaii that would have been very nice,” Koster said.