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Survivors from Nazi lagers Giuseppe Di Porto, left, and Mario Limentani stand near a menorah in front of Iran's Embassy in Rome. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners December 29, 2005 |
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Members of Rome's Jewish community lit Chanukah candles in front of the Iranian Embassy on Wednesday in what they said was a peaceful response to comments by the Iranian president that the Holocaust was a "myth."
Two of the people who lit the candles were World War II concentration camp survivors, and a third was an Iranian Jew.
"We want to bring the light and not fire to the world," said Rome's chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni. "The story of Chanukah reminds us of a military victory but the symbol is a spiritual one, it's a peaceful witness to the fact that we exist."
He said the demonstration was a peaceful response to comments by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who said earlier this month that the Holocaust was a "myth" and that if Europeans insist it did occur, then they should give some of their own land for a Jewish state, rather than the one in the Middle East.
The comments came just two months after Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" - comments that prompted Italians from the right and left to demonstrate in front of the Iranian Embassy.
About 50 people took part in the candle lighting, although they were outnumbered by police and journalists. There were no lights on in the embassy at the time.
Chanukah recalls the victory against all odds of the small Maccabean army against the Syrian king Antiochus in 165 B.C. The eight-day length of the festival is a result of the belief that when the Jews rededicated the Temple in Jerusalem, which had been desecrated by the invaders, a single vial of oil, enough for one day, burned miraculously for eight.
The AP contributed to this report.
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