Make your own DIY. Hanukkah Menorah

Rica Allam, who lives in Stuttgart, Germany, loves celebrating Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, which begins tonight. There's just one problem: it's very hard to find a menorah in her hometown.

So she learned how to make one herself.

Mrs. Allam, a university adviser and mother of two, is one of approximately 118,000 people living in Germany today who identify as Jewish. After the birth of her second child, she began making educational videos on TikTok explaining Jewish life to other Germans. His posts, which have more than 36,000 subscribers, include a D.I.Y. menorahs, with the help of her sons, Leor and Samuel.

Mrs. Allam, whose family hails from the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, did not grow up a nun but had something of an awakening during her freshman year of high school, when she studied in Rhode Island as a exchange student. “I had never met so many Jews in my life,” Ms. Allam recalls.

It was difficult for her to find this kind of community in Germany, where she often feels “like a unicorn for being Jewish,” she said. But she doesn't want her children, ages 4 and 1, to "simply ignore Jewish holidays and Jewish descent".

Creativity provided a solution .

"I always try to make fun of Judaism because we have a lot of rules," Ms. Allam said.

To make a menorah like Mrs. Allam's, you will need a wooden board for the base; nine small wooden blocks (one larger than the others); paint (acrylic for the board and spray can for the blocks); nine thimbles; letter stickers to spell out "Hanukkah" (or "Hanukkah", "Hannuka", etc., depending on your preferred transliteration) and your child's name, if desired; a hot glue gun; wood glue; and your Hanukkah candles (and a lighter).

Step 1: Paint the board with acrylic paint and let it dry.

Step 2: Spray paint all nine wooden blocks. Glue them together in a row, with the tallest block at the end, then secure them to the board with the wood glue.

Step 3: Attach the letters of "Hanukkah" to the front of the eight small wooden blocks, one letter per cube. If you also have letters for a name, tape them to the board in front of the row of blocks.

Step 4: Attach the thimbles to the top of each of the the nine blocks using the hot glue gun.

Step 5: Insert the candles into the thimbles; the larger block should be reserved for the "shamash", or auxiliary candle, which you use to light the rest. Light the candles and celebrate!

@rica.all DIY for Jewish kids ✨✨✨#diy #hannukah #menorah #jüdisch #hanukkah ♬ Chanukia - AllMusicGallery