About This Stamp
Hanukkah spans eight nights and days of remembrance and ritual. The U.S. Postal Service® joined the celebration with a stamp in 2016 featuring a warm, elegant illustration of a holiday menorah in the window of a home. The candles — one for each of the eight nights and days of Hanukkah, and the ninth, the shamash or “servant,” used to light the other candles — are a creamy white and have all been lit. The white window trim is visible through the branches of the menorah, which echo the tangle of snow-covered tree branches beyond the glass.
Hanukkah is the Hebrew word for "dedication." Tradition relates how a miracle took place during the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem, which had been desecrated by conquering armies. The sacramental oil, thought to be enough for only one day, burned for eight days.
The miracle of the oil is at the heart of the ritual of the lighting of the hanukiah, a menorah — candelabra — used only at Hanukkah. Traditionally, it was placed for all to see at the entrance of the home to proclaim the miracle. Many times in history it was not safe for Jewish families to make such a public declaration of faith, and the menorah was set instead in a prominent place inside the home. Today in the U.S., many families are renewing the tradition of displaying the menorah in windows during the holiday.
The eight nights and days of Hanukkah begin on the 25th of Kislev in the Hebrew calendar, a date that falls in late November or December. In 2016, Hanukkah begins at sundown on December 24.
The Hanukkah stamp was issued as a Forever® stamp. This Forever stamp will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.
Stamp Art Director, Designer, and Typographer
Ethel Kessler
Ethel Kessler is an award-winning designer and art director who has worked with corporations, museums, public and private institutions, professional service organizations, and now, the United States Postal Service.
After earning a B.F.A. in visual communications from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Kessler worked as a graphic designer and project manager for the exhibits division of the United States Information Agency. Her work was distributed internationally on subjects such as Immigration, Entrepreneurship, Renovation of American Cities, and the Bicentennial of 1976. She was also responsible for exhibits in Morocco, Botswana, and El Salvador.
In 1981, she established Kessler Design, Inc., for which she is creative director and designer. Clients have included the Clinton Government reorganization, the Smithsonian Institution, National Geographic Television, the National Park Service, and the American Institute of Architects.
She has been an art director for the U.S. Postal Service’s stamp development program for more than 25 years. As an art director for USPS, Kessler has been responsible for creating more than 500 stamp designs, including the Breast Cancer Research stamp illustrated by Whitney Sherman. Issued in 1998, the stamp is still on sale and has raised more $98 million for breast cancer research. Other Kessler projects include the popular and highly regarded Nature of America 120 stamp series, a collaboration with nationally acclaimed nature illustrator John Dawson, the 12-year Lunar New Year series with Kam Mak, the American Filmmaking: Behind the Scenes 10 stamps issued in 2003, a 2016 pane of stamps celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, and the 2023 stamp honoring Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And many, many others.
Stamp Artist
William Low
William Low is an author and illustrator, as well as the winner of four Silver Medals from the Society of Illustrators. His approach to picture making developed when he was an art student at New York City’s High School of Art and Design where he studied classical portraiture using oils. He earned a B.F.A. degree from the Parson’s School of Design in 1981, and, in 2005, an M.A. degree from Syracuse University.
Low is currently the principal in Cobalt Illustration Studios, which produces illustrations for corporate use, children’s books, advertisements, gallery paintings, and fine art quality prints. Clients include L.L. Bean, Guideposts magazine, Henry Holt and Company, and Philomel Books. Many of his original paintings are on permanent view at various Houston’s Restaurants around the country. In 2011, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority completed the installation of two stained glass murals in the elevated Parkchester Station in the Bronx, New York. The panels, “A Day In Parkchester,” were designed by Low and fabricated by Erskin Mitchell Stained Glass.
Low is currently a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York in the undergraduate program. He has also taught at the School of Visual Arts in New York, and has conducted lectures and seminars at many schools, including the Ringling School of Art, the Maryland Institute College of Art, the Society of Illustrators, and the Norman Rockwell Museum. He gives presentations nationally, discussing his career in illustration and demonstrating his innovative digital painting technique.
With several children’s books to his credit, including Chinatown and Old Penn Station, Low is an established children’s author. He also illustrates books by other writers, among them Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze and Stargone John. Low works on Long Island in New York where he lives with his wife and two children.
His stamps for the U.S. Postal Service include Poinsettia (2013, reissue 2014), Winter Flowers (2014), Hanukkah (2016), and Holiday Windows (2016).