page_title: White House Hanukkah Party
section_title: 2018
hierarchical_section_title: White House Hanukkah Party / White House Hanukkah Parties hosted by President Donald Trump / 2018
caption_attribution_description: President Donald J. Trump, joined by First Lady Melania Trump, shakes hands with Holocaust survivors during a Hanukkah reception Thursday, Dec. 6, 2018, in the East Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks)
context_page_description: The White House Hanukkah Party is an annual reception held at the White House and hosted by the U.S. President and First Lady to recognize and celebrate the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. The tradition was established in 2001, during the administration of George W. Bush. The guest list includes hundreds of American Jewish politicians, organization heads, and school and yeshiva deans.
  The reception has become one of a number of ways the president recognizes the holiday, along with a proclamation/message, and participation by the president or a member of his staff in the lighting of the National Menorah on the National Mall. Additionally, in 1996, 2004 and 2009, the United States Postal Service issued Hanukkah themed postage stamps in honor of the holiday.
context_section_description: The 2018 White House Hanukkah Party was held on December 6. It had been scheduled for December 5, but was postponed for the state funeral of former President George H. W. Bush. The event comprised two receptions, one at 3 p.m. and another at 7 p.m., in order to accommodate a larger guest list. Following criticism of the absence of Congressional Democrats from the 2017 reception, invitations were extended to all Jewish members of Congress. Other attendees included U.S. envoy to Israel Ron Dermer and tycoon Sheldon Adelson.
  At the afternoon reception, Trump honored eight Holocaust survivors. At the evening reception, he honored Andrew Pollack, father of student Meadow Pollack, one of the victims of the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. Trump stated that the menorah was being lit in Meadow Pollack's memory. During his remarks, Trump noted that the date marked the one-year anniversary of the United States' official recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. In other remarks, he remembered the murder of 11 Jews in a Pittsburgh synagogue in October, saying that "we reaffirmed our solemn duty to confront anti-Semitism everywhere…[We] must stamp out this vile hatred from the world".
  In November 2019, CNN reported that Trump and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, had been photographed at the 2018 White House Hanukkah Party with Russian–American businessmen Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman; Parnas had posted the picture on his Twitter page. Afterwards the four reportedly repaired to a private room where Trump allegedly asked them to help with a scheme to coerce the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter. When Parnas and Fruman were arrested in October 2019, Trump stated that he did not know the two men.
caption: Donald and Melania Trump greet Holocaust survivors at the 2018 White House Hanukkah Party
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