Celebrating the Festival of Lights

Families and temples across the Five Towns are getting ready for Hanukkah celebrations as the holiday is fast approaching, beginning on Dec. 1 this year and continuing for eight days and eight nights.

Rabbi Glenn Jacob from Temple Am Echad in Lynbrook said Hanukkah places a major emphasis on family and giving back to the community. He also said the message of the holiday is religious freedom and that the true blessing is the freedom of religious practice we have here in the United States.

Hanukkah, which is also the Festival of Lights, starts on the 25th of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar, is the holiday that celebrates the holy Temple in Jerusalem after the Jews defeated the Hellenist Syrians in 165 B.C.E. When the Greek King of Syria, Antiochus, banned Jews from performing rituals and ordered them to worship Greek gods, the Jews rebelled.

Judah Maccabee led the revolt against the Greeks. After their victory, the Jews wanted to celebrate. They found oil nearby to light a menorah that lasted for eight days so lighting candles in the menorah for eight nights has become a tradition when celebrating Hanukkah.

Rabbi Sholom Stern of Temple Beth El in Cedarhurst said the importance of Hanukkah is to be able to express your particularistic faith and to not be absorbed in a “universal kind of faith.”

At Young Israel of Hewlett, Rabbi Heshy Blumstein celebrates Hanukkah by having the entire congregation over to his house to celebrate. The gathering takes places after Hanukkah since many congregants go out of town or have family events to attend.

In Cedarhurst, Temple Beth El has a festive program that consists of a musical program that offers the synagogue a chance to come together as a community and celebrate the holiday. “We also join together with other synagogues on Hanukkah,” Rabbi Stern said. “Our tradition at Temple Beth El is to have a joint celebration in honor of the holiday.”

Temple Am Echad commemorates Hanukkah by having a big dinner on Shabbat. “I’ve only been here for 18 months,” Rabbi Jacob said. “But I hope to make this dinner a tradition.”

For many, Hanukkah is celebrated with traditional food. Fried foods such as potato pancakes of “latkes” and “sufganiyot” or jelly-filled donuts are often eaten as well as dairy foods such as cheese, cheesecake of blintzes.

In the 19th century, Jews used to play with dreidels as a distraction to the Greeks if they were caught studying Torah, which was not allowed. The dreidel game is also another Hanukkah tradition but did not originally have anything to do with the holiday.

“Hanukkah is about Jewish pride,” Rabbi Blumstein said. “It’s a testimony that the Jewish spirit can overcome anything.”