Sundown last night kicked off the 8-day Hebrew holiday known as Hanukkah. Because it usually falls in December and involves the giving of presents to children, there has been an unfortunate tendency to think of it as “Jewish Christmas.”
Also known as the “festival of lights” or the “feast of dedication,” Hannukah celebrates the Maccabean revolt against forcible Hellenization of Israel. Isrealites of the second century BC were willing to be ruled by Greeks, but they weren’t willing to become Greeks by giving up their religion and culture. For instance, their temple to the Jewish God was to be turned instead into an altar to Zeus.
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