The Key West Citizen

HANUKKAH, FEAST OF DEDICATION, TO BEGIN ON TUESDAY

JEWISH EVENT WHICH WILL BE OBSERVED HERE IS LOOKED UPON PRINCIPAL LY AS HOME FESTIVAL

One of the most interesting holidays in the Jewish calendar begins this year on Tuesday evening, December 12, and lasts for eight days. It is known as Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication, and though not observed by special services in the Synagogue, it is eagerly looked forward to by the children of the Jewish household, for it has in large measure come to be a home festival. The local colony of the Jewish faith will join in the observance.

The historical background of the celebration is found in the fact that in the year 165 B. C. E. Judas Maccabeus, one of the few martial heroes in Jewish history, re-dedicated the Temple at Jerusalem after its defilement by Antiochus Epiphanes, who had set up in place of God's altar, a shrine to his heathen god. Just three years after this pollution, on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Kislev, the Temple was reclaimed and re-dedicated to the service of God. It was a moral and spiritual victory for the Jews of that day.

Around the festival cluster many beautiful legends, which have helped to shape the character of the celebration. One such legend is to the effect that when the Temple was re-dedicated only a single cruse of oil was found undefiled, but through the miraculous intervention of God, this oil proved to be sufficient for burning for eight successive nights, and until other oil fit for the service might be prepared. For this reason, to this day, Jews light candles in their homes in celebration of Hanukkah for eight successive nights, two on the second, and so on.

Among the Jews, Hanukkah is a time for rejoicing not only on the part of the children, but as well on the part of the poor, who are always liberally remembered.

This year this holiday has particular significance for the Jews the world over, because of the change in the status of the Jews in Germany. As in former days, the Jews will again look forward to the fulfillment of the prophetic forecast, "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit," saith the Lord of Hosts.