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Hanukkah, Hebrew for "dedication", commemorates
the 2nd century BC victory of Judah Maccabee and his followers
in a revolt in Judea against armies of the Seleucid Empire and
the ensuing restoration of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.
Light is a main theme of the eight-day festival because, Jewish
tradition says, the Maccabees found only enough ritually pure
oil to fuel the temple's ceremonial lamp, The Menorah, for one
day, but it burned for eight days.
During the holiday, it is customary for friends and families to
get together in the evening and light the hanukiah, a nine-arm
candelabra traditionally set by the window, and to eat
jam-filled doughnuts or deep-fried potato pancakes.
One special candle, the shamash, is used to light a Hanukkah
candle for each day of the holiday starting with one candle on
the first night and another each evening.
Hanukkah often holds special significance for Israelis who see
the Maccabee victory as symbolic of Jewish triumph in dark
times. Avraham Harshalom, 95, is a survivor of the Nazi
Holocaust whose parents and brother were murdered in Auschwitz.
As the 75th anniversary of the camp's liberation approaches,
Harshalom lit the hanukiah with his grandchildren, at his son's
home in Ramat Gan. Harshalom moved to the newly-founded Israel
in 1949.
"We are lighting candles 75 years after, it is a good feeling to
be in the bosom of my family, with my children, with my
grandchildren - it is a great joy," said Harshalom.
(Reporting by Nir Elias and Rinat Harash; Writing by Maayan
Lubell; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
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