Jews Gather at Ancient Wall to Mark Hanukkah
Jewish citizens of Israel lit candles and oil lamps Friday night to begin Hanukkah, the annual eight-day festival of lights celebrating the Maccabees’ victorious revolt against the Greek-dominated Syrians more than 2,000 years ago.
The observance began at sundown, which coincided with the start of the Jewish Sabbath.
Every year, Jews gather at their holiest site, the Western Wall at Jerusalem’s walled Old City, for a public lighting of the eight-pointed menorah candelabra that is one of the principal symbols of their religion.
The huge ancient wall is said to be the only remnant of the Second Temple, destroyed by the Romans in AD 70.
The Hanukkah miracle celebrates the triumph of the Jewish Maccabees over the Seleucid Hellenists in 165 BC and the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem.
The Seleucid empire, set up after Alexander the Great’s death, emphasized the spread of Greek civilization and religion. Jews rose up in a revolt led by Judah Maccabee after his father killed a Syrian official rather than worship a pagan god.
The Maccabees drove the Syrians out of the Holy Land and won about 100 years of freedom for Jews, the last time the Jewish state existed until modern Israel was established in 1948.
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