Some Synagogues to Get Early Start on Hanukkah

Hanukkah, an eight-day Jewish festival beginning Wednesday, is a celebration largely centered in the home where succeeding lights of a menorah are lit, gifts are exchanged and holiday foods are featured.

But a number of synagogues will start the observances early.

Hanukkah recalls the successful battle for religious freedom by the Judeans against the Greco-Syrian empire in 165 BC.

In keeping with that theme, Temple Emet of Woodland Hills said it is devoting part of this year’s program to raising relief and resettlement funds for an estimated 10,000 black Jews in Ethiopia and to support petition drives to reunite Ethiopian Jews with family members who have immigrated to Israel.

The varied Hanukkah program at Wilshire Boulevard Temple on Sunday, which includes craft demonstrations, requires as the entrance fee a can of food for the needy.

Likewise, at its Sunday evening dinner and sing-along, Kehillat Ma’arav in Brentwood will feature the opportunity to donate household goods, clothing and linens to a shelter for the homeless and to a halfway house for Jewish ex-offenders.

The Chabad Lubavitch movement will renew its sometimes controversial effort to celebrate the public display of large menorahs Tuesday. They will converge on Los Angeles City Hall for a mass lighting, then proceed to Beverly Hills for the lighting of another menorah in a ceremony to be attended by several entertainment celebrities.