Get Ready for a Real Taste of Hanukkah Spirit : Religion: Jews will celebrate the eight-day Festival of Lights with music, pageantry--and traditional foods.

In some ways, it makes sense that Hanukkah comes on the heels of Thanksgiving this year. Why not go right from one food-filled holiday of family celebration and togetherness to another?

“Religion should begin in the kitchen,” said a chuckling Carol Cooperman, a member of Temple Beth David in Westminster. To put her words into practice, she plans to take applesauce and traditional latkes , potato pancakes, to share with office co-workers at Golden West College.

For Cooperman and thousands of other Jews in Orange County, the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights begins tonight. Observances will be conducted at synagogues, community centers and homes throughout the week.

For about 2,000 years, Jews have observed Hanukkah as a celebration of religious freedom. The holiday commemorates the 165 BC victory of the outnumbered Maccabees over the Syrians, who had captured and defiled the temple in Jerusalem with Greek deities.

A popular legend told to children involves the “miracle of the oil”: The Maccabees needed to reclaim and cleanse the temple, but could find enough consecrated oil to keep their eternal light ignited only for one day. The flame miraculously burned for eight days, leading to the eight-day celebration.

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When people think of Hanukkah, many think of the colorful traditions that children find special: the dreidel , or spinning toy top; the hanukkiah , or Hanukkah menorah; and the pancakes, fried jelly doughnut-like sufganiyot and other delicacies served on Jewish tables.

But Rabbi Arnold Rachlis of the University Synagogue in Irvine wants adults to keep a Hanukkah message in mind too.

“I’ll talk about the historical story,” Rachlis said, “and I’ll ask people to think about mediating between being acculturated to mainstream American society and being Jewish.”

Still, his synagogue won’t forget kids. A Hanukkah play, choir performances and a family service will begin at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

“It’s a three-ring Hanukkah service,” Rachlis said. “The only thing we don’t have is a magician.”

Rabbi Michael Mayersohn of Temple Beth David said Hanukkah is really a celebration in the home. “Most of it goes on in people’s houses,” he said.

Mayersohn’s congregation will participate in a public menorah lighting, though, at the Long Beach Jewish Community Center on Wednesday.

“Historically it was a minor holiday, but it became more important in recent times,” Mayersohn said, “especially because of the influence of American culture and Christmas. But Hanukkah should be an opportunity for Jews to celebrate the survival of Jewish identity . . . and the preservation of Jewish traditions.”

Oddly enough, some who are Jewish have never experienced Hanukkah, said Charlene Edwards, director of special services at the Jewish Family Service in Orange.

That organization will host a Hanukkah party for refugees from the former Soviet Union who are observing their first holidays in the United States. Many were not allowed to practice their religion under Communist rule. Edwards said she sees about 100 new Russian refugees each year.

“We will tell the story of Hanukkah to the children in both English and Russian,” Edwards said. They also will try to get 2- to 16-year-olds to take roles in a Hanukkah play.

“Some will play Jews, some will play Syrians,” Edwards said. “We take turns . . . you can be both.”

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The party on Sunday, the last day of Hanukkah, will feature children’s gifts and a speaker who recently emigrated from Russia, where she was an outspoken activist for the survival of Jewish religion and culture.

The Jewish Community Center in Costa Mesa has also scheduled cultural events, including a visit by an Israeli dance troupe, which will perform and light a menorah at 8 p.m. Wednesday.

Some Jews said the proximity of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah is unusual because Hanukkah, determined by the lunar calendar, doesn’t usually come this early.

“I think it snuck up on everybody,” Mayersohn said.

Cooperman said the food aspect of the holidays helps everyone appreciate the richness of cultural and religious differences, whether Jew, Christian or other.

Taking food to share at work is a “casual, everyday kind of thing,” said Cooperman, a statistical clerk. “I bring in potato pancakes, you bring in fruitcake. . . . Eating is the best way of getting our understanding across.”