Keeping the Hanukkah Lights Alive : Judaism: Students at Hebrew academy in North Hollywood learn that making holiday menorahs links them to a 2,100-year-old tradition.

On the first day of Hanukkah, an international class of 11 students from the Emek Hebrew Academy gathered a few hours before Sunday’s sunset to light for the first time their hand-crafted menorahs--the products of simultaneous lessons in woodworking and Jewish law.

Under the tutelage of Rabbi Eleazar Eidlitz, the Orthodox students at the North Hollywood school spent the past week putting the finishing touches on their menorahs, some of which carry political and personal messages.

Twelve-year-old Pejman Behboudikha, who grew up in Iran, had attached an inert World War II hand grenade and two machine gun bullets to his menorah as a plea for world peace.

“It represents (a hope) that they will stop the wars all over the world,” said Pejman. “It’s my idea of peace.”

After removing the grenade from the menorah’s pedestal and displaying its empty innards, Pejman explained that Rabbi Eidlitz had bought it for him at an army surplus store.

Akiva Greenfield said he, too, hopes to send a message of worldwide brotherhood with his menorah, shaped like a peace symbol with the word “shalom”--peace in Hebrew--engraved in it.

Nathan Kostant said the black-and-white marbled finish of his menorah was a statement of racial harmony.

Other boys placed the name of a family member on each of the eight branches of the menorah, a sign of the importance of family in Judaism.

Hanukkah is an eight-day festival that commemorates the retaking of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem in 165 B.C. The lighting of the eight candles of the menorah, one for each day of Hanukkah, harks back to the story of the Maccabees, who kept their lamps lit during the rededication of the temple for eight days, even though they had only enough oil for one.

“Remember that you are part of a tradition that has a nonstop link from more than 2,100 years ago,” Rabbi Eidlitz told his students before they lit their candles. “You directly represent that link that has not been broken. (The Maccabees) were not allowed to practice or study their religion, and we have that as we have students from Russia now whose parents have had the same experience.”

That sense of community was evident among the students.

“Everyone has made a menorah and everyone was helping each other,” said Gregory Kalmanovich, from the country of Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic. “The menorahs just weren’t made by one person.”

Jan Moore watched proudly as his son, Jason, stood behind his menorah. He said he was inspired by Rabbi Eidlitz to make his own menorah when he was 18, at a rabbinical school in the Bay Area. He still has the menorah and said he planned to light it Sunday.

“The magic of Rabbi Eidlitz is really his ability to teach the boys so that they not only learn the laws of how to properly build a menorah so that it’s kosher, but they also learn to work together as a team,” Moore said.

After the menorahs were lit and the boys chanted a traditional prayer, Rabbi Eidlitz gave them some parting wisdom.

“I wish you a great deal of success in the loot you will collect from your parents,” he said, “but I hope that you will remember the Torah connection.”