LI rabbis: Make this Hanukkah extra special

The eight-day Hanukkah celebration, which this year begins Wednesday at sundown, will be over long before Christmas.

That has some Jewish leaders saying it is especially important for families to fully celebrate the event so children do not feel left out by the time Christmas comes. The two holidays often fall around the same time.

"Parents have the challenge to make the Hanukkah celebration extra special and memorable for their children," said Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum of Temple Israel in Lawrence. "The lights of the menorah will have gone out long before the lights on the Christmas tree."

Rosenbaum suggested parents celebrate with their children each night, share special Hanukkah treats such as potato pancakes, called latkes, and enjoy playing with a traditional top called a dreidel.

For all the attention given to Hanukkah, it is not - officially - a major Jewish religious festival, said Rabbi Joseph S. Topek, director of the Hillel Foundation for Jewish Life at Stony Brook University.

Also known as the "Festival of Lights," Hanukkah marks the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean revolt of the second century Before the Common Era. After Jewish warriors retook control of the temple, according to the Talmud, one night's worth of oil for the temple menorah burned miraculously for eight days, keeping an eternal light in the sanctuary burning.

To commemorate the event, Jews light one additional candle on the menorah each night, until the entire menorah is lit.

The Jewish faithful generally see the message of Hanukkah as one of miracles, hope, freedom and good triumphing over evil. Still, on Long Island, several public menorahs have been destroyed by vandals during the past several years, Topek said.

That led the Suffolk County Board of Rabbis and the Suffolk police to establish a registry of public menorahs this year - along with a pledge from police to keep an eye on them.

At the Bay Shore Jewish Center, where two menorahs were destroyed in recent years, Rabbi Leslie Schotz will lead a ceremony at 5 p.m. Sunday to light the fifth candle on the synagogue's menorah. The support shown by the community for the event, she said, is "truly heartening."