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Jews Mark Start Of Hanukkah

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 5, 2007

TAMPA - Three generations of a Tampa family gathered Tuesday to light the first candle of Hanukkah as the eight-day Jewish holiday began at sundown.

Grandparents Ginny and Ben Puttler joined their daughter Shari Mezrah and her husband, Todd, to watch their children Max, 8, and Sam, 6, light the candle at their South Tampa home.

Across the Tampa Bay area, hundreds of Jewish families performed the same ritual.

Also known as the Festival of Lights, the holiday celebrates the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem by Judas Maccabee in 165 BC, after the temple had been desecrated by the army of Antiochus IV, king of Syria and overlord of Palestine.

Jewish families light a candle each night of the holiday as part of the tradition.

According to the Talmud, there was only enough consecrated olive oil to fuel the eternal flame in the rededicated temple for one day. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days.

Many Jews consider the oil symbolic of the survival of their people over the centuries. The holiday also celebrates religious freedom.

Greg Fight and Michelle Bearden

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