The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-12-21
FEAST OF LIGHTS
TO Be OBSERVED
AT SYNAGOGUES
\
Appropriate Program Ar
ranged For Service
( Of 'Chanukah'

birmingham Jewish congregations
will, celebrate Chaukah, or The Feast
of Lights, with appropriate ceremonies
at The various synagogueS Sunday.
The children of the Birmingham He
brew school will give a Chanukah play
together with a series of songs, recita-
tiorts, essays and candle-lighting cere
mcny in the "Y' auditorium
J.sBonfeld, president of the school and
chairman of the evening, will be intro
duced by Rabbi Nilsson katz and after
the+ singing of '1vrim Anachnu' the
Sunday school children will hold the
Chanukah service with blessing of the
candles and appropriate recitatlons.
After the service Mary Joseph will
tell. the story of Chanakuh and will be
followed by Rosaline Siegalls singing
of .stEili Eli Other songs and reef
tations are included on the program
which promises to be one OF the most
interesting ever given by the Jewish
children.
Last Eight Days
Ohanukah will be observed in Jewish
circles beginning Sunday evening, and
for eight days thereafter.
With the Feast of Lights there is
counled an historical event, the Mac
cabean revolt which proved to be OF
supreme national Importance to the peo-
pie OF Israel.
The years 1853 to 1865 B. c. E., were
eventual in Palestine, even epochal. In
those stirring years Antiochus Epl-
pha1fes King of Syria, ambitious to
uniYe all provinces of his domain into
one nation, resorted to the crude method
of compelling all his subject peoples to
usesene language and worship in one
established and certified religious cere-
monial, namely, the polythelstlc ritual
ismsof his model, the Greeks.
The enforcement of this royal decree
wax mandatory on all peoples including
the5~Jews. The Temple of Jerusalem
was defied by the erection of affairs
where idols were worshipped and Greek
religious practices introduced not only
hostile to the sensibilities of the jewish
peofle but regarded by them as aboml-
nations which had been uprooted from
their religion many centuries before the
Syrian tyrant plotted to restore them
Hate Terminated
The enforcement of these idolatrous
ceremonials, coupled with intense OPP
preston, terminated hatred in the
hearts of the Jewish people of Pales-
tine. which burst into a revolt and IN,
stantly led to war against the mad
despot of Syria.
This instruction was instigated by
Mattathias, a priest of Modin, who raj
lied his countrymen around him and de
fled the king of Syria to force them to
bend the knee before an image made
by man instead of the one and only
Creator who made heaven and earth,
Sustained by his son Judah, called
the Maccabee, and his four heroic
brothers, the mighty armies of Syria
were defeated after successive cam
paigns covering a period of four years
The final victory of the Maccabear
armies over all the hosts of Syria hap
pened according to the Hebrew calen
dar;on the 25th of Kislev, which cores
nonds to the month of December. in thu
wear 165 B. c. Il. That man does mo-
prevail by the exercise of might but by
the spirit of God working for justice
and fair play is the keynote of the feas'
as celebrated today in Jewish homes
and. schools and synagogues.