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Chanukah And a Jewish Christmas #253 By Hank Silverberg Happy Chanukah. The Jewish Festival of Lights, which lasts eight days and eight nights, is underway this week. It's supposed to be a minor holiday on the Jewish calendar, but because it often falls near Christmas on the secular 12-month calendar, it gets a bit more attention from the public. It's important for everyone, Jews and non-Jews, to understand the significance of this holiday. It is a commemoration of a military victory more than two thousand years ago in a battle for religious freedom. A small group of Jews, led by the Maccabees, resisted and defeated an attempt by the Greek-oriented Assyrians to wipe out Judaism. In 168 B.C.E., the Assyrians destroyed the Jewish temple in Jerusalem and threatened to kill all Jews who did not convert to their religion. This is the FIRST recorded battle to protect freedom of religion in world history, though obviously not the last. For American Jews who have thrived in