Beginning at sundown on Wednesday, Dec. 1 and for eight days, Jewish people across the world celebrate Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights.

More than 2,000 years ago in Judea, now Israel, a pagan tyrant from Syria named Antiochus had forbidden Jewish worship and study under penalty of death. He wished to replace Judaism with Greek practices and ideals.  Antiochus's army desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem, including the oil for lamp that lit the sacred chamber.

The Jewish Maccabees, in whose honor athletic events are performed to this day, conducted a successful revolt against the tyrant. By tradition, the only sacred oil left for the Temple was enough for one day, yet the small amount burned for eight, hence the eight-day holiday where candles are lit each night.

For the sixth year, the Brotherhood at Beth El Temple Center on Concord Avenue, along with the congregation, has distributed Hanukkah celebration packages to Jewish soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines  at overseas bases or at sea. Packages went this year to Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, Turkey and Korea, as well as to the USS Nimitz, Abraham Lincoln and the Cole.

Hanukkah is associated with religious freedom. The letter to the troops thanks them for serving the cause of freedom.

A holiday celebration in a box

Each of the 200 packages – the most ever sent by the group –  contains candles, a menorah (or hanukkiah), chocolate gelt (a wager in a traditional game played with a dreidl that was also enclosed), Israeli bubble gum, a CD with Jewish and Israeli music, a handwritten card from Hebrew school students and a letter of thanks from the BETC congregation.  In case the recipients wish to reach the congregation, a stamped post card with BETC's address was also in the package along with an email address.

This year, volunteers knitted 200 kippot, head coverings also called yarmulkes, to add to the packages. Some of these were knitted in camouflage green.

Over the years, the Temple has received thanks from  service men or women, often a long way from home. Some were addressed directly to the children in the Temple's religious school, who wrote and decorated the Hanukkah cards. One Air Force officer in Afghanistan thanked a 4^th grader at the Temple and mentioned his own young children, from whom he was separated while on duty; the card helped him cope with missing them and his wife.

Another was from an Army medic in Afghanistan, a place called Herat, near the Iranian border. He wrote back that the tin menorah was light enough to put into his pack, along with the candles and sweets. He showed his Muslim patients and colleagues how he was celebrating his faith.

Perhaps the most dramatic was from an Army lawyer stationed in Camp Victory, Iraq. He forgot to pack his menorah and candles when he shipped out from the US. He sent a picture of himself in his quarters, in full battle gear and under mortar attack, lighting candles from Beth El.

Still another was not from a soldier but from the mother of a service man stationed in Iraq.  The woman from Alabama wrote the Brotherhood  that her friends and she were starting their own project of sending packages to Jewish service men and women to celebrate holidays.

A few years ago, the Temple received this email from a female truck driver, an Army sergeant:

"I am a truck driver in the army. I would like to say how much I appreciate the thoughtful items you sent to us. It's hard here in Kuwait … celebrating Jewish holidays, but there is a community, about 20 plus Jewish personnel here at this camp. We played your CD the first day of Hanukkah … The kosher candy and treats were wonderful and the cards from the children were so precious. Again, I would like to say thank you to all of you."