Hanukkah

Michael Martinez GLENDALE -- To Karen Berg, the Hanukkah potluck dinner party Friday night at her home was the ultimate o7 tzedekahf7 , or altruism. "The party itself is really about just getting together, about celebrating our community," said Berg, 17, a Glendale High senior who organized the dinner. "It was something I really wanted to do for the congregation. Including several people from Burbank, about 40 to 50 members of Congregation Hugat Haverim -- which Berg's mother, Jacqueline Gish, said means "circle of friends" -- attended the dinner and the formal Hanukkah services that followed.

The Stone family of Glendale gathered in their home Friday to light the second of eight menorah candles that represent the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Hanukkah celebrates the Jewish belief that after their temple was destroyed, one days' worth of lamp oil burned for eight days until new oil was processed. Matt, his wife Linda, and their twin daughters, Melissa and Maureen have attended Temple Sinai in Glendale for six years. Melissa and Maureen, both 13, were recently Bat Mitzvahed at Temple Sinai.

Judy Seckler GLENWOOD -- Temple Sinai of Glendale is giving its members a multicultural experience for Hanukkah this season. A family party at the temple begins at 5 p.m. Saturday with a Chinese dinner catered by Panda Inn along with the traditional holiday foods including potato pancakes known at latkes, applesauce, sour cream, chocolate coins known as Hanukkah gelt, and the traditional children's game of dreidel,...

Judy Seckler GLENDALE -- Jewish homes will light up the first candles of Hanukkah at sundown tonight. Hanukkah is known as the Feast of Dedication. It celebrates the rededication of the ancient Temple of Jerusalem, when a small group of Jews fought off the attacks of a large group of enemies wishing to impose their own religion on the Jewish people. Several celebrations in the area have been planned. Congregation Hugat Haverim of Burbank will hold a pot luck Hanukkah dinner at 6:30 p.m. Friday at a private home.

Nazy Davtyan GLENDALE -- "Tis the season"' is probably the most fitting phrase to describe the upcoming Christmas/Hanukkah candlelight service at the La Crescenta Church of Religious Science. The 16th annual combination service will be held at 8 p.m. Friday at the church, 4845 Dunsmore Ave. in La Crescenta. The event will try to include almost all of the symbols of the season. The main theme of the ceremony -- the symbolic representation of the lighting of candles -- usually occurs toward the end, after the songs and lesson.

The Festival of Lights starts tonight. Religiously speaking, Hanukkah is considered a minor holiday on the Jewish calendar. In 167 B.C., Jews in Israel were driven out of their Jerusalem temple by a tyrannical Syrian king. After a three-year battle, the king was defeated and Jews reclaimed their synagogue and by extension their freedom to worship. A blip on the historic calendar? Maybe. An event with historic and symbolic meaning beyond the obvious religious significance?