Over two thousand years ago the Jewish people

Over two thousand years ago the Jewish people lived in Israel, which was then called Judea. In Judea was the city of Jerusalem where the Jews’ holy temple had been built.

At that time, Antiochus the Fourth, King of Syria ruled over many small countries, including Judea (yehuda).

Antiochus forced the Jews to take Greek names, read Greek books, and play Greek sports.

Antiochus’s army invaded Jerusalem and tore down much of the city walls, burned Jewish homes, and sold many Jews into slavery. He placed a statue of Zeus in the temple. He also declared that the Jews could not celebrate the Sabbath or study the Torah.

There were people that rebelled and kept on with the Jewish customs. but there were some Jewish people who were called the “Mityavnim” (from the word yavan-Greece) that decided to change their way of life and become Greeks. They started wearing Greek clothes, eating non kosher food and stopped celebrating the Jewish holidays.

Antiochus’ soldiers went throughout all of Jerusalem forcing Jews to worship statues. But when the soldiers arrived in the small village of Modiin, a Jewish man named Mattathias refused to worship the statue. Mattathias, his sons, and many of the people of Modi’in attacked the soldiers. They managed to win and escape into the hills.

Antiochus sent his army after Mattathias and his followers. But the Jews fought fiercely and ran surprise attacks on his army. When Mattathias died his son Judah led the Jews. As their new leader he was nicknamed the Maccabee, or "hammer", and his followers came to be known as the Maccabees. After many battles the Maccabees won.

When the Maccabees returned to Jerusalem they found the temple in ruins and began to rebuild it. As they rebuilt the temple they searched for pure oil to relight the ner tamid, the "light that always burned"

They found only one jar of oil, enough to burn for one day. They used this oil to light the ner tamid, but rather than burning for just one day the ner tamid stayed lit for 8 days, enough time to obtain more oil.

The Jews celebrated for 8 days and Judah declared that an 8 day holiday called Hanukkah, or "dedication, " would be celebrated each year beginning on this day.

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