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A rare collection of ancient coins was discovered last week by Israeli researchers, who called the find an "archaeological Hanukkah miracle." The coins are more than 2,000 years old and believed to belong to King Alexander Jannaeus, the second ruler of the Hasmonean dynasty that presided over Judea in the final centuries leading up to the common era, according to the University of Haifa in Israel. Archaeologists found the hoard of about 160 of the coins during ongoing excavations in the Jordan Valley, which runs between the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the eastern border of Jordan. The project is headed...

The FBI thwarted an apparent plot to harm employees at a Florida office of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), according to court documents filed Monday. Law enforcement arrested Forrest Kendall Pemberton after he allegedly traveled to Plantation, Fla., in search of AIPAC’s office with several firearms, including an AR-15 rifle. Pemberton told police he went to the site, a former AIPAC office, to “scout” out the location before returning with the firearms, according to an affidavit signed by FBI special agent Taylor Nicklin. He was intercepted in a ride-share vehicle carrying the guns on Dec. 25, the first...

Wishing all my fellow Jews a very happy Chanukah! Pass the latkes!

God gave Moses instruction on how to create the Golden Menorah to light up the Tabernacle. The Lampstand See Exodus 25:31 "And Being in agony, He prayed more earnestly and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground" Luke 22:44 Only the purest of olive oil was used to light up the menorah.

Happy Christmas? Merry Hanukkah? Happy Challahdays? There’s no need for an identity crisis this year for those who celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah, with both happily coinciding on Dec. 25. New Yorkers who normally nurse some serious “Christmas envy” are plotzing over the cultural conundrum they’ve dubbed “Chrismukkah,” a Judeo-Christian mashup for the ages. Comedian Max Cohen, who goes by the handle MurrayHillBoy, is so pumped for the cultural collision, he staged a parody of the Dr. Seuss Christmas classic, rebranding the holiday tale as “How the Grinch Stole Hanukkah.”

***** Tunes For Our Troops ~ FReeper Canteen Music Dedication Presents ~ Hanukkah Celebration ~ *****~ Support The Artists You Hear Throughout The Canteen ! ~ ***** Warning: Not all music may be appropriate for children! Please click with caution. Thank you! Tunes For The Troops This music is provided for the entertainment of our Troops, Veterans, Allies & their families! Enjoy the variety of musical selections that the Canteen DJs provide throughout the thread. Please ping any DJ with your requests for the Troops! All music is removed on Monday.Thanks to all the DJs for their time &...

Neiman Marcus has quietly removed the word “Christmas” from its iconic, 98-year-old annual gift catalog – and some company insiders gripe that the stealthy switch smacks of woke politics, The Post has learned. The swanky retailer didn’t specifically discuss the pivot in a press release last week. But for the first time ever, it called the glossy catalog — long known for its extravagant gifts, from last year’s $975,000 electric Cadillac to his-and-her Egyptian mummy cases in 1971 — the “Holiday Book” instead of the “Christmas Book.” The name change has raised hackles inside the luxury chain’s Dallas headquarters, where...

For at least two and a half thousand years, virtually all educated people believed that knowledge was the savior of humanity. Even Maimonides wrote in his “Guide for the Perplexed” that once all of humankind had knowledge, the world would be at peace. Then came the 20th century. The most educated nation in world history—a land to which all other nations looked for science, psychology, culture, philosophy, reason, and ethics—applied its knowledge to commit crimes against humanity that no barbarian could have imagined. “Does calling for the genocide of the Jews violate your institution’s code of conduct concerning bullying and...

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts — Embattled Harvard president Claudine Gay attended a campus menorah lighting Wednesday — a day after it emerged she was retaining her job at the Ivy League school despite widespread antisemitism backlash. The under-fire president was among the roughly 100 people to gather at the daily lighting ceremony, organized by the Harvard Chabad, at the campus’ Harvard Park. Gay, who attended alongside her colleague Professor Jeff Bussgang, was spotted lighting the first candle. Despite a slew of anti-Israel protests being held on campus of late, the lighting went ahead calmly without any interruptions. Gay’s appearance came after the...

NOW - MP Grzegorz Braun extinguishes Jewish Hanukkah candles at Poland's parliament.

It was like a scene in downtown Tehran orchestrated by Iran's ruling mullahs, one of those "spontaneous" protests in Ramallah on the West Bank, or from 1938 Germany as the Nazis whipped up antisemitic hate in preparation for Kristallnacht — and worse. But it was modern-day Los Angeles on Friday night, the second night of Hanukkah, when a mob marched through a largely Jewish neighborhood chanting death threats to Jews. According to StopAntisemitism, the mob also defaced several buildings, including synagogues. Here's a short clip of the mob in action. CLICK ABOVE ARTICLE LINK FOR THE VIDEO People who still...

Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, tried to explain the Hanukkah story on Monday — and failed spectacularly. Emhoff, the first Jewish person in his position, who is helping to lead the White House antisemitism “strategy,” posted a now-deleted explanation that combined elements of several different stories, none of which connected to the other — or made any sense. He wrote: The story of Hanukkah and the story of the Jewish people has always been one of hope and resilience. In the Hanukkah story, the Jewish people were forced into hiding [sic]. No one though they...

Several family members of US citizens believed to have been taken hostage by Hamas had asked to attend a Hanukkah reception at the White House Monday night but never received invitations, the father of a 19-year-old missing Israeli American told CNN. Ruby Chen, whose son Itay is a reservist missing since the militant group’s October 7 attacks on Israel, said a number of the families of American hostages were in Washington, DC, this week, and had reached out to the White House asking to attend the reception but were not invited. ... There are still seven American men and one...

138 Hanukkah Menorahs: Lighting candles for each of our hostages who won't make it home for first candle 💔🫶Chag Hanukkah Sameach! ❤️📍Western Wall 🕎 pic.twitter.com/iLSVZZSsOL— Adam Albilya - אדם אלביליה (@AdamAlbilya) December 7, 2023

Minister Gallant met with the Minister of Defense of the United Kingdom and had a candle lighting ceremony with him. The Defense Minister told his British counterpart at the end of the meeting: "Mr. Secretary of Defense, thank you for coming here in crucial days for the State of Israel. This is a historic visit, which comes more than 25 years after the last visit of a British defense minister to Israel." "Two months ago the citizens of Israel were brutally attacked by Hamas terrorists - now we fight and are determined to continue until a crushing victory." "Israel and...

The law did not require Jews to be at the Temple in Jerusalem, as this was not one of the pilgrimage festivals. Every one observed it in his own place, not as a holy time. Jesus was there that He might improve those eight days of holiday for good purposes. Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch when the Sadduciens asked him “How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ tell us.” They pretended to want to know the truth, as if they were ready to embrace it; but it was not their intention....

A public menorah lighting has been canceled by an arts festival in Williamsburg, Virginia, over concern that observing the Jewish holiday would amount to endorsing Israel’s policies in its war against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza. The Virginia Gazette News reported: A menorah lighting was scheduled for the 2nd Sundays Art and Music Festival on Dec. 10. Each month from March to December, the community event hosts artisans, street performers and food vendors, and Jewish leaders were told that the board was not comfortable allowing the lighting at the festival. …

Were it not for its proximity to Christmas, Hanukkah would be unknown to most non-Jews and it would not be celebrated by most non-religious Jews. The proof is that the other post-Hebrew Bible holiday, Purim, while very popular in Israel, where it is sort of a Jewish Mardi Gras, is essentially unknown to non-Jews and largely ignored by most American Jews. Too bad. Hanukkah is actually of seminal importance both to Judaism and to the world. SNIP To understand why Judaism so bothered Antiochus, one needs to understand that no pagan religion completely rejected Hellenism. Judaism did. If Antiochus wanted...

A man was arrested Sunday night after Nazi symbols were found carved into the base of a large menorah in Beverly Hills on the first night of Hanukkah. Officers responded to reports of a man vandalizing a menorah near Sunset Boulevard and Foothill Road, according to a statement released by the Beverly Hills Police Department. The suspect, Eric Brian King, of Dallas, Texas, was captured on surveillance cameras hurling objects at the menorah, police said, and is now under investigation for felony, vandalism and a hate crime.

The New York Times is being ripped by social media users for publishing what they deemed a swastika-shaped crossword puzzle on the first night of Hanukkah. The fraught Sunday brain-teaser, titled “Some Theme’s Missing,” had been concocted by Washington, DC-based consulting manager Ryan McCarty, who has formulated 22 other puzzles for the paper. “Thrilled to have my first Sunday puzzle in The Times! This grid features one of my favorite open middles that I’ve made as it pulls from a variety of subject areas,” McCarty gushed in a section of the paper titled Constructor Notes.