Hanukkah Begins Sunday Night December 14's Sunday Night (Erev Chanukah)

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

One of the videos shows the six hostages celebrating Hanukkah in a tunnel in Gaza months before they were killed by Hamas in August 2024. 

Hostages and Missing Families Forum---

Two of the clips show the hostages gingerly lighting makeshift candles on a menorah made of disposable cups. The hostages – Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Ori Danino, and Alex Lobanov – say the Jewish blessings before lighting the candles in what would have been early-December 2023.

Update 8:56am:  A video of 6 hostages lighting the Hanukkah candles during their captivity in Rafah was released. The video, captured by IDF forces during the war, was filmed by Hamas as part of their psychological warfare campaign. The 6 hostages - Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Carmel Gat - were all murdered by Hamas in the tunnel, after being tortured and starved for months.

The holiday of Hanukkah begins on Sunday night. The holiday represents the willingness of the Jewish People, and all good people regardless of their religion, to fight for the freedom to live according to their beliefs. It is also a time of miracles, the kind that we can all recognize and the kind that we pass off as coincidence or luck. The video of the hostages lighting the candles in the darkest place imaginable reflects both the struggle for freedom and the belief in miraculous salvation. The last 2 years of wars against our enemies does the same. After it all, we can light our Hanukkah lights in freedom, strengthened in our faith that truth and justice will continue to triumph over lies and terror.

What should we do on Sunday night?  

On Erev (the eve of) Chanukah, Jews prepare to celebrate the Festival of Lights by gathering as a family, preparing for the first candle lighting (usually just after sunset), reciting special blessings, and enjoying oil-based foods like latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (jelly donuts), alongside playing dreidel and giving gelt (money or chocolate coins), all to commemorate the miracle of the oil that lasted eight days in the ancient Temple.   Remember the runners-young men running to the next town

which was pretty far away if you're a runner, and carrying some

oil back because yours in the Temple had none left.  Talk about

it.  

Resource:

israelAM

https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/11/middleeast/hanukkah-israeli-hostages-gaza-tunnel-latam-intl