Jews around the world are marking the start of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, which celebrates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in the second century B.C. after it was defiled by Syrian Greeks.

Hanukkah, perhaps the only Jewish holiday that has been confirmed by the archaeological record, celebrates the singular, millennialong relationship between Jews and the land of Israel. It is the story of a civil and cultural struggle for sovereignty over its institutions. It is perhaps the most explicitly Zionist story in the Jewish tradition.

"Hanukkah represents the triumph of light over darkness, good over evil, and spirituality over materialism," Palm Beach Synagogue Rabbi Moshe Scheiner told the Daily News. "The lighting of the menorah symbolizes the light of our soul, the light of goodness and righteousness that always dispels the darkness around us."