Hanukkah: The Festival of Lights in this current place of darkness

I first learned about Hanukkah in third grade, when a Northwood Elementary School classmate of my sister’s named Ann Zeidman did a presentation about it. Other than the eight days of gift-giving, which was intriguing for a 9-year-old, I remembered that it was a holiday about oil that miraculously lasted longer than expected. That fascinated me. How had that happened? Was it real? And could a miracle really shine light into a time of terrible darkness? It’s 42 years later, in a wildly disjointed time of open hate and violence, and the Jewish community is facing a renewed period of darkness.