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The festival of Chanukah celebrates the Jewish peoples' struggle for religious freedom. The festival has been observed, in Israel and the Diaspora, sometimes even at the risk of life.The story behind the holiday, of how the menorah in the Holy Temple miraculously ....

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.... the Greek culture. It was at this time that King Ptolemy, to promote a better understanding of the Jews, commissioned the famous Greek translation of the Bible known as the Septuagint. Later, the Ptolemaic Empire of Egypt and the Sleucid Empire of Syria fought to gain control of Judea. The Selucids won. Judea was ruled by the Syrian king Antiochus IV who did not allow the Jews to freely worship one God but demanded that everyone bow down to the many idols of Greek religion. A strong-willed old priest named Mattathias grew increasingly outraged with the Syrian dictate. He stirred up the passions of his people, urging them to fight against t ....