Menorahs will glow at sundown Tuesday to mark Hanukkah

For Jim and Ann Anderson of Brighton, N.Y., the hanukkiah – or Hanukkah candelabra – is a symbol of their religious freedom.

For Judy Wertheimer, it’s a source of beauty. Displaying one, she says, is a mitzvah, or good deed.

The terms “menorah” and “hanukkiah,” Wertheimer explains, are often used interchangeably. But a menorah, she says, is a candelabra with seven branches that’s often used as a Jewish symbol.

A hanukkiah, with its nine lights, is designed especially for Hanukkah, which this year begins at sundown Tuesday.

In remembrance of the one lamp of oil that lasted eight days, it has one candle, the shamash, which is either higher or lower than the others and which is used to light the other eight candles.

“It’s a really special time, of thinking about those times when Jews weren’t able to do that,” says Ann Anderson.

Hanukkah commemorates a miracle following the victory of the Jewish Maccabees in 165 B.C. over the larger Syrian-Greek army that had attempted to enforce laws banning expressions of Judaism.

When the Jews returned to their desecrated temple in Jerusalem, they found only enough oil to burn a lamp for a single day. Miraculously, the lamp burned for eight days.

Each of the 20 or so hanukkiahs owned by the Andersons expresses that miracle a bit differently.

There’s the wooden one made by their 7-year-old son, Isaac, bearing colorful beeswax candles he rolled himself. There’s the blue-patinaed metal one that belonged to a late friend.

“To put it in the window is in itself meaningful,” says Jim Anderson.

For Samuel Cappiello, the single hanukkiah in his Rochester apartment isn’t about the Maccabees or a jar of oil.

“For me, it’s about a symbolic switch from a cross to a star, and the communities they represent,” says Cappiello, who recently converted to Judaism.

His slab clay hanukkiah, which he says “chose me,” helped solidify his decision.