ORANGE PARK – About 50 of Clay County’s Jewish community and other residents lit candles, ate latkes and donuts and celebrated Hanukkah, which ended Monday evening.

Rabbi Shmuly Feldman, of Chabad of Clay County, addressed a crowd at dusk Dec. 5 at Orange Park Town Hall and passed out candles. A person with a lit candle would light others. Feldman then lit four candles on the Menorah, signifying the beginning of the fourth day of the holiday.

Feldman described Hanukkah as a holiday of light over darkness honored for thousands of years. The eight-day holiday recognizes the rededication of the Second Temple after the Maccabean Revolt against a Greek king in 165 B.C.E. The sacred oil to light the menorah, according to legend, stayed lit for eight days.

“It’s not only something that happened in the past, but something that is constantly repeating itself,” he said.

Feldman referenced a famous picture of a Menorah in a windowsill with a Nazi flag in the background in early-1930s Germany, taken by Rachel Posner, wife of Rabbi Akiva Posner.

On the back of the picture Rachel Posner wrote, “Hanukkah, 1932. ‘Judea dies’, thus says the banner. ‘Judea will live forever,’ thus respond the lights.”

A few weeks later, the Nazi Party came to power, Feldman told the crowd. However, he pointed to a Menorah lit by German Prime Minister Angela Merkel in Berlin, a city like many in Germany with a fierce anti-Semitic past.

“Let’s fast forward 85-plus years. There’s Menorahs being kindled now in Israel and all over,” Feldman said. “The lights are burning, and the miracle of Hanukkah is continuing.”

Feldman said Jews were privileged to light menorahs in the U.S. freely, but the spirit of Hanukkah must continue through symbols like the Menorah, and in daily life. After the lighting, children and adults broke out into song and dance. Candles went out.

Kaitlin Flynn attends a synagogue on San Jose Boulevard in Jacksonville. A resident of Fleming Island, she came to Orange Park with her daughter Evie, 7. She said the Hanukkah celebration was a nice opportunity for all of the members of the Jewish and non-Jewish community in Clay County to share fellowship.

“It’s a time to come together and try to bring and share light to the world,” Flynn said.

Miriam Mann, of Orange Park, who lived in Israel for 45 years, said most of her mother’s family died in the Holocaust in Hungary around 1943.

“My mother went underground,” Mann said. “For me, it’s the history that is important about Hanukkah. It’s nice to have a group like this.”

Her husband, Jim, mentioned the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in late October. He said that made this year’s event more solemn. Several in the crowd wore “Stronger Than Hate” T-shirts fashioned after the Pittsburgh Steelers logo.

“You didn’t use to bother about being concerned for your safety at things like this,” Jim Mann said.

The Mann’s brought two neighbors out to celebrate, Bruce and Diana Sawhill. Diana said she enjoyed the event and was glad to have been exposed to it. Bruce said he was familiar with some Jewish customs, but he appreciated the effort taken by Clay County’s Jewish community and the message.

“It was wonderful. There might be differences, but people should really take the time to get to know one another,” Bruce Sawhill said. “Every religion teaches, ‘Love Thy Neighbor’ in one form or another.”