News Photo by Reagan Voetberg Members of Temple Beth-El celebrated Hanukkah with food and a friendly game of bingo on Saturday.

ALPENA — A small Jewish community gathered Saturday in Alpena to celebrate Hanukkah, an eight day celebration that commemorates the Maccabean revolt.

Alpena’s Jewish community meets at Temple Beth-El in Alpena for worship and celebrations like Hanukkah. Members of the temple come from all across Northeast Michigan, even as far as Tawas, Dr. Gregg Resnick, a member of Temple Beth-El, said.

Resnick has been a member of the temple since 2001. Although he describes himself as not very religious, he cares about the temple and its history and is invested in the community there.

The Maccabean revolt took place in the second century BC, according to EBSCO. Judah Maccabee and his followers recaptured and rededicated the Second Temple in Jerusalem from the Greeks, restoring Jewish worship.

When they recaptured the temple, the miracle of the oil lamp occurred. There was enough oil to light the menorah, which Resnick said represents God’s presence in the temple, for one day. That oil miraculously lasted for eight days, allowing them to press new oil to keep the lamp lit.

Now, Jewish families celebrate that miracle by lighting the menorah every day during the eight days of Hanukkah. The celebration takes place each year starting in late November to mid-December depending on the lunar cycle, according to National Geographic Kids. This year, Hanukkah started on Dec. 14 and ends today.

The menorah used for Hanukkah has nine candles. On the first day, two candles are lit. The first candle is called the shamash, the helper or servant candle that is used to light all the other candles.

“A religious Jewish family might have a celebration every night,” Resnick said. “In my family there would be one celebration on the first Friday or Saturday. We would light the menorah every night.”

Families will also play dreidel, which is a kind of gambling game. The dreidel is a top with four sides. Players will take turns spinning the dreidel and depending which side it lands on, they may have to put money in a pot in the middle, or take money from the pot.

Hanukkah celebrations also feature food fried in oil, one of those foods being latkes. Resnick described latkes as a potato pancake or a hashbrown. At the celebration at Temple Beth-El, attendees topped their latkes with sour cream or apple sauce.

Resnick described what it’s like being Jewish in a predominantly Christian area.

“It can be challenging,” he said. “You want to embrace your differences, but you want to fit in. It’s a challenge.”

In the midst of that challenge, Temple Beth-El has provided a haven for Hanukkah celebrators to connect with their Jewish roots in a Christmas-centric society.