In mid-nineteenth-century Russia, a man who had become estranged from Judaism returns to his community after twenty-five years. On a snowy evening, a grandfather sings a rhyming tale to explain the persecutions that preceded Chanukah. Nobel Prize-winning author Elie Wiesel recalls celebrating the holiday with "two raw potatoes and a bit of oil" in a concentration camp, and Chaim Potok describes the darkness that settled on the world in the days before World War II. This eclectic collection of stories, songs, and essays brings Chanukah alive, underscoring what it means to be Jewish in a world that is not always welcoming. There's something here for anyone who harbors a good will and a spirit of curiosity and compassion. (BH)