This week, Jews around the world will gather to celebrate Hanukkah. Most know Hanukkah as the festival of lights, emphasizing the miracle by which one-night's worth of oil lit the Temple menorah in Jerusalem for eight days.

But Hanukkah has a much deeper meaning. It is a remembrance of a besieged people finally standing up for themselves. It is a remembrance of a people courageously refusing to bend the knee and give up--or hide--their religious practices, even in the face of persecution and likely death. The Maccabees changed the world, and re-established the Jewish Kingdom in Israel (around 160 B.C.), precisely because they would not allow threats of violence to........

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