Hanukkah begins at sunset tonight, often called the holiday of lights. Despite its complex and somewhat troubling place in Jewish history, it can always be celebrated as the holiday of freedom.

( a look at the inconvenient truth about  Hanukkah’s beginnings in militant Jewish fundamentalism,, what this looks like today, and how  Humanistic Judaism  emphasizes diversity and religious freedom.)

A personal note: I have spent time  in places like Crown Heights Brooklyn, with  its population of ultra religious right  Haredi, and also in Israel where the status of their women was a world  apart from the brave, bold Sabras my grandfather hoped his female grandchildren would become.