Most Jewish New Yorkers celebrate the season by observing Chanukah, a minor eight-day festival commemorating the victory of the Maccabees, a group of Jewish rebels, over the Syrian Greek Seleucid Empire that tried to destroy their culture in the mid-second century BCE. After driving them out, they rededicated the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

“We make potato pancakes, play dreidel [top game] with my daughter, and light the Chanukiah [menorah] as a family,” said Councilmember Ben Kallos (D-Upper East Side, Yorkville, Lenox Hill) of his family’s traditional Chanukah celebration.