Hanukkah celebrations and stories from around the world

Be'chol Lashon/In Every Tongue is an organization offering educational resources and programs highlighting the diversity of Jewish customs and practices around the world. They offer here eight bits about Hanukkah as it is practiced by diverse Jewish communities: Chanukah around the World: 8 Ways to Celebrate.

Another custom is practiced in Italy and Yemen--reading a book called Megillat Antiochus.

For more resources on Hanukkah around the world:
Be'chol Lashon: Educational Resources: Holidays: Chanukah

Recent destinations in our travels to Jewish communities around the world...

Last week's destination in our Etz Chayim seventh graders' travels to Jewish communities around the world was VENICE, ITALY, home of the first ghetto.  For more on the topic (or to catch up), check out
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Venice.html
Jewish Ghetto of Venice.
 
We'll be continuing our studies with a discussion of whether there is anything good about living in a ghetto.  Any thoughts on the topic?

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Recently, we also shared an awesome lesson (designed by Jen) on the Jews of Ethiopia, also known as Beta Israel or Falasha.  We featured this lesson about one of the largest communities of non-Rabbinic Jews (Jews who were isolated from the Jewish community from a point in time previous to the destruction of the Second Temple) in order to commemorate their festival of Sigd.  For more details on the Beta Israel and Sigd, check these sites:

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/ejtoc.html
http://www.iaej.org.il/index.htm
http://www.pbase.com/yalop/sigd
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3562939,00.html