We don’t have a large Jewish population here in deep east Texas, at least not like you’d find in one of the large metropolitan areas.
The nearest synagogue is in Tyler or Longview; Lufkin and Nacogdoches do not have one as far as I know.
There are not a lot of kosher foods to find in the stores.
So it won’t surprise you to know that East Texans know very little of Jewish traditions and festivals like Hanukkah.
We know the name but know nothing about latkes, dreidels, gelt, or the lighting of the menorah.
So yesterday I dove into reading about the origins of the Festival of Light and even found a Biblical reference for it; Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon’s porch. John 10:22-23
The Feast of Dedication is another name for Hanukkah and is the only festival in the winter, though we are still several days away from the 1st day of winter.
The other Biblical feast are the 4 in the spring and 3 in the fall.
The rest of the passage shows the Jews questioning Jesus’ as to whether He is the Christ, the Messiah.
The Jew’s continue to look for the Messiah, but then, so do I!
Paul tells us – I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. Rom 1:16
Here in East Texas it has never been about the Jew first since we don’t have a large population of Hebrews.
And nothing would please me more than to have a Jewish friend to learn from and try and teach the Gospel to first!