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If you want to get kids interested in their religious heritage, you have to start simply, said Rabbi Shlame Landa, director of the Jewish education organization Chabad of Fairfield.


Since the Fairfield chapter of Chabad started two years ago, Landa's been holding workshops for children geared to all the major Jewish holidays. For instance, for Hanukkah, he gave lessons in how to press olive oil, and, for Rosh Hashana, he led them in making a traditional horn, called a shofar.

The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah is often called the Festival of Lights.

That moniker doesn't just refer to the menorah, the eight-branched candelabrum that is lit during the eight days of Hanukkah said Rabbi Shlame Landa, of Chabad of Fairfield, a Jewish educational organization.

The "light" of Hanukkah, which starts today, is also metaphorical, Landa said. It represents goodness, and the triumph of goodness over evil.

There's new Jewish voice in Fairfield. Chabad, a multinational Orthodox Jewish organization with offices and representatives in nearly every major city in the world, is stretching its fingers into Fairfield.

Of course, according to the head of Chabad of Fairfield, it's not a long stretch.

BRIDGEPORT — Judah Maccabee may have been able to defeat a Syrian army, but was hard-pressed when it came to finding enough oil to purify a desecrated temple.

Not a problem shared by Lubavitch Rabbi Shlame Landa, who, portraying Maccabee, recently had 3-year-olds from the B'nai Israel Early Childhood Center help him make olive oil, one of the symbols at the heart of the Jewish observance of Hanukkah. The exercise took place during a program last week at the Jewish Center for Community Services on Park Avenue.