Hanukkah celebrates Jews reclaiming their sovereignty over the land of Israel and rededicating the Temple in Jerusalem. This happened before the existence of Christianity and Islam, which is why it's frustrating to Jews when people continue to question their connection to Israel.

In a just world, given that Jews are why Jerusalem and Israel became holy to so many, others would have to justify their claims to it. But Jews are a tiny and relatively weak minority, so they perpetually have to justify their connection to their own homeland. https://twitter.com/Yair_Rosenberg/status/1337454096975065091

This isn't about the modern state of Israel, which is a recent political entity. It's about the Jewish connection to the land of Israel and its holy sites, which has been denied or curtailed—and is still denied—by so many throughout history. Hanukkah is the repudiation of that. https://twitter.com/Yair_Rosenberg/status/1337454096975065091

Jews built the land of Israel and Jerusalem, were repeatedly persecuted and expelled from both, constantly returned for centuries nonetheless, and yet continue to have their claim to the area questioned. One day, people will realize this is messed up, though we're not there yet. https://twitter.com/Yair_Rosenberg/status/1337457844594028544

Thanks for coming to my Hanukkah TED Talk! Like so many Jewish holidays, Hanukkah has been around for thousands of years & has accumulated many layers of meaning. This is just one of them, and does not exclude any of the others. The beauty of Judaism is that it contains them all. https://twitter.com/Yair_Rosenberg/status/1337454096975065091