PHOTO COLLECTION: Climate Extreme Weather Floods

This is a collection of photos chosen by AP photo editors.

A toy hangs on the rear view mirror in a car destroyed after flooding in the village of Donja Jablanica, Bosnia, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

Flooded houses after a heavy rain in the village of Luke, near Bosnian town of Fojnica, 50 kms west of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Robert Oroz)

Men stand in despair in front of their destroyed house following a flooding in Buturovic Polje, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

A living room is seen inside a house where a roof collapsed following torrential rain and flooding in Buturovic Polje, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

Homes sit destroyed by torrential rain and flooding in Buturovic Polje, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

Flooded houses after a heavy rain in the village of Luke, near Bosnian town of Fojnica, 50 kms west of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Robert Oroz)

Rescuers search for missing people after floods and landslides in the village of Donja Jablanica, Bosnia, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

A car is submerged in mud following a flooding in Buturovic Polje, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

Members of the mountain rescue service carry a body of a person killed by a landslide in the flooded village of Donja Jablanica, Bosnia, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

People inspect a damaged house after floods and landslides in the village of Donja Jablanica, Bosnia, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

A car is submerged in flood waters outside an apartment building in the village of Kiseljak, northern Bosnia, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

A damaged car is seen after flood hit the village of Donja Jablanica, Bosnia, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

A Bosnian soldier inspects a damaged house after floods and landslides in the village of Donja Jablanica, Bosnia, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

Women wade through floodwaters in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024 as the city's main river overflowed its banks following heavy seasonal rainfall. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)

A motorcyclist wades through floodwaters in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024 as the city's main river overflowed its banks following heavy seasonal rainfall. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)

People drag their belongings through floodwaters in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024 as the city's main river overflowed its banks following heavy seasonal rainfall. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)

People hang their belongings around neck through floodwaters in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024 as the city's main river overflowed its banks following heavy seasonal rainfall. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)

An elephant wades through flood waters to help bring relief supplies to villager in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)

People drag their belongings through floodwaters in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024 as the city's main river overflowed its banks following heavy seasonal rainfall. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)

Thai rescuers help a woman from a flood-hit area in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)

A destroyed car and a house are seen following a flooding in Buturovic Polje, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

A man reacts as he looks at the destroyed houses following flooding in village of Buturovic Polje, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

A car is submerged in mud following a flooding in Buturovic Polje, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

A man walks among a destroyed car and homes following a flooding in Buturovic Polje, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

An aerial view shows the area destroyed by a landslide in Donja Jablanica, Bosnia, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

Search and rescue teams look for people in the flooded houses in Jablanica, Bosnia, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

Hanukkah, Judaism’s eight-day Festival of Lights, begins this year on Christmas Day, which has only happened four times since 1900.

For some rabbis, the intersection of the two religious holidays provides an auspicious occasion for interfaith engagement.

“This can be a profound opportunity for learning and collaboration and togetherness,” said Rabbi Josh Stanton, a vice president of the Jewish Federations of North America. He oversees interfaith initiatives involving the 146 local and regional Jewish federations that his organization represents.

“The goal is not proselytizing; it's learning deeply from each other,” he said. “It’s others seeing you as you see yourself.”

One example of togetherness: a Chicanukah party hosted Thursday evening by several Jewish organizations in Houston, bringing together members of the city’s Latino and Jewish communities for a “cross cultural holiday celebration." The venue: Houston’s Holocaust museum.

The food on offer was a blend of the two cultures — for example a latke bar featuring guacamole, chili con queso and pico de gallo, as well as applesauce and sour cream. The doughnut-like pastries were sufganiyot — a Hanukkah specialty — and buñuelos, And the mariachi band took a crack at playing the Jewish folk song “Hava Nagila.”

“What really brings us together is our shared values — our faith, our families, our heritage,” said Erica Winsor, public affairs officer for the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston.

Rabbi Peter Tarlow, executive director of the Houston-based Center for Latino-Jewish Relations, said the first Chicanukah event 12 years ago drew 20 people, while this year the crowd numbered about 300, and could have been larger had not attendance been capped. He said the party-goers were a roughly even mix of Latinos — some of them Jews with Latin American origins — and “Anglo” Jews.

“There’s too much hate, too much separation against both Jews and Latinos,” Tarlow said. “This is a way we can come together and show we support each other.”

While Hanukkah is intended as an upbeat, celebratory holiday, rabbis note that it’s taking place this year amid continuing conflicts involving Israeli forces in the Middle East, and apprehension over widespread incidents of antisemitism.

Rabbi Moshe Hauer, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, acknowledged that many Jews may be feeling anxious heading into Hanukkah this year. But he voiced confidence that most would maintain the key tradition: the lighting of candles on menorah candelabras and displaying where they’re visible through household windows and in public spaces.

“The posture of our community — without stridency, just with determination — is that the menorah should be in our windows, in a place where the public sees it,” Hauer said.

“It is less for us, the Jewish community, than for the world,” he added. “We have to share that light. Putting the menorah in the window is our expression of working to be a light among the nations.”

Hauer concurred with Stanton that this year’s overlap of Hanukkah and Christmas is “an exceptional opportunity to see and experience the diversity of America and the diversity of its communities of faith.”

Rabbi Motti Seligson, public relations director for the Hasidic movement Chabad-Lubavitch, noted that this year marks the 50th anniversary of a milestone in the public lightings of menorahs. It was on Dec. 8, 1974 — as part of an initiative launched by the Lubavitcher leader, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson — that a menorah was lit outside Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, where the Liberty Bell was housed at the time.

"Hanukkah is a celebration of religious liberty, so that it’s not taken for granted,” Seligson said. “One of the ways of doing that is by celebrating it publicly.”

He said Chabad was organizing about 15,000 public menorah lightings this year through its numerous branches around the world.

“There certainly is some apprehension,” Seligson said, referring to concerns about antisemitism and political friction. “Some people question whether Jews will be celebrating as openly as in the past.”

“What I’m hearing is there’s no way that we can’t,” he added. “The only way through these difficult times is by standing stronger and prouder and shining brighter than ever.”

Stanton concurred.

“Through our history, we’ve been through moments that are easy and moments that are hard,” he said. “Safety for us does not come from hiding. It comes from reaching out.”

Why is Hanukkah so late this year? The simple answer is that the Jewish calendar is based on lunar cycles, and is not in sync with the Gregorian calendar which sets Christmas on Dec. 25. Hanukkah always begins on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev, a date which occurs between late November and late December on the Gregorian calendar.

The last time Hanukkah began on Christmas Day was in 2005. But the term “Chrismukkah” — signifying the overlap of the two holidays — had become a popular term before then. The term gained extra currency in 2003, when the character Seth Cohen on the TV drama “The O.C.” embraced the fusion holiday as a tribute to his Jewish father and Protestant mother.

This season, the Hallmark Channel introduced a new Christmas movie called “Leah’s Perfect Gift,” depicting a young Jewish woman who had admired Christmas from a distance, and gets a chance to experience it up close when her boyfriend invites her to spend the holidays with his family. Spoiler alert: All does not go smoothly.

Despite such storylines suggesting a fascination with Christmas among some Jews, Stanton says research by the Jewish Federations reveals a surge in Jews seeking deeper connections to their own traditions and community, as well as a surge in Jews volunteering for charitable activities during the holidays.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Guests listen to speakers during a Chicanukah event at Holocaust Museum Houston on Thursday, December 19, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Benjamin Warren hugs Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo after she spoke during a Chicanukah event at Holocaust Museum Houston on Thursday, December 19, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Attendees listen to speakers during a Chicanukah event at Holocaust Museum Houston on Thursday, December 19, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Dr. Annette Goldberg dances with Sheldon Weisfeld during a Chicanukah mariachi performance at Holocaust Museum Houston on Thursday, December 19, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Altagracia Vazquez performs with her daughter Ariana, 6, and Mariachi Palmeros during a Chicanukah event at Holocaust Museum Houston on Thursday, December 19, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Guests add guacamole and pico de gallo to latkes during a Chicanukah event at Holocaust Museum Houston on Thursday, December 19, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Guests enjoy a performance by Mariachi Palmeros during a Chicanukah event at Holocaust Museum Houston on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Jacob Monty joins Rabbi Peter Tarlow at the podium during a Chicanukah event at Holocaust Museum Houston on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Rabbi Peter Tarlow lights a candle on a menorah during a Chicanukah event at Holocaust Museum Houston on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo speaks during a Chicanukah event at Holocaust Museum Houston on Thursday, December 19, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)