--- title: A Hanukkah Story: The Truce You Never Knew About description: Tensions between the Jewish communities of Jerusalem gave way to a temporary peace canonical: https://time.com/3632265/hanukkah-truce/ author: Noah Rayman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-16T21:00:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:49:42.142Z article:section: History og:title: A Hanukkah Story: The Truce You Never Knew About og:description: Tensions between the Jewish communities of Jerusalem gave way to a temporary peace og:url: https://time.com/3632265/hanukkah-truce/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta513d5e099d2eaf6/69876e82a988ca5fdb6ab5d6/72850802.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: An Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man lights the og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Hanukkah Story: The Truce You Never Knew About twitter:description: Tensions between the Jewish communities of Jerusalem gave way to a temporary peace twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta513d5e099d2eaf6/69876e82a988ca5fdb6ab5d6/72850802.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Hanukkah Story You've Probably Never Heard  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Dec 16, 2014 9:00 PM UTC  An Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man lights the candles of the fifth night of the Jewish holiday of Hanukah, in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem. An Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man lights the candles of the fifth night of the Jewish holiday of Hanukah, in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem.MENAHEM KAHANA—AFP/Getty Images  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Dec 16, 2014 9:00 PM UTC You may have heard of the Christmas truce, when World War I soldiers on both sides of no man’s land left their trenches to chat, play soccer and exchange gifts with each other in the winter of 1914, a century ago this year. Less well known is the Hanukkah truce of 1954. That was the temporary respite in tensions between Jerusalem’s ultra-orthodox community and the city’s other Jewish residents. At the time–and to this day–some ultra-orthodox residents of the conservative Mea Shearim neighborhood clashed with Jerusalem’s Jewish residents on the weekly Sabbath, a day when they believe Jews are forbidden from performing certain activities, including smoking, using a phone or driving. In 1954, a series of attacks by ultra-orthodox Jews on drivers or people smoking publicly had put the city on edge, while members of the ultra-Orthodox community continued to protest drivers by taking to streets and parking lots and shouting “Shabbes” (Yiddish for Sabbath) and insults at drivers. But as Hanukkah approached,[ as TIME reported](http://time.com/vault/issue/1955-01-03/page/39/) in its January 1955 issue, a miracle of sorts occurred. A leading member of the ultra-orthodox community who had just been briefly locked up for his role in recent riots, Rabbi Abraham Blau, called for an end to violence ahead of the holiday. “If I had my way,” Blau said, according to the TIME report, “every Jew who wishes to stand up against what he believes to be a desecration of his faith would demonstrate with his hands tied behind his back to prove he came in peace.” **_Read TIME’s 1955 story about the holiday truce_**_:_ [_Hanukkah in Jerusalem_](http://time.com/vault/issue/1955-01-03/page/39/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3632265/hanukkah-truce/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3632265/hanukkah-truce/"},"headline":"A Hanukkah Story You've Probably Never Heard","datePublished":"2014-12-16T21:00:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:49:42.142Z","description":"Tensions between the Jewish communities of Jerusalem gave way to a temporary peace","url":"https://time.com/3632265/hanukkah-truce/","keywords":["faith","christmas","hanukkah","Holidays","World War I","Judaism"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta513d5e099d2eaf6/69876e82a988ca5fdb6ab5d6/72850802.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Noah Rayman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta513d5e099d2eaf6/69876e82a988ca5fdb6ab5d6/72850802.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"An Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man lights the","caption":"An Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man lights the","creditText":"MENAHEM KAHANA—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/faith/","name":"faith"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3632265/hanukkah-truce/","name":"A Hanukkah Story You've Probably Never Heard"}}]}] ```