@curiouslurker—Nice write-up. Note that almost all of the menorah images on that web page of ancient menorahs are representations of the seven-branched temple menorah, and as such are not specifically referencing Hanukkah.

@Flavia—There’s nothing new about Reform being anti-rabbinic. Besides, the rabbis of old did very deliberately attempt to reshape the focus of the holiday. That’s how 1 and 2 Maccabees came to be Apocrypha—books present in the Septuagint that were later dropped from the Jewish canon. The Maccabees saw themselves as zealots in the mold of Pinchas (gentiles know him as Phineas), and the rabbis of old took a dim view of Pinchas too. And to zealotry generally. I think it had something to do with the Romans.