VALLEY CHILDREN WORKING TO HEAL THE WORLD THIS HANUKKAH.

Byline: BRAD A. GREENBERG Staff Writer

Shopping at Target with her mother, Breanna Goldstein already had committed $10 from her tzedakah box to two sisters in need of winter pajamas when she was overcome with sympathy for the girls' single mom.

The Valley Village 8-year-old asked her mother whether she also could buy a gift for the unknown woman, though she didn't have more money from her charity box. Not unless Breanna wanted to put one of the girl's gifts back on the shelf, Risa Goldstein said.

Instead, Breanna offered to forgo a gift for herself.

```How about I give up a night of Hanukkah so we can give something for the mom as well?''' Goldstein recalled her daughter saying. ``I was just amazed.''

Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday during which children receive gifts on eight consecutive nights, begins tonight at sundown. The Festival of Lights celebrates the victory of a band of Jews over imperial Greece 2,200 years ago and of the continuing triumph of good over evil.

For American Jewish children, Hanukkah often is the nonmessianic version of Christmas. But for students of Adat Ari El Labowe Family Day School in Valley Village, such as Breanna, Hanukkah is an annual reminder of their blessings.

Each year, the school links up with Jewish Family Service to provide holiday gifts to several needy families -- whether the recipient celebrates Hanukkah, Christmas or something else. Divided by the Jewish day school's seven grades, K-6, each of its 265 students has been asked to help fulfill a needy family's wish list.

``One of the things about Hanukkah is you are supposed to share it with people,'' said Mia Ehrenberg, a 10-year-old from Toluca Lake. ``And by giving, we are doing that.''

Gifts requested weren't video games or $100 designer jeans but often necessities -- shirts, pants and socks -- and cheaper forms of entertainment, including books, sketch pads and DVDs.

``For the kids, it is an eye-opener,'' said Julie Gottlieb, who teaches fourth grade at Adat Ari El and sends her two daughters there. ``For my third-grader to see that people are asking for towels and not Game Boys is a really nice lesson.''

There's also a lesson in it for adults, said Lana Marcus, head of the day school.

``We need to look beyond what we have and think about how we can help other people,'' she said. ``People don't always think about that. For so many people it is, `What's in it for me?'

``What's in it for them is that, in fact, helping another person is the best feeling they can have.''

Jewish values encourage people to share with the needy, to repair the world and to live as one created in God's image.

This year, Jewish Family Service's Adopt-A-Family program anticipates helping 80 families through the donations of individuals and organizations such as Adat Ari El, Valley Outreach Synagogue in Chatsworth and a class at Temple Judea in Tarzana. About 20 percent of the assisted families are Jewish, said project coordinator Sherri Kadovitz.

The program encouraged Breanna to show more maturity and compassion than her mother knew she had.

``She is a normal 8-year-old kid who could be as selfish as any other child and who I thought was more self-centered and just wanting to have for herself,'' Goldstein said.

``Everybody else in the family will be getting, her sister will be getting, and she has given up that night of Hanukkah. It just is tremendous.''

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