SAN PEDRO, Calif. — There were Hanukkah celebrations happening all over Los Angeles for the first night of this eight-night Festival of Lights, including an event held on the USS Iowa Battleship.

You wouldn't ordinarily associate a warship with a holiday celebration. But this ship actually has history that ties into this Jewish holiday about freedom from oppression.

RELATED | Jewish Senior Citizens Remembered on Hanukkah By Volunteer Organizer

Setting up for a big holiday event always has its challenges. Today, it's the high winds that are making it difficult for Rabbi Sholom Pinson to move a large menorah across the deck of the Iowa. But it's worth the struggle as he prepares to host over 100 people who will be coming aboard the ship to celebrate the first night of Chanukah.

“It's the eight-day Jewish holiday that commemorates a small band of Jewish Maccabees that stood up against the Syrian Greek forces, able to overcome tyranny and the persecution of freedom of religion over 2100 years ago,” Rabbi Pinson said.

Rabbi Pinson is with the Chabad of South Bay and has been active in making this Jewish holiday and event for everyone in the community.

“Chabad has been going out for over 40 years, making public celebrations on Chanukah. Celebrating this concept that especially in this country, in the United States of America, we have the freedom to pray freely and to celebrate freely our religion,” Pinson said.

The USS Iowa battleship was commissioned on February 22 1943, and immediately went to aid in World War II across the Atlantic.

“It went out and its first voyage is fighting the Nazi tyranny. It really ties in so much to our ability as Jews to celebrate in freedom in this country,” Pinson said.

The Iowa was a part of the fight against Hitler and the Nazis in World War II, and Rabbi Pinson says the fight against anti-semitism is still happening today – almost 80 years later.

“So unfortunately, we're living in a difficult time here where anti-semitism has reared its ugly head. We had the terrible shooting in Poway little less than a year ago at a Chabad center," said Pinson.

"And the vandalism that took place in Beverly Hills. But here on Chanukah, I think that our message is a message of light. And we each have the ability, if we just do a little bit of good, that goodness spreads where we can have a world of goodness and kindness, and fight against some of the dark and hatred that we face in today's society.”

On a ship that symbolizes the fight against hatred and acknowledges American freedom through its museum, celebrations of life and light -- in every form -- are always welcome.