It’s a different scale than the common “major” scale typically deployed in western music. You are correct, that it is close to the western “minor” scale.

This wikipedia entry does a good job of explaining: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrygian_dominant_scale

By the way, I absolutely love it! And you don’t have to listen too closely to hear the huge influence it had on American music; like jazz and the American Songbook. All those brilliant, “American” composers grew up hearing Cantors and playing klezmer and Hebrew music.

I do wonder though why the persistance of the “C”.

Our Jewish confreres must know perfectly well that no matter how often we are reminded, we of “the coastlands” are going to mentally recite “chunk uh nuh” no matter what.

One tiny quibble on the translation: I would break the grouping up differently:

Oh, you little candles,
You tell histories,
Uncountable stories.
You tell of bloody deeds,
Of resourcefulness and courage,
Miracles of long ago.

When I see you sparkling
A vision comes flickering
Telling a dream of old:
Jew, you fought once,
Jew, you prevailed once,
God, it’s hard to believe.

The version sung has an additional verse, published here: https://forward.com/forverts-in-english/572637/video-yiddish-hanukkah-song-candles-oppression/

(Do you speak Gaelic, too?)
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Well, those Germanic languages, you know…
(One of the nice things about Finland is that they often have street and highway signs in Finnish AND Swedish—because of the sizable Swedish minority—which latter makes things much more understandable, Finnish, of course being more than a bit of a challenge…even if all you really have to know is “sauna”. And “coffee”…)
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And many thanks for all those Chanuka/Hanukah wishes…
(Time to haul out those Books of Maccabees, I guess…talking about asymmetrical warfare…and precocious women…)