This year’s Hanukkah celebration marked by services, get-togethers
Last year’s Hanukkah celebration was necessarily subdued, given the prevalence of the coronavirus and the lack of available vaccines to combat it.
The picture is different this year. COVID-19 has not yet made its much-anticipated exit, but widespread COVID-19 vaccination has allowed many Jews to feel like they can safely get together with family and friends this year to celebrate the centuries-old festival of lights.
“There are many more in-person events for Hanukkah this year,” said Adam Hertzman, marketing director for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. As an example, Hertzman pointed to a Hanukkah celebration for young adults that is set for Saturday at Iron City Circus Arts in Pittsburgh that will have aerial dancers and hot donuts.
Hanukkah began this year on Sunday evening and will continue through next Monday. It gets underway on the 25th day of the Jewish month Kislev. The eight-day holiday usually falls around Christmas, so the celebration is early this year because the Jewish religious calendar is aligned with the cycles of the sun and moon. Like Christmas, Hanukkah is marked by gift-giving, along with games, the lighting of the menorah and the making of traditional foods like brisket, potato pancakes known as latkes, and a baked egg noodle casserole called kugel.
The holiday commemorates the Jewish victory over Greek Assyrian invaders who had taken over a temple in Jerusalem, and a single day’s supply of oil that burned for eight days in the course of the conflict. In a 2016 interview with the Observer-Reporter, Rabbi David Novitsky of Washington’s Beth Israel Congregation explained, “After the destruction of the temple, that spiritual light provided real sustenance to the people.”
Novitsky also said that Hanukkah is “about family. It’s not coming together to give gifts, it’s coming together to commune with God. Every day we thank God.”
The synagogue on North Avenue in Washington that the Beth Israel Congregation has used since the 1950s is on the market because of a declining number of Jewish families in Washington, a trend that has also been reflected in Beaver, Fayette and other counties around Pittsburgh. There will not be an annual Hanukkah party at the synagogue for the second year in a row, according to Gary Gilman, the president of the congregation and a Washington County judge.
“We always have one, but due to COVID-19, we are not,” Gilman said. There will, however, be in-person services Friday night, incorporating the lighting of the menorah and singing of a prayer.
The Beth El Congregation of the South Hills in Scott Township is having a Hanukkah celebration starting at 6 p.m. today that will include a tiki torch menorah lighting, strolling klezmer musicians, donut decorating and more. For more information, visit bethelcong.org.