Festival of faith: JCC's Community Chanukah Celebration features music, dancing and Menorah lighting

Spend a festive afternoon with the entire family during the Community Chanukah Celebration at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Albuquerque.

The event will take place from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 15, at the JCC, 5520 Wyoming Blvd. NE. It will feature live music and dancing, sports and craft activities for children, dreidel games, traditional foods such as latkes and sufganiyot (donuts), as well as gift shopping and Jewish organization information booths.

A community menorah lighting will take place at 2:30 p.m.

“Chanukah is Judaism’s ‘Festival of Lights’ and it is commemorated each year on the Jewish calendar, which is why people are always a little confused about (it),” explained Phyllis Wolf, JCC chief programs officer. “People will say, ‘Oh, Chanukah is early this year.’ One year, it was around Thanksgiving, this year, the first candle is lit on December 25, the night of Christmas. It’s because it’s based on a different calendar, so it can fall anytime on the Gregorian calendar, which is what we all follow, anytime between late November to late December.”

This year, Chanukah will be celebrated from Dec. 25 through Jan. 2.

In Hebrew, Chanukah means “dedication” and the holiday marks the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in the second century B.C. after a small group of Jewish fighters led by Judah Maccabee and his brothers, liberated it from occupying Greek-Syrian forces, who were determined to squelch the Jewish faith and its practices, according to Wolf.

“The tiny supply of ritually pure oil that they found in the temple, they lit the menorah — and it stayed lit for eight days,” she explained. “The ritual of lighting a nightly candle, as well as the emphasis on cooking foods in oil such as potato pancakes called latkes, memorialize this miraculously long-lasting oil.”

Chanukah is a very festive holiday, according to Wolf.

“We’re looking at this as a wonderful opportunity for the Jewish community to come together and celebrate, but it’s also open to the general community,” she said. “We will have a live band who will be playing traditional Jewish and Chanukah music, as well as dancing. And then we’re going to have lots of activities for kids. We’re getting two bouncers, and we’re going to have an obstacle course, which our fitness department is putting together. And then we’re also going to have all kinds of traditional Jewish and Chanukah food.”

The gift shops from Congregation B’nai Israel and Congregation Albert will be part of the event.

“They’re the two largest Jewish congregations and they each have gift shops with Judaica, it’s called, so it’s Jewish art and items for sale, because that’s what a lot of people are going to be interested in getting.”

The event provides an outlet for the community to peacefully gather and learn more about Judaism and its traditions.

“We haven’t done this in many years and we just felt this year, with everything that’s been going on in the world, particularly for Jews and Israel, we just wanted to make sure that we provided an opportunity and a space for the community to come together and to shed light on a lot of darkness, and so this was just a great opportunity for us to do that,” said Jill Patruznick, JCC cultural program coordinator.