Our world often feels overwhelmed by darkness, the physical darkness of winter, the end of daylight savings time and now the spiritual darkness of the COVID-19 pandemic isolating each of us, keeping us in the safety of our homes, but preventing us from feeling the community support we so need and desire.
Chanukah is especially well suited to spreading the light and joy of the miracle, and Chabad of Yonkers is there to help.
Yonkers Home Depot Manager Trevor Meinke donated to Chabad of Yonkers Rabbi Mendy Hurwitz 50 kits for people to build their own chanukiahs. Each kit comes complete with PVC pipes and couplings with all pieces needed to build your own chanukiah, and can be lit with your own candles, or topped with a container of oil.
Please contact Rabbi Hurwitz to receive, free of charge thanks to Home Depot Yonkers, your chanukiah kit, which is available at the synagogue, 600 North Broadway, Yonkers, by appointment. Contact Rabbi Hurwitz at 914-963-8888, email [email protected] or visit www.JewishYonkers.com.
On the first night of Chanukah, Thursday, December 10, at 5 p.m., Rabbi Hurwitz will light the giant chanukiah at Yonkers’ Untermyer Gardens overlooking the Hudson River, at 945 North Broadway. The following week, on Tuesday, December 15, the sixth night of Chanukah, at 5 p.m., Rabbi Hurwitz will light the large chanukiah outside Chabad of Yonkers/Greystone Jewish Center at 600 North Broadway. Participants will receive traditional jelly-filled sufganiyot.
Following the menorah lighting, a Chanukah car parade will leave the synagogue, forming a Chanukah procession driving north from Chabad to the Boyce Thompson Shopping Center at 1084-1088 North Broadway in Yonkers where, at 6 p.m., Rabbi Hurwitz will lead a public lighting of a giant chanukiah. People are invited to park and stay in their cars in the parking lot, where they will see the flames of the torches lit atop the chanukiah, while maintaining safe social distancing. Mask wearing is required.
Chabad of Yonkers will make available a limited number of magnetic menorahs that will not damage your car. Please register at [email protected] or call 914-963-8888 to reserve a menorah for your car.
Robert Kalfus is a veteran photographer who can be reached at [email protected] or 917-379-4165.
