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Spreading the Spirit of Chanukah from Warsaw to Siberia
"Each December, the holiday of Chanukah seems all pervasive," remarked a staff member of the Hesed/Jewish Community Center social welfare center in Rostov-on-Don in the Northern Caucasus Region. "Each of our groups celebrates the holiday with special events."
To commemorate the Festival of Lights, which symbolizes the miraculous victory of the few over the many and the reclaiming of Jewish identity, celebrations take place throughout the JDC world which focus on building Jewish communities and enabling many to celebrate who may otherwise be unable to do so. Through last year’s "Chanukah Light to Each Home" a project of the JCC/Hesed and "Or Avner" Jewish school in Rostov children and JCC coordinators visited children with limited abilities to teach them about the holiday, give them presents, and light the traditional candles together with them. Meanwhile, thousands of children participating in the Mazel Tov program throughout the FSU sang Chanukah songs, played dreidl and created Judaica such as Chanukias. Meanwhile, 400 Jewish youth gathered for a Chanukah party at a bowling club, which included participants from Volgograd, Krasnodar and other cities in the district. Similar activities are being planned for this year. 
In Karaganda, Kazakhstan, the holiday will take on a new twist with its "Ah, Odessa" concert program at the Jewish Community Center. A musical and literary tribute to the Jewish culture, jokes and history of Odessa, the performance will be given by local-favorite ensemble "Ot Atzoy" for a sold-out audience. From Minsk to Moscow, Chanukah programs cater to every age and interest group, including puppet shows for children, theatrical performances by Hillel participants, Women’s Club activities, Open Homes for elderly welfare clients, and festive visits by volunteers to the sick and homebound. "Everyone must know that this holiday is about miracles," said Boris, a senior gentleman who will host many of his contemporaries for candle-lighting, partaking of traditional holiday foods, and a discourse about Jewish tradition. In the Baltic State of Lithuania, where there has been an incredible resurgence in Jewish communal life, participation in Chanukah celebrations is again anticipated to attract more than half of the country’s Jews. Events will combine traditional activities such as concerts and cultural activities as well as arts and crafts, education and other programs for families, children and the middle generations. Festivities are again planned at the Elderly Club in Kovno, for example a space which enables the elderly to take ownership of their own programs and activities. "On behalf of the members of the Jewish Community of Lithuania, we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the huge help and support that you've provided to us to organize Chanukah celebrations in Lithuania," wrote a number of community leaders. "It is always an immense pleasure to see the miracle of the rebirth of Jewish life in Lithuania, and there are no sufficient words to acknowledge the role that the JDC is playing in this." 
And throughout Central and Eastern Europe, efforts to reach even the smallest geographically isolated Jewish communities during Chanukah are particularly noteworthy. From the "Hannukkiada" in Romania, where the central Jewish leadership including Chief Rabbi Hacohen of Romania and JDC representatives travel the countryside to support outlying Jewish communities. "Each village dazzles the visitors with performances by their local Jewish choirs, singing pitch-perfect Yiddish and Hebrew melodies," commented one of the "pilgrimage" participants. Rabbi Hacohen observes that "though these are poor communities, the tables are full of kosher food and decorated with beautiful flowers. In places like this, it is not necessary to light candles to illuminate the synagogues; the light is in the faces of the people as they welcome us." Similar events, including a Chanukah caravan in Serbia and another across the Danube, as well as a "Chanukaritas" multi-day communitywide extravaganza in Hungary, will again illuminate Jewish communities around the JDC world. Similarly, this year in Warsaw, all of the Jewish organizations will come together to have a Chanukah "marathon," including children workshops, a theatrical performance by students from the Lauder-Morasha Jewish Day School, traditional food, and a lecture about the meaning and origin of Chanukah by the rabbi. Students in Warsaw will hold a cooking class where they will make latkes and sufganiyot (traditional donuts) together, followed by a community skating event with traditional Chanukah music. And on December 29, a children and youth Chanukah program will be implemented by Polish and Romanian volunteers, in cooperation with local children clubs and Sunday schools operating in Warsaw. Just as last year’s Festival of Lights brought the inauguration of a Women’s Club in Ukraine, an Elderly Club in Lithuania and a Jewish theater group in Ryazan, Russia, so, too, will this year’s Chanukah celebration be a time to renew the flame of Jewish life in the FSU, Central and Eastern Europe, and throughout the JDC world. December 2005 |
