If ever there was incontrovertible evidence that the secular year of 2020 was anything but normal, this year’s celebration for Chanukah proves it.
The 2020 Chanukah at the Riverwalk event. (Facebook screenshot)
The Chabad-Lubavitch Chanukah at the Riverwalk celebration was a socially-distanced live event with several hundred people attending virtually via Facebook pages.
This year’s event served to remind everyone of the significance of the eight-day holiday in the mystical term of lighting the world with chesed (kindness), but it was also a moment to honor the frontline medical workers who have placed themselves in harm’s way during the year in the ongoing battle against the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Eight Jewish individuals from the medical community served as eight lights representing the Chanukah celebration. Each held a tiki torch so as to serve as a living taper on the stage.
After all eight were on the platform, Rabbi Mendel Rivkin, who served as emcee, invited that the shammash light and the first light on the massive wooden Chanukiah be lit.
Meanwhile, the Uptown JCC held a drive-through Chanukah celebration for the benefit of the Jewish community today. Rather than holding its usual 300-plus crowd with music, free latkes, fried chicken and gelt for the children, the JCC elected to offer donuts for cars that registered in advance of today’s event.
