The Chabad Jewish Center of Hall County will hold a Hanukkah celebration on Sunday, Dec. 18 in Downtown Gainesville Square to celebrate the first day of the holiday.
Mayor Sam Couvillon will greet Chabad and Gainesville community members at the event, and then a night full of food, music, family fun and a fire show will kick off.
Chabad’s Rabbi Nechemia Gurevitz said Hanukkah celebrations such as this one have only been publicly celebrated for the past 50 years or so.
“This is a special country,” Gurevitz said. “In previous years, Hanukkah was not celebrated so publicly. But in the United States, we have freedom of religion and it's a very special thing. That's why we have the ability to celebrate Hanukkah in a public way, with the mayor attending and with everyone attending. That's a very special, positive thing.”
This will be the Chabad Jewish Center of Hall County’s second time celebrating Hanukkah in Gainesville. Last year, the event was hosted at Rock Creek Park.
“That was a very nice, beautiful turnout,” Gurevitz said. “And this year, we're taking a step up. We had a beautiful cooperation with the downtown department, Nicole Parham and other members of the city, which allowed us to use the City Square of Gainesville. We're very excited to bring Hanukkah and the celebration to a public space like this to allow everyone to enjoy it and allow everyone to experience it.”
Gurevitz and his wife Shania moved to Hall County in Feb. 2021 to start Hall County’s chapter of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. This international movement largely helped Judaism receive more acceptance, especially in the United States.
“The leader of the Chabad movement, known as Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, created the Chanukah Awareness Campaign in 1973,” Gurevitz said. “And the campaign was to bring the Menorah into the public consciousness and the messages with it. And that really created a revolution throughout the United States and the world of really putting out Menorahs and celebrating Hanukkah in a public fashion today.”
Hanukkah commemorates the Jewish victory over the Syrian Greeks during the Maccabean Revolt that happened during the 2nd century.
“[The Syrian-Greeks] sought not only to occupy the land of Israel but also to impose their culture and their and their way of life on the Jewish people – to restrict their practice of religion, to restrict Jewish called culture that allowed them to express themselves in a Jewish way,” Gurevitz. “And the Maccabees are the heroes of the Hanukkah story, defeated them, and they enabled Jews the freedom of religion and practice in ancient Israel and for all time, for all for the rest of history.”
When the Maccabees liberated Jerusalem and the Holy Temple, they only found one jar of undefiled oil. This oil was used to light the temple’s candelabra every day.
“That one jar of special oil, the rest of it was ruined by the Greeks, but that one jar which they found lasted for eight days,” Gurevitz said. “And that created the holiday of Hanukkah, to celebrate eight days to commemorate that story, that freedom, that spirit that endured back then over 2000 years ago and really continues to this day.”
The Chabad Jewish Center of Hall County will light the first candle of Hanukkah at the Square’s celebration on a 9-foot-tall Menorah. Then attendees will be able to help themselves to latkes and donuts while they celebrate the miracle of oil and light.
“Latkes are potato pancakes,” Gurevitz said. “It's fried in oil, deep-fried usually, and they're served usually with sour cream and applesauce. And it's what Ashkenazi people, Jews from Europe, have used to celebrate Hanukkah because it's about the miracle of the oil that lasted. This is a traditional fried oily food. And the other way is donuts, known in Hebrew as sufganiyot. They are another traditional way of celebrating Hanukkah for the same reason. It’s a donut which is fried and we eat them on Hanukkah.”
The Chabad Jewish Center of Hall County will also share the light of Hanukkah with those who may not be able to leave their beds. The Gurevitzs will visit local retirement communities throughout the county. They will also light Menorahs for Jewish patients and staff at Northeast Georgia Medical Center of Gainesville.
“On Monday evening, we're going to have a lighting at Northeast Georgia Medical Center of Gainesville,” Gurevitz. “We’re going to light the menorah there and coordinating with the spiritual care office to light the menorah for all Jewish patients and staff or people that want to participate, but they're in the hospital and they can't – due to work or due to being bedridden. That's something that we're going to be doing for the hospital on Monday evening at 6:45 p.m. And the rest of the holiday we will be celebrating individually or at other community gatherings.”
In the wake of rising antisemitism, Gurevitz said it is more important to celebrate Hanukkah now than ever before.
“A response to darkness has to be light. The whole message of Hanukkah is to lift up our heads, lift up our spirits, not to lay low and not to be embarrassed or ashamed of our history and of our religion, but to be proud. And Hanukkah is a way to express that pride and to express the idea of the victory of light. Light has always overpowered darkness. It has for thousands of years, and it will continue for forever. Light will always be here. And by light, I mean spiritual and positive light. So if there was never an important time to celebrate Hanukkah, this would be the most important time.”
The Chabad Jewish Center of Hall County will begin the Hanukkah festivities in Downtown Gainesville Square at 4:30 p.m. on Dec. Admission is free, and you can RSVP here.
Happy Hanukkah!
