Rockaway Celebrates Hanukkah
By Katie McFadden
On an unusually warm winter evening, on Sunday, December 29, the community gathered on Beach 116th Street to enjoy the warmth of the night, and each other’s company, while bringing more light into the community with the annual Beach 116th Hanukkah Menorah Lighting.
On what was the fifth night of Hanukkah, Rabbi Rebecca Epstein of West End Temple, Rabbi Matt Carl of Temple Beth-El, Councilwoman Joann Ariola and Harold Paez of the Rockaway Civic Association, gathered the community together for the event. Those in attendance got to enjoy free jelly donuts and Hanukkah gelt from Madelaine’s Chocolates.
Rabbi Matt Carl opened the ceremony speaking of the timing of the lighting, just after sunset, and Hanukkah being late in the season, beginning on Christmas Day this year. “There is somewhere in between a custom and rule to light Hanukkah candles as early as you can after sunset. So many people, for months, were saying ‘Oh, Hanukkah is very late this year, it’s going to be the same time as the secular holidays, and people are out of school and it’s going to be hard to get people together for this,’ which is apparently not true,” he said, pointing at the crowd gathered around. “I think the message that Hanukkah gives us, especially by telling us you should do it as early as you can, but make sure it’s not too late, is that whenever we get to do this and bring more light into our community and into our homes and out from our homes to our neighbors, it turns out that’s the right time to do it.”
Rabbi Epstein shared that this Hanukkah, she’s reminded of the time “when the Hellenistic Greeks were trying to make all of the Jews assimilate and take on the practices of the broader culture and the Maccabees fought back against that and eventually kicked out the king Antiochus and Syrian Greeks and rededicated the temple and renewed their commitment to Jewish practice and Jewish identity. Since October 7, we’ve seen so much antisemitism, where we never thought we’d see it like this in our lifetimes and I think as Jews, and for everyone here supporting the Jewish community, what I’m really thinking about is the message of Hanukkah to me is to deepen your Jewish identity or deepen whatever cultural or religious identity that you have and be very proud of it, but at the same time, recognize that everybody also has their identity that they care about and as Jews, everybody is B’tzelem Elohim, everybody is created in the image of God, so we need to hold both of these things together—our commitment to Judaism and our identity, and our universal commitment to all humanity and all people living in dignity.”
Councilwoman Joann Ariola was then asked to speak. “It’s important to me that we were able to continue this tradition with our synagogues because now, more than ever, we need to continue our traditions, so our children learn and that others who are not Jewish learn how important it is that we support each other in our religion, in our culture and in everything. As a legislator, I promise you that I am fighting every day against antisemitism whether it’s a horrible piece of graffiti that was put on a pole or at any institution where antisemitism exists, that I stand with you, I stand with Israel. We have been praying for those who have not been returned to their families and are still in captivity and we just pray the light, the love and the prayers that we say here today, will be felt by those in Israel who need it the most,” Ariola said.
After the speeches, the crowd gathered to sing songs like, “Hanukkah, oh Hanukkah” and the Dreidel song, as the fifth candle on the Beach 116th menorah was lit.
