Palm Beachers share Hanukkah memories

For Jewish Palm Beachers, Hanukkah means reflecting on the past: The ancient past, when the Jewish people rose up against their Greco-Syrian oppressors in the 2nd century BCE, and a much more recent family past of menorah lightings and bubbes frying latkes in the kitchen.

Hanukkah represents the miracle of a one-day supply of oil for the rededicated Temple in Jerusalem lasting eight days. Jews observe it by lighting a menorah lamp every evening of the holiday.

The gathering of family is paramount during Hanukkah, and that gained particular significance during the COVID-19 pandemic when families had to celebrate together via Zoom or other video chat.

The holiday begins today and in Palm Beach, it will kick off with a festival from 5 to 8 p.m. in Bradley Park that will include live music, food, games and rides for children, along with the annual menorah lighting.

To celebrate the holiday, the Daily News asked residents to share some of their Hanukkah memories:

Rabbi Barak Bar-Chaim, New Synagogue

My twin sons were bar-mitzvahed on Hanukkah. This holiday is about the miracle of Jewish survival and dedication to one's faith. There is no better way to signify those spiritual commitments than through a bar-mitzvah. That recent memory from just a few years ago warms each Hanukkah festival for us.

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Carole Koeppel

We celebrate all holidays: We celebrate Hanukkah and we celebrate Christmas. It’s a wonderful time for family to come together. Family is the most important part of the celebration.

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Dana Koch

I vividly remember lighting the menorah at the Flagler Museum when I was in first grade. There was a joint Christmas tree and menorah lighting ceremony. It might have been one of the first they ever held there. Actually, I think a photo of it ended up the front page of the Palm Beach Daily News. Kelly Matthews Hopkins, who is currently the president of the Flagler Museum and also one of my close childhood friends, lit the tree while I lit the menorah.

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Barry Lowenthal 

I have five nephews and nieces who are all in their 20s. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a nephew and a niece stayed with me for a couple of months. It was the first time we ever shared a roof. They were great roommates, and we got to share Hanukkah 2020 together. I had menorahs but I needed more candles, which we got from Publix. Since their dad was in New York and their grandma was in Boca Raton, we lit the menorah and sang the blessings over Zoom. And we all got our own potato latkes to eat together (also over Zoom). Of course, Mom made her own — and ours were frozen.

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Tara Moore-Benson

This will be our first Hanukkah in Palm Beach, so my husband and I are really looking forward to joining the Palm Beach community in celebrating the festivities for the first time. We’re especially looking forward to having our young son participate in the Palm Beach Jewish Children’s choir that will perform at the Soiree on Dec. 19 at The Colony and will perform at Hanukkah on Worth Avenue on Dec. 22 at The Esplanade. The kids on that stage really inspire young and old to be proud of their heritage. It’s amazing to see the activities that the Chabad has put together, there is so much outlined with thought so that the holiday speaks to younger families like ours, something special just for the ladies. It’s all just so fantastic.

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Michael Scharf

In this topsy-turvy world, Hanukkah reminds us that right will ultimately triumph over evil. When the Syrian Greeks defiled the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, it was a small band of brave Jews, the Maccabees, who defeated the defilers and then cleansed and rededicated the temple so that its sanctity was restored for the Jewish people. A miracle!

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Hindel Levitin

Judaism is a very tangible religion. Yes, there is meditation and prayer, which are more esoteric in nature. But as physical beings, we truly integrate spiritual concepts and ideas by interacting with material things. It’s in the physical experiences ― offering someone in need a hot meal, giving charity to worthy causes, kindling the oil of the menorah lights ― that G-d Himself can be felt. Even today, the smell of frying latkes and the glow of the menorah brings me right back to my childhood years with my two brothers and six sisters celebrating a meaningful Hanukkah. There is no happier childhood memory I would rather visit. And today, in Palm Beach, the glow of the life-size menorah that is standing every year at Hannukah on Worth Avenue, at the Hanukkah Soiree at The Colony, at the children’s Hannukah Wonderland, at Hanukkah at Publix, at the Ladies’ Hanukkah Party, and much more, reminds me that we are a growing community and an everlasting flame.

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Rabbi Zalman Levitin

It was 1991, and I remember the awesome privilege I felt when I was chosen for the honorary role of lighting the menorah for the Lubavitcher Rebbe in front of thousands of people. I felt the gaze of the rebbe and the world on me, and when the rebbe addressed his followers, he encouraged the world to harness the power of scientific development to spread the light of Torah and kindness around the world. It was the bebbe’s message of universal kindness that spurred me to move to Palm Beach together with my family, to spread the light of G-d and His Torah in our beautiful community here. It is his voice and encouragement that I hear every day as I navigate the ups and downs of life. In December of 2006, shortly after we became Chabad emissaries to Palm Beach, we hosted the first ever Hanukkah on Worth event, which has grown to number in the hundreds each year.

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Joan Lazarus

It’s great fun to be able to celebrate Hanukkah together and seeing the joy on everyone’s faces. I’ll be going to the Soiree at The Colony. I’m looking forward to attending, for seeing the people and the children is really a treat. I remember when my first husband was in the service during the Korean conflict, we were stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, and we had a menorah in our house.

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Terri C. Sribe

My favorite Hannukah memory was going to my family’s annual party and spinning the dreidels with my cousins. Our parents and grandparents would give out the Hannukah gelt wrapped in gold foil to all the little children. I would hold on to it tightly and hide it as I thought it was real money only to later find out it was coins made of chocolate.

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Keith Myers

My favorite Hannukah memory is my mother making the most delicious jelly doughnuts for the first night of Hanukkah. She would hide them from my brothers and I so we wouldn’t eat them before we lit the menorah. We always found them but as all mothers do, she planned ahead with a secret stash and saved the night.

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Bruce A. Beal Sr.

My favorite Hanukkah memory is that my family also decorated a Christmas tree as part of our holiday celebrations.

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Martin Klein

“My favorite recent Hanukkah memory was attending the menorah lighting at Bradley Park a few years ago. As a lifelong Palm Beacher and proud Jew, it warms my heart to see what a vibrant and active Jewish community we now have on the island and how the various communities have come together. Of course, I enjoy Rabbi Moshe Scheiner’s distribution of latkes at Publix.”

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Jonathan Adler

I can’t believe what an ungrateful and spoiled brat I was. I never understood how much pressure my poor parents were under to deliver eight days of gifts for three kids.  Too little and too late, but sorry and thanks!

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beachers share their memories of Hanukkah