PEABODY — For 21 years, Chabad of Peabody, an affiliate of Chabad of the North Shore, is celebrating Hanukkah with special holiday events across the city, including at City Hall today at 11 a.m. and Sunday (11) at the Northshore Mall.
Hanukkah is an eight-day Jewish festival celebrating the rededication of the Holy Temple in the second Century B.C. Called the “festival of lights”, communities commemorate the winter-time holiday by lighting a candle in the seven-branched menorah each night.
“Hanukkah is kind of our favorite time of year because our whole mission is about spreading light,” said Rabbi Nechemia Schusterman of the Chabad of Peabody. “The Menorah is a very physical embodiment of that concept. We try to create as many events (as we can) that lead towards that mission, that includes public Menorah lightings in many locations.”
Schusterman and the Jewish community gathered Wednesday to kick off Hanukkah by lighting the Menorah at the Chabad of Peabody on Lowell Street and eating Chinese food.
The Menorah lighting is being organized in conjunction with Mayor Ted Bettencourt, carrying on a yearly tradition that has taken place at city hall since Schusterman moved to Peabody 21 years ago.
“Some years the weather was freezing cold and nasty snow, really difficult weather. I actually tried to stop that Menorah lighting one year,” said Schusterman. “To this mayor’s credit, he didn’t let me stop it. He said, ‘nope, this is a tradition, we gotta keep it going.”
Sunday will feature another local long standing Hanukkah tradition in the Northshore Mall, which has had Menorah lightings for decades and has been organized by the Chamber of Peabody since its founding.
The event which is co-sponsored by the North Suburban Jewish Community Center will feature Hanukkah games, crafts, latkes, donuts, music, and special entertainment by the professional yo-yoer Brett Outchunis and his “Ooch Experience. Festivities will be held in the court in front of JC Penny.
“Everyone loves Hanukkah: Jews, non-Jews. Hanukkah is a holiday of light, spirit, and joy, everyone is into it,” said Schusterman. “When you meet a fellow Jew at a Menorah lighting, it lifts you up. You feel like, ‘I’m not one person alone, I’m part of a larger group.”
