Jewish outreach organization hosting first-ever Chanukah celebration in eastern Idaho

IDAHO FALLS – A Jewish holiday tradition is coming to Idaho Falls Wednesday night and the community is invited to attend.

Chabad-Lubavitch of Idaho, a Jewish outreach organization, is sponsoring the first-ever Chanukah Celebration. The main focus of the event will be a menorah lighting ceremony, an eight-day ritual that begins on Dec. 19 with the lighting of a candle. A candle is lit each day until Dec. 26 when all eight candles are lit up.

Rabbi Mendel Lifshitz, the organization’s director, tells EastIdahoNews.com this is a tradition dating back 2,000 years ago when the Jews had a temple in Israel.

“The Jewish people were under oppression from the Assyrian-Greek rulers. They wanted to outlaw certain Jewish practices and not allow the Jewish people to practice their faith,” Lifshitz explains.

The Temple was ransacked and defiled over time. Eventually, there was a war between the two nations and the Jews fought back to reclaim their right to practice their faith.

The Jewish people were outnumbered 10 to 1, but miraculously won the conflict, says Lifshitz.

“They came back to the Temple to restore it … and there was a special kind of lantern called a menorah. Kindling it required a special holy oil — pure oil.”

Most of the oil had been destroyed at the time, but they found a jug with enough oil to light the menorah for one day. It took seven days to procure more oil, Lifshitz says, and the menorah miraculously remained lit the entire time.

The menorah lighting ceremony commemorates the rededication of the temple and the miracles that occurred during this eight-day period.

“That’s why we celebrate the miracle of Hanukah by kindling the menorah each day for eight days,” he says.

And the traditional spelling of Hanukah begins with a C as seen above, but it’s pronounced the same way.

“The menorah’s power is especially felt when it is lit with joy and enthusiasm, as it will be this year, with an added appreciation for the blessing of being able to gather once again as a community and celebrating together,” according to a news release about the event.

In addition to the menorah lighting ceremony, the celebration will also include Chanukah songs and food, which are also steeped in tradition and “the miracle of the oil.”

“We eat potato pancakes, referred to as latkes. Those are fried in oil to commemorate the miracle of the oil. It’s also customary to eat jelly doughnuts, which are also fried in oil. We’re circling back to the oil quite a bit,” says Lifshitz.

A popular treat for kids includes eating chocolate coins, which they call Chanukah gelt, and a game called Dreidel is another common tradition.

Rabbis will also be on hand to lead the ceremony and speak about the meaning of Chanukah.

There are several hundred Jewish people scattered throughout eastern Idaho, Lifshitz says, but the only Jewish synagogue is in Pocatello. That makes it difficult for many of them to gather for worship services, so this event will give them a central place to gather and celebrate familiar traditions and customs together.

The growth of the Jewish community in the area has resulted in several Jewish events throughout the year, including a Passover event and the Roving Rabbis this summer, a group of traveling rabbis that visited eastern Idaho to provide education to the public about the Jewish faith and customs.

Lifshitz is hoping the Chanukah Celebration becomes an annual tradition in eastern Idaho.

“This is a beautiful opportunity and we’re very grateful we’re able to provide this for the local Jewish community. The message of Chanukah is a message of light over darkness, the triumph of good over evil. The opportunity to increase light in a time of darkness is something that all people of good will should embrace. We hope that this Chanukah celebration creates that opportunity,” Lifshitz says.

The Chanukah Celebration will be held at the Snake River Event Center, formerly known as the Shilo Inn Event Center. It will begin at 6 p.m.