Chabad Supports Public Menorah Lightings for Chanukah

Chabad of the Lehigh Valley will provide support to all three of the Lehigh Valley’s major cities in their celebrations of Chanukah.

Chabad, which located on Crackersport Road in South Whitehall Township, is a spiritual, educational and social organization, dedicated to Jewish faith and culture.

Bethlehem and Easton will both have public Menorah lightings on the first night of the holiday on Wednesday. Bethlehem’s will take place at 4:30 p.m. at Payrow Plaza, while Easton’s will take place at 6:30 p.m. in front of the Crayola Factory at 6:30.

Allentown’s public lighting ceremony will take place at 5 p.m. Monday—the sixth night of the holiday—at Seventh and Hamilton streets.

Chanukah is the eight-day festival of light that begins on the eve of the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev.

The holiday celebrates two miracles of Jewish history:

• The victory of a small, greatly outnumbered and out-armed army of Jews, known as the “Maccabees,” over the mighty Greek army that occupied the Holy Land.

• When the Maccabees liberated the Temple from the Greeks, they found only a small cruse of pure and undefiled olive oil fit for fueling the Menorah, which was an important part of daily services at the Temple. The problem was, it was sufficient to light the Menorah only for one day, and it would take eight days to produce new pure oil. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days and nights.

Chanukah customs include eating foods fried in oil—such as potato pancakes and doughnuts, playing with a dreidel—a type of spinning top, and giving gifts of money to children.