Cranberry community lights menorah
CRANBERRY TWP — Lighting four of the nine branches on a menorah in front of the Cranberry Township Municipal Center, Rabbi Yossi Feller recounted the significance of Hanukkah.
Yes, it's a holiday commemorating the Maccabean Jews' rededication of the ancient Temple of Jerusalem following the shedding of their Greek-Syrian oppressors. But, Feller said, it has universal significance regardless of religion.
“Hanukkah is the holiday that we celebrate the victory of light over darkness and truth over the opposite,” he said after the lighting.
And the triumph of light was commemorated Tuesday in Cranberry on the third night of Hanukkah, with the shamash and three hanukkiah branches lighted, children picking up chocolate coins as part of the gelt drop and attendees eating latkes and doughnuts and drinking hot beverages.
The Festival of Lights being celebrated in public, with the Jewish and non-Jewish communities free and encouraged to attend, also has special significance, Feller said. For much of Jewish history, the Jews have been exiled, persecuted and forced to practice their religion in private.In fact, Feller said, the menorah was originally intended to be a public display. Over time, he said, Jewish households brought the hanukkiah inside and hid it away.“We're very blessed to be living in a free society, so we wanted to display it in public,” he said.Feller said the event had some more meaning for him, as it's his first time lighting the menorah in front of the township building. He held programs in Cranberry for the High Holy Days during 2020, but had to go virtual for Hanukkah out of COVID-19 precautions. This year, there was less concern — and the community came out in droves to the public celebration.Jack Cohen, who helped start the Cranberry menorah lighting “a long time ago,” said he was glad to see so many community members in attendance.
“We wanted it to be a nice way of joining people together, to do an event like this,” he said, noting there were few options for Cranberry's Jewish people to meet when he began the program.Tim Brown of Cranberry, who's been coming to the public menorah lighting in the township for the past three or four years, said he appreciates celebrating it while out and about.“(It's) just nice to come out and celebrate with the community,” Brown said.
