For the Jewish people, the eight-day holiday of Hanukkah is all about light triumphing over darkness.
With Hanukkah beginning at sundown on Dec. 7, this year there will be public Menorah lightings in Rockport, Ipswich and for the first time in the Hamilton-Wenham community, according to Rabbi Avremi Raichik of Chabad of Cape Ann.
In Gloucester, Temple Ahavat Achim, 86 Middle St., plans to hold its annual Lobster Trap Menorah Lighting on Tuesday, Dec. 12, at 5:30 p.m. with “songs and sweet treats,” followed by a concert with Ezekiel’s Wheels Klezmer Band. All attendees are required to pre-register for these events by calling the temple at 978-281-0739 or visiting https://bit.ly/4a6SVWv.
In what has become an annual tradition, Chabad of Cape Ann will light up a 9-foot Hanukkah menorah in downtown Rockport, at Barletta Park on the corner of Mt. Pleasant Street and Broadway, at 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 7, the first night of Hanukkah.
The Rockport Festival of Lights celebration will feature music, children’s activities, potato latkes, doughnuts and more. This and other Hanukkah events are free and open to the entire community. RSVP appreciated at Chabadcapeann.com/Chanukah.
The Rockport celebration will be followed by one started last year in downtown Ipswich with a public menorah lighting followed by a Hanukkah party on Sunday, Dec. 10, at 5 p.m. The lighting will take place at the bottom of Town Hill, with the indoor celebration following at Gathr, 42 Market St.
Adding even more light to this holiday season will be a public menorah lighting in Hamilton at The Community House, 284 Bay Road, on Monday, Dec. 11.
Raichik said in a prepared statement the community Hanukkah celebrations are a response to the worrisome rise in anti-Semitic rhetoric online and elsewhere.
“Our response to the hatred of any kind must never be to cower or hide our faith,” said the rabbi, who directs the Chabad Jewish Community Center of Cape Ann with his wife, Rivky.
“The message of Hanukkah is the message of light. We can have no better response to negativity than to gather together in even greater numbers and celebrate the light of the menorah in public,” Raichik said.
Cape Ann’s menorahs are some of the more than 15,000 large public menorahs sponsored by Chabad in more than 100 countries around the world.
The festival of Hanukkah commemorates the victory of the Maccabees over the Syrian-Greeks in the second century BC, and the reclaiming of the Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple had been desecrated, and so had the olive oil used to light its menorah as part of the daily service. A single cruse of oil that had not been defiled was only supposed to last one day, but it miraculously lasted for eight until a new supply of oil could be consecrated.
For details about Chabad’s other Hanukkah events and celebrations on the North Shore, visit Northshorechanukah.com.
For more information about the local Cape Ann schedule of events, visit Chabadcapeann.com/Chanukah.
Ethan Forman may be contacted at 978-675-2714,or at eforman@northofboston.com.