Santa Rosa celebrates ‘Festival of Lights’ with food, music and dance

Celebrating the triumph of light over darkness, about 160 people gathered Sunday at Santa Rosa’s Montgomery Village shopping center for a ceremonial lighting of the menorah, a special candelabra, on the sixth night of Hanukkah, a Jewish holiday that includes food, games, gift-giving and a miracle said to have happened nearly 2,200 years ago.

“The only way each and every one of us can change the world is to become a candle,” Rabbi Mendel Wolvovsky of the Chabad Jewish Center of Sonoma County told the crowd at dusk, just before mounting a short ladder to light six oil lamps on a giant menorah with a candle.

“Together we can make the world a kinder and juster place,” he said, surrounded by adults and children holding candles themselves.

Earlier, Wolvovsky and some of the kids danced to the lively beat of a seven-man klezmer band led by Frank Kasimov on the clarinet.

Latkes, the potato pancakes cooked in oil on the eight nights of Hanukkah, were passed out after the lamps were lit.

“It’s really exciting,” said Kasimov’s son Joshua, 10, but he struggled a bit to say what’s so special about the holiday.

“Presents,” blurted his sister Rachel, 7, who got an iPad for Hanukkah.

“I knew that’s what she’d say,” mom Robin Kasimov said.

“Oh yeah, I guess I forgot that,” Joshua admitted.

Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, commemorates the restoration of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem following the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid Empire in 165 B.C. Some historians consider the victory over a powerful Syrian army to be the first recorded military uprising on behalf of religious freedom.

The extended holiday is based on the story that one remaining container of olive oil, enough for a day of light, instead burned for eight days.

“For me, it’s rooted in tradition,” said Fran Piotrkowski of Petaluma, who wore a Happy Hanukkah t-shirt and dreidel earrings to Sunday’s event. “Whether you’re particularly religious or not.”

Dreidels are the four-sided tops kids play with during Hanukkah. The ancient Jews allegedly spun tops similar to dreidels to make it look as if they were gambling should they be interrupted by Seleucid soldiers while studying Torah, which was outlawed.

Santa Rosa City Councilwoman Julie Combs said she attended the menorah lighting as a city official - and because she is Jewish.

Women are not supposed to work while the Hanukkah candles are burning, Combs noted playfully. “Everyone is supposed to enjoy the light.”

Short, thin menorah candles are allowed to burn until they go out, which doesn’t take long.

Asked if she works while the candles burn, Combs said: “I’m not going to confess.”

Hanukkah is a minor Jewish holiday that has been elevated in the public eye due to its concurrence with Christmas, Rabbi Wayne Dosick wrote in “Living Judaism,” a guide to Jewish belief. The holiday “has seemingly become the ‘Jewish answer to Christmas,’” especially for children in the United States, he wrote.

Indeed, a towering artificial Christmas tree, decorated with red and gold ornaments, stood amid Sunday’s celebration at Montgomery Village.

Hanukkah continues through Tuesday night, and the Chabad Jewish Center will put on its final free public menorah lighting at 5 p.m. Monday at Oliver’s Market in Cotati.

Wolvovsky emphasized the symbolic meaning of the holiday, especially in times of turmoil like today.

“There’s always something out there in the world that’s cause for celebrating the light over darkness,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @guykovner.