Sunday night, the Jewish world will begin the holiday of Chanukah. Our agencies have been and will be “getting their Chanukah on.” I know that the Chanukiah(some refer to it as a menorah) will be lit in the Jewish Association on Aging and Riverview Towers Facilities for the hundreds of our seniors who make their homes there. Our three Jewish Day Schools will be celebrating and learning about the holiday. The Hillel Jewish University Center has already begun with their Chanukah programming. The Jewish Community Center will be hosting a community Chanukiah lighting and a program for teens. Also connected to the JCC, but a program fully funded by the Federation, PJ Library has a lineup of small programs to engage young Jewish families.
I hope each of you finds some way to connect to our community using Chanukah as a great platform to do so. Perhaps even more importantly, you can guide someone else who may be desirous to find a place to connect to our community through one of the above or other communal or synagogue programs.
And if you know someone who is a young adult who wants a fun evening to connect with other young Jews through the Chanukah prism, Saturday night is Shalom Pittsburgh’s (a Federation program) Annual Vodka Latke Celebration. This is THE PARTY of the year that no young adult wants to miss. For those of you on Facebook or Twitter, you should have seen our effort to encourage the Jewish comedian, Amy Schumer, to show up at our event after her concert in Pittsburgh tomorrow night. I hope she answers the call.
Here’s to wishing all of you a happy Chanukah.
Shabbat Shalom.