Hanukkah

This Sunday, December 8, The Albany Symphony Orchestra will perform its annual holiday celebration “The Magic of Christmas.” The Palace Theatre will be filled with festive holiday music, family fun, and special guests. Later this month, on December 21 and 22, The ASO will perform a world premiere guitar concerto by Nicky Sohn – along with holiday music by Mozart and Vivaldi.

Each year, my synagogue joins with another congregation to light the Hanukkah menorah on one night of the holiday. Jews have lit Hanukkah lights together for two thousand years in places as mundane as private homes and as hellish as concentration camp barracks. Our annual celebration takes place outdoors at the entrance to Albany’s Buckingham Pond. Under dim streetlights and distant starlight, the flames of our communal Hanukkah menorah illuminate -howbeit faintly – the sky darkened early in the evening around the time of the winter solstice. According to Jewish law, our outdoor observance is the ideal way to celebrate Hanukkah: in a place where anyone passing by can be a witness to the miracle of the lights in the ancient Jerusalem Temple.

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Tina Lincer is a writer living in Loudonville, NY.I never believed, like some people do, that Hanukkah can’t hold a candle to Christmas.Angels, elves,…