Westville Ushers In A Sweet Hanukkah Light

Lucy Gellman Photos.

Eight young voices rose into the air, breath cooling into wispy, white clouds above the stage. Lyrics bloomed over the street, spinning the story of a Hanukkah into being one verse at a time. At the center of the group, a soft, oversized blue-and-white dreidel rotated in place, a pair of leggings and shoes sprouting from beneath the letter Gimmel. 

That sweet sound came to Westville Tuesday night, as the Westville Village Renaissance Alliance (WVRA), Chabad of Westville, and Edgewood Creative Thinking through STEAM Magnet School came together for Westville's now-annual menorah lighting in the heart of the neighborhood. For the first time in its history, organizers moved the gathering to the Central Avenue Patio, where the celebration unfolded amidst strings of twinkling lights and picnic tables piled with fried potato latkes and donuts.   

"Events like this remind us that miracles are possible," said Rabbi Chanoch Weinberg, his face illuminated in the tall, orange flames of the menorah. He noted that this year, Shabbat follows the final night of Hanukkah, meaning that candles will burn not for eight contiguous nights, but for nine. "The light of the Shabbat candles fortifies us with strength and warmth. We've got to realize that we have so much strength inside of us."  

From Hanukkah songs to a raucous gelt drop, the event worked to summon light in a cold and dark season, friends and neighbors reconnecting with each other between blessings and candlelight. From a small stage on one side of the patio, Edgewood students gathered shoulder-to-shoulder, some dressed in pint-sized black yarmulkes, wide-brimmed black fedoras, and a tallit katan small enough to fit a fourth grader. As music began to play from a speaker, students took a collective breath in, and launched into a spirited version of "Oh Chanukah."  

At first, the eight young voices spilled over each other, cacophonous and not exactly sure where to go. But as music teacher Hillyn Natter-Schmelzer raised her hands to conduct, students eased into the lyrics, smiling as blue sky gave way to a wintery sunset overhead. Beside Natter-Schmelzer, Chabad Rebetzin Mushka Weinberg nodded along to the lyrics, a smile spreading across her face as she listened. Further down the street, WVRA's Noé Jiminez got into a groove, making the song officially into a bop. 

As the sun sank, one student leaned gently forward, slipping a dreidel costume over her head and arms before a rousing round of "Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel" that included choreography. As students came back to standing, steadying themselves, they transformed into eight tiny Maccabees, ready to tell the Hanukkah story beat by beat. As they wove the narrative of a mighty  army rising up against the Greeks, a student stepped forward, ready for his big line. 

"C'mon guys!" he exclaimed to a few laughs from a small crowd. "Let's light it for one night. It's better than nothing." 

Mayor Justin Elicker attended the event, noting that one light can push away the darkness. 

More laughs rippled over the street, warm enough to conjure the candlelight that was on the horizon. The audience knew the miracle that was coming next: a light that would burn in the darkness not for one night, but for eight, despite a paucity of oil. 

That warmth remained as Weinberg handed out individual candles, attendees spreading light as he prepared to lead the blessings over the menorah. By the time he had started the brachot, attendees pressing in toward the fluorescent glow, over three dozen points of flickering light danced over the patio, where a faded mural still stretches in blue and pink over the asphalt. As Weinberg sang, retired cantor Josh Konigsberg joined in, his voice rising through the dark. 

There with his wife, Meri, Konigsberg said that Hanukkah has felt harder this year, as he watches the Israel-Hamas war unfold from so far away. In the past months, he and Meri have done their best to keep in touch with friends and relatives in Israel, who are still shaken and traumatized by Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks. Both said that it remains surreal to them that they were there over the summer, just months before the war began. 

Top: Josh and Meri Konigsberg.

While he believes in the war, Konigsberg added—”I have faith that ultimately it will resolve itself for the good,” he said—he also finds the sheer loss of life horrific. As he lights the menorah this year, Hanukkah means "a dedication to bringing light into the world, to be a light onto the world."

Nearby, longtime Westvillian Nanette Stahl watched the flames jump and sway atop the menorah, her own face illuminated in the glow of a single candle that she held between her hands. Years ago, Stahl moved to New Haven from California to become the Judaica librarian at Yale's Sterling Library. A member of Beth El-Keser Israel (BEKI), she came out Tuesday to be with other members of the neighborhood's Jewish community. 

This year that feels especially important, she said: she has family in Israel. “I pray that God protects them,” she said. “I pray that we can find some peace.” 

"I'm managing," she added when asked how she is doing. "Holidays like Hanukkah help. I wanted to celebrate this wonderful holiday with the Jewish community and get some spirit and some joy. I think everybody should let some celebration into their lives in this time of darkness and cold." 

Nanette Stahl: “I pray that we can find some peace.” 

Those words resonated for Mushka Weinberg, who worked closely with Natter-Schmelzer and Edgewood School Principal Nick Perrone to teach both songs and the story of Hanukkah to students for the first time this year. During the year, she leads a semi-weekly storytime at the Mitchell Branch Library and a Jewish Women's Circle. For her, she said. Hanukkah is about "going back to the basics."

"We've got to rely on our foundations," she said. "The community, the Torah, the connection to Hashem. And I've had to do that to believe that goodness is possible."      

"I think it's about the inner work of bringing the light to ourselves, bringing goodness to ourselves and to others, " she added. "It [Hanukkah] helps us realize that the light is within us and light prevails."