Chanukah House in West Haven Will Let Kids Live Story

WEST HAVEN — Children can read about Hanukkah in the history books or in Sunday school, but Rabbi Adam Haston has found a way for kids to live the story.

Haston will literally turn darkness into light, the central theme of the holiday, by transforming a huge and popular haunted house that sits in the back of Dadd’s Xtreme Indoor Sports into a Hanukkah house.

With a script written and performed by men from Yeshiva Jewish men’s seminary, children will enter a “time machine” and find themselves in the midst of the story of how a small rebel army, the Maccabees, overthrew the Hellenist Syrians to win back religious freedom, then rededicate the Temple of Jerusalem.

“I’m very excited about it. It’s really just so cool,” said Haston, director of programming and community development at Southern Connecticut Hebrew Academy.

Richard “Dusty” Daricek, owner of Dadd’s and a gentile, said he went for the idea because he thinks it will give kids a good “hands-on” experience. Haston’s idea has Daricek thinking about transforming the popular year-round haunted house for other holidays, including Christmas.

“It’s pretty impressive what he’s (Haston) planned, and we can hold a lot of people,” Daricek said.

Dadd’s is essentially an indoor amusement park for kids, a huge space that offers a kid’s go-kart track, games, rides, mini-golf and more.

The haunted house is creepy with lots of skulls, skeletons, coffins, corpses, dismembered body parts and “help me” messages written on dusty tables.

But it’s nothing a few backdrops and actors can’t overcome.

Rabbi Sheya Hecht, director of Southern Connecticut Hebrew Academy, said the Hanukkah house is an innovative idea that fits in with today’s philosophy of kids learning best via hands-on and experiential lessons.

“It’s so important to have kids relate to Judaism and take part in the holiday in a way that’s contemporary,” Hecht said.

Haston became familiar with Dadd’s last year when it was the end destination of a Hanukkah parade that began in New Haven. The image of the huge haunted house must have stayed with him; he flashed back to it when he was creating programs for this year.

Hanukkah houses have been done before, but, normally, on a much smaller scale. In addition to the walk through time, the event, entitled, “Chanukah Playland Extravaganza” will feature an olive oil and olive press show, a Hanukkah superstore, a cafe and a chance to meet Judah Maccabee, who led the revolt and is considered one of the greatest warriors in Jewish history.

The price of entry is $5.

Upon entering, guests will be greeted by a mad scientist who will take them back in time. Then they’ll be brought through several scenes, including one of children secretly reading the Torah, an act forbidden under Hellenistic rule. The dreidel game was actually created as a diversionary tactic — children who heard soldiers coming would pull out the dreidel and start playing, Haston said.

The military victory over the Hellenists was considered to have a miraculous nature because an army of so few triumphed over an army of so many, Haston said.

But that was based on the efforts of humanity, and so the real miracle, viewed as a reciprocal response from God, was that a day’s worth of oil to light the Menorah lasted eight nights, just the amount of time to travel round trip for more oil so the Menorah could be lit for the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem.

Hanukkah is not a holiday of obligations or a Biblical one, but rather to remember that miracle.

Jews typically light a candle on the menorah each of the eight days of Hanukkah.