Hanukkah Festival is a Celebration of Jewish Pride

VENTURA, CA — Bearded rabbis in black fedoras danced to Hasidic music. Children learned to make olive oil. Blacks wisps of smoke curled from a burning 20-foot-tall menorah.

About 200 people celebrated Jewish pride at a Hanukkah festival Sunday as seagulls flew overhead at Ventura Harbor Village. People browsed at booths featuring everything from Latke Larry talking dolls to dreidels made for children to decorate.

They ate kosher hot dogs and hamburgers. They clapped their hands to the music. Rabbis from Chabad religious and education centers in Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo mingled everywhere, making sure newcomers understood the meaning of the celebration.

“There’s always hope. That’s the story of Hanukkah in a nutshell,” said the Rabbi Yakov Latowicz of the Chabad of Ventura.

The eight-day holiday, which ends Tuesday night, honors the victory of a small band of Jews who revolted against religious oppression. The rabbis told of the “miracle of the oil,” explaining how a one-day supply of olive oil somehow illuminated a menorah for eight days.

“The best way to get rid of darkness is not with a broomstick but with light, which is acts of goodness and kindness,” said Rabbi Aryeh Lang of the Chabad of Camarillo, urging people to place their menorahs near a window so the light and good deeds illuminate not just one house but the world.

The day was sunny but brisk with a wind that gently rocked the huge menorah on the stage. Still the festival drew dozens of kids, which impressed Aharon Codela of Ventura, who referred to them as kinderlach.

“It means their parents had to get off their you-know-whats, put the (television) clicker down and make the effort,” he said.

Before the lighting of the menorah at twilight, Codela carefully carried a burning unity torch into the crowd so everyone could touch its base. Then a hydraulic lift carried Rabbi Dov Muchnik of the Chabad of Oxnard to the top of the menorah, where he lighted candles in honor of Hanukkah’s sixth night.

And in the glow of the menorah, there was more dancing and celebrating of a holiday that Latowicz says burns brighter in a world scarred by war, terrorism and hatred.

“Goodness can always vanquish the forces of darkness of which there is no shortage,” he said.