A happening Hanukkah event returns to Sea Cliff

With the Jewish Festival of Lights just around the corner, Sea Cliff once again held its annual Hanukkah Happening for the first time since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. This once-a-year holiday party made a triumphant return to the village, with Jews and gentiles of all ages gathering to celebrate the season.

The origins of the Hanukkah Happening date back to the late 1970’s when it was a simple, ad hoc gathering of Jewish families in the area, according to one of the co-founders and long-time village resident Carol Vogt.

“We gathered together a number of families, maybe six or seven, and we had a Hanukkah party,” Vogt recalled. “I was very happy to hear some years later that the Hanukkah party had turned into this Happening, and there were so many more families in Sea Cliff gathering to celebrate.”

Since the early 1990’s the Hanukkah Happening has been an official event held every year, bar during Covid-19. Community members and volunteers step up to help prepare games, make food and set up the event.

For decades it has been held at the Sea Cliff Fire Department, where this year roughly 90 children and parents filled the space. The event is also open to gentiles as well as Jewish families, making it an event for the whole community.

“It’s an acknowledgement of Hanukkah, but it’s always been open to people who are not Jewish,” Dina Epstein, deputy mayor of Sea Cliff and a former organizer of the event, explained. “It’s a chance for little kids to make art projects and sing songs. It’s really a community-building, inclusive event.”

There was plenty of arts and crafts as well as holiday games to keep the children entertained at the Happening this year. Kids were able to make Stars of David ornaments out of popsicle sticks, decorate cookies using blue — one of the most important colors in Judaism — frosting, and decorate and spin their own dreidels.

Victoria Bader, one of the co-chairs of the event and an English language teacher at Sea Cliff Elementary, mentioned that the emphasis was to make sure every child felt welcome and would consider the spirit of the holiday.

“We wanted to keep it Hanukkah-themed, but I also wanted to embed a sense of kindness and family,” Bader said. “So, it was important to teach the kids to think about receiving and giving gifts.”

As children ate cookies and latkes, Rabbi Irwin Huberman of Congregation Tifereth Israel of Glen Cove, whose own granddaughter was in attendance, led the group in lighting the menorah and singing “Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah.”

All in all, it was a long overdue return to a normal holiday season, organizer Jess Miller explained.

“Having not had it for a few years, the community really came back to the event,” Miller said. “I think my son summed it up best, I was trying to get him to go home, but he’s like, ‘It’s funner here.’”