Simchat Torah, the Jewish holiday commemorating the conclusion and restart of the annual Torah reading cycle, is celebrated with dancing, music and festive food.
This year, the holiday fell on Oct. 24, the same day as the Hebrew anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel.
The Chabad of Hewlett held a community Simchat Torah celebration that day in honor of the rejoicing of the Torah.
There was a children’s Hakafot party — when the Torah scrolls are removed from the ark and paraded around while people sing and dance — at 6 p.m., and a community celebration at 7 p.m.
The celebration featured merchandise and flags with the phrase Am Yisrael Chai — which means “The people of Israel live” — along with a buffet dinner, music from the boys from Israel Choir and an open bar.
“It is a very beautiful holiday to celebrate the Torah, the absolute holiday of Am Yisrael Chai,” Rivkah Tenenboim said. “All are welcome to dance with the Torah, no matter how learned you are.”
Tenenboim invited all women in attendance to make L’Chaim — a toast to something better in life.
For Adi Carucci of Hewlett, the evening meant more than honoring the Torah and celebration.
“I’m here to spread Jewish pride and Jewish love, by creating awareness for the community within the neighborhood,” Carucci said.
She helped Rabbi Nochem Tenenboim by gathering girls to start dancing, and made sure everyone had a smile on their face, Carucci said.
“Simchat Torah is extremely important,” Carucci said. “It means everything to me to be able to come together as a community and be able to strive and show no matter what we are going through, to show our pride, and we are going to survive.”
Carucci was honoring the lives lost at the Nova Festival, which Hamas attacked first on Oct. 7, 2023, by dancing and encouraging others to be a part of the celebration.
“The holiday is about dancing, and it’s so important, given that the Nova festival was all about love and dancing,” Carucci said. “So we are going to dance and show pride, love and be happy to be Jewish. We still remember those that we lost and continue to lose. Like we always do, we will strive to come back bigger and stronger than ever.”
Hewlett High School juniors Joseph Kogan and Jacob Yamen also joined the celebration.
“I feel very holy and happy when we come together and I’m able to express my Judaism, along with my friends as a group that I feel comfortable in,” Kogan said.
Yamen said he believes that family, community and celebrating the good, while the war in Israel rages on, is important.
“I always go to the Simchat Torah services with my parents,” Yamen said. “It’s especially important to go now, with everything that’s happened with Oct. 7.”
Kogan said he felt that taking part in the holiday gives the community strength.
“As we’ve seen recently in the news, there’s been a lot of difficulties in the state of Israel,” he said, “so coming together and showing our zeal, we can show that we’re not going to give up.”
