Grand Island celebrates Chanukah, the festival of lights

By Alice Gerard

Senior Contributing Writer

The world, Rabbi Mendel Gurary said, is full of darkness. Speaking at the gazebo in the Grand Island Town Commons on Dec. 16 as part of a local Chanukah celebration, Gurary, who organized the event with Rabbi Yosef Chartonow of Chabad of Buffalo, said, “The message of Chanukah is the message of light. There’s a lot of darkness in the world, especially this year. We know what happened in Sydney.”

On Dec. 14, at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, 16 persons were killed, and more than 40 were injured in a terrorist attack at a Chanukah celebration. The victims ranged in age from a 10-year-old girl to an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor.

“We’re very sad for what happened over there, but we’re not going to let the darkness prevail,” Gurary said. “We’re going to keep on adding light, keep on adding goodness and positivity, adding acts of goodness and kindness or charity or prayer. Just a little bit of light will push away all this darkness.”

Gurary said the Grand Island event celebrated the third night of Chanukah, the festival of lights, with a menorah lighting and with traditional foods, including potato latkes and sufganiyot (doughnuts), and a raffle.

The Chanukah celebration also was a celebration of the 200th anniversary of the idea that Grand Island would be Ararat, the City of Refuge, for the Jewish people, Gurary said.

“Manuel Mordecai Noah (who chose Grand Island to be a City of Refuge for the Jewish people) was a Maccabee, a very proud American and a very proud Jewish person,” Gurary said. “He served as the consul in Tunis (from 1813-15), and he was removed from his position because of his religion. He sent many letters to the White House, and he made a big deal about this, but he continued proud and he laid here the cornerstone.”

That cornerstone is now at the Buffalo History Museum. In addition to the story about Noah, Gurary shared the history of Chanukah.

“Many years ago, the people in the land of Israel were being persecuted for their religion,” Gurary said. “They were told that they were not allowed to practice their religion. But there were a few brave Jewish people, called the Maccabees. They stood strong, and they said, ‘We’re going to continue doing what God wants. We’re going to continue practicing.’

“They came back to the temple, and they found the temple a big mess. The menorah was broken, and there was no oil to be found. They were searching here and there until they found one jug of oil. It could last for only one day. The miracle of Chanukah was that that oil lasted for eight days. That’s why we celebrate the eight days of Chanukah.”