Following a weekend attack on a celebration of the holiday in Australia, Lehigh Valley Jewish leaders celebrated Hanukkah 2025 with a public menorah lighting in Bethlehem.<\/p>\n
Chabad Lubavitch of the Lehigh Valley hosted the \u201cLighting of Unity\u201d<\/a> event Monday night on Payrow Plaza between Bethlehem City Hall and the Bethlehem Area Public Library.<\/p>\n Hanukkah \u2014 also spelled Chanukah or other transliterations from Hebrew \u2014 is Judaism\u2019s \u201cfestival of lights.\u201d On eight consecutive nightfalls, Jews gather with family and friends to light one additional candle in the menorah \u2014 a multibranched candelabra.<\/p>\n This year, Hanukkah started at sundown on Sunday, Dec. 14, and lasts through Dec. 22.<\/p>\n Sunday\u2019s attack targeting a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia, killed 15<\/a> people. The dead included a 10-year-old girl, a rabbi and a Holocaust survivor. Dozens of others were injured, some seriously. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called it an act of antisemitic terrorism.<\/p>\n On its Facebook, Chabad of the Lehigh Valley spoke of marking the celebration with \u201chope and resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen lighting your first Chanuka candle today, please pray for the wounded as well as all of our brothers and sisters in Australia<\/a>,\u201d the Jewish outreach organization\u2019s Rabbi Yaacov Halperin wrote Sunday.<\/p>\n