{"id":65251,"date":"2025-12-19T13:56:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T13:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/65251\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T13:56:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T13:56:06","slug":"hanukkah-celebration-bringing-community-together-in-allentown-allentown-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/65251\/","title":{"rendered":"Hanukkah celebration bringing community together in Allentown | Allentown Area"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Hanukkah is all about light and togetherness, and that’s exactly what’s happening Friday morning at the Jewish Community Center<\/a> in Allentown.<\/p>\n

Sydney Kay has the story ahead of a special celebration bringing the community together.<\/p>\n

Tracy Sussman, Director of Marketing\/Membership at the JCC, said\u00a0Hanukkah is the festival of lights, and lasts for eight days. Years ago, when there was a lot of darkness, there was oil in the temple that was only supposed to last for one night, but the miracle is that it lasted for\u00a0eight nights, she said.<\/p>\n

An event, which was due to start at 9:30 a.m. Friday, will be a special shabbat.<\/p>\n

Shabbats are celebrated every week and are a time where kids and adults gather and sing songs. It is a respite from the rest of the week, where people can calm their minds and bodies, and bring in peace, she said.<\/p>\n

The menorah, a symbol of\u00a0Hanukkah, has eight candles with a shamash, the middle candle. The\u00a0shamash helps the other candles bring light.<\/p>\n

Amid the darkness in the world, we remember that there is always light, she said.<\/p>\n

She said the oil in food eaten during\u00a0Hanukkah like jelly doughnuts and potato latkes represents the oil used to light the candles.<\/p>\n

“It’s a beautiful holiday,” she said.<\/p>\n

People of all religions and cultures are welcome at the JCC, she said.<\/p>\n

Eric Lightman, the JCC’s Executive Director, said the JCC has been a community institution since 1918. He said the center offers health and wellness programs, as well as educational programs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Hanukkah is all about light and togetherness, and that’s exactly what’s happening Friday morning at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[214,119,121,120,232,3705],"class_list":{"0":"post-65251","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-_homepage_top_stories","9":"tag-allentown","10":"tag-allentown-headlines","11":"tag-allentown-news","12":"tag-allentown-area","13":"tag-sunrise"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}