Pandemic forces Wilmington’s Jewish community to host Hanukkah celebrations online

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — With growing concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, many Hanukkah celebrations are shifting online this year.

In past years, Wilmington’s Jewish community gathered at the riverfront to light a large menorah and take park in the start of the eight-day Festival of Lights celebration.

Hanukkah celebrates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem after the Maccabees overcame the Greek-Assyrian Army. It was a time when Jews were told they could not celebrate their faith and they claimed it.

“The whole idea about the candles and the oil is that when the Jews went to rededicate the Temple after it had been desecrated and after the Maccabees won, there was only a little bit of oil,” said Emily Losben-Ostrov who is the rabbi of Temple of Israel Wilmington. “The oil that was used to light the menorah at the time was only to last one day, but the miracle is that it lasted eight days.”

She says Hanukkah celebrates an even bigger miracle.

“We were able to overcome our foes and a small army was able to win the victory for the right to practice our faith,” Losben-Ostrov said.

This year’s Hanukkah celebration for congregants of Temple of Israel is a bit more somber due to the recent death of a long-time member to Covid-19.

“We lost a congregant last week and we just had to say goodbye to him,” Losben-Ostrov said. “He was a Holocaust survivor and a veteran of the United States Army.”

Within a few days of contracting the virus, Losben-Ostrov says the congregant found himself in the hospital and died less than a week later.

Losben-Ostrov says she was able to pray with him the night before he passed.

“When I asked the family if I could share this story, they said ‘please’ because they want people to take this seriously, especially now when we think we’re in the home stretch, we can’t let down our guard,” Losben-Ostrov said.

Hanukkah begins at sunset on Thursday, December 10, and ends at nightfall on Friday, December 18. Click here for a list of events taking place each night online.