A parade and grand menorah lighting brightened Mirror Park on Sunday, in celebration of the Jewish holiday.
The ninth annual Light Up Salem event from the Chabad Center For Jewish Life featured a flame juggler, kosher jelly donuts and the lighting of a 12-foot tall menorah by Rabbi Avrohom Perlstein, Fire Department Chief Mike Niblock and Mayor Chris Hoy.
This year, Hanukkah started Thursday, Dec. 7, and goes through Friday, Dec. 15. Traditionally, the Jewish holiday celebrates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 164 B.C. after rising up against Greek occupation.
The central candle, or shamash, is used to light one additional candle on each night of Hanukkah. Sunday was the fourth night of the eight-day holiday.
This year’s lighting started with a car parade, featuring magnetically attached LED candles on the tops of the cars en route to Mirror Park, at the corner of Southeast Commercial and Trade Streets.
“The crowd was beautiful, a huge mix of Jews and non-Jews alike” Perlstein said Monday. “The energy was really beautiful, it was upbeat which is what we want at a time like this.”
Civil rights groups say that since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel and subsequent Israeli war in Gaza, Jewish and Muslim people throughout the U.S. have faced more harassment, bias and assaults, according to the Associated Press. This year’s Salem event included a police escort.
“To be able to display our identity, our religion, our freedom of what we value in this country: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of expression and to be supported by many is extremely comforting in a time like this,” Perlstein said.
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Abbey McDonald joined the Salem Reporter in 2022. She previously worked as the business reporter at The Astorian, where she covered labor issues, health care and social services. A University of Oregon grad, she has also reported for the Malheur Enterprise, The News-Review and Willamette Week.
Photographer Ron Cooper and his wife Penny moved to Salem in 1969 to take a job as photographer at the Oregon Statesman (later the Statesman Journal). Their three children, Monica, Kimberly, and Christopher, attended and graduated from Salem public schools. Cooper retired from the Statesman Journal in 2001 but, has continued his passion for photography in many ways, including as a photographer for the Salem Reporter.
