Chabad of the South Hills shines the Chanukah light in Dormont
“It’s turned into something that is mutually beneficial,” he said. “They love having us and we love being there.”
On Dec. 30, Dormont Borough will host and sponsor Chabad of the South Hills’ annual Chanukah Festival.
The event, which takes place in the borough’s famed swimming pool’s parking lot, will welcome hundreds from throughout the South Hills—Jew and non-Jew, the curious and regular holiday celebrants—in what has become one of the largest Chanukah festivals in the region.
It’s a far cry from 2017 when the borough’s annual Street Fair and Music Festival was held on Yom Kippur.
Who could have blamed them? Go door to door and you would struggle to find 30 Jewish families in the small South Hills community that borders the city’s Beechview and Brookline neighborhoods and the more suburban Mt. Lebanon. No one on the borough’s council or administrative staff was Jewish, so they weren’t aware of the date or significance of the holiday.
The oversight happened at a time when the council had decided it wanted to work to be more inclusive and the governing body decided to make some changes.
“We passed a resolution to be a more welcoming community,” Council President Jen Mazzocco explained. “But you can’t just pass an ordinance. You have to think about the big celebrations and moments in people’s lives.”
Celebrating holidays like Christmas, which the borough does in its main district, sends a message, she said.
“It’s important that we celebrate all the things people celebrate, as best we can,” she said. “I’m sure we’ve missed some things but we’re trying to appreciate everyone and the things they care about.”
Council member Daniele Ventresca said that despite the missteps in 2017, the borough had been slowly reaching out to the Jewish community.
In 2016, she said, public parks in the neighborhood were vandalized with antisemitic graffiti.
“Ben [Estell, former borough manager] reached out to Rabbi Rosenblum and started a conversation about how to respond to it,” she said, noting that, “We want Dormont residents who are Jewish to feel safe here.”
The borough next began setting up a menorah on Potomac Avenue, with the rabbi’s help.
“It was our own little celebration on Potomac that they took care of and ran but we put our money towards it,” she said.
The relationship, Chabad of the South Hills Rabbi Mendy Rosenblum said, deepened when Estell called him after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in 2018.
“They reached out,” he said, “and clearly wanted the Jewish community to feel included and supported.”
Since that time, the bond has continued to deepen and grow, surviving changing council members and borough managers. Rosenblum said a deep respect has been built between the two organizations.
“It’s turned into something that is mutually beneficial,” he said. “They love having us and we love being there.”
Ventresca said the borough jumped at the chance to have a deeper role with a larger celebration when the Chabad center was looking for a new home for its Chanukah celebration that used to be housed at the Galleria of Mt. Lebanon.
The partnership has continued since its humble beginnings on Potomac. During COVID, Chabad even coordinated a celebration that required people to stay in their cars for the festival.
This year, Chabad is bringing back one of its most popular attractions, the “Spectacular Fire Show.”
“What he does with fire is just spectacular,” Rosenblum said. “Plus, it’s cold outside so it’s a nice compliment, not that it’s going to warm you but the flames in the entertainment combine with the flames in the menorah, it’s a nice compliment.”
The celebration includes traditional components of the holiday like latkes and sufganiyot and even features a Gelt drop courtesy of the Dormont Fire Department.
“My favorite part is the fire truck dropping the gelt,” Mazzoco said. “It’s really fun and the kids lose their minds over it.”
The message of Chanukah, Rosenblum said, starts Jewishly but is universal.
“As it says in the Chanukah prayer, it’s the triumph of the few over the many, the weak over the strong, righteous over the arrogant and light over darkness,” he said.
Dormont has embraced that message, becoming the South Hills’ home for Chanukah.
The celebration has even come to be one of Ventresca’s favorites of the season.
“I’ve learned a lot. I’m not Jewish, so I don’t know a lot about the culture or holidays, but I truly enjoy the event. It feels very welcoming, and you don’t have to be Jewish,” she said. “They embrace us, and we embrace them. Everybody is here to celebrate.”
To learn more about Chabad’s Chanukah Festival or to pre-register for the free event and be entered to win some holiday swag, visit chabadsh.com/chanukah-2024. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
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