Mt. Lebanon readies for first public Chanukah celebration

The streets of Mt. Lebanon will glow a little more brightly this holiday season.

That’s because, for the first time, Mt. Lebanon’s holiday festivities will include a menorah lighting at Clearview Common on Washington Road.

The celebration is a victory for a group of Jewish community members who advocated last year at a commission meeting for public recognition of Chanukah. The charge was initially led by Chabad of the South Hills Rabbi Mendy Rosenblum, who has been trying for the last three years for permission from Mt. Lebanon for a public menorah and Chanukah parade, which includes a Christmas tree.

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When attorney Bryan Neft first learned of Rosenblum’s struggles with the township he decided to get involved.

Mt. Lebanon’s refusal to include a menorah in its public acknowledgement of the holiday season came at a time when Neft felt the Jewish community had been through enough. He cited Oct. 7, the push for BDS resolutions in the city of Pittsburgh and attempts to have Allegheny County pass a ceasefire resolution as examples of what he considers attacks on the Jewish community.

Neft began having conversations with the township’s commissioners, some of whom were wary of appearing to endorse a particular religion or feared that permitting a Chanukah display could open the door to requests from offensive groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

“My response was, if you get something ugly, deal with it when it happens, but this is legitimate,” he said.

Neft encouraged concerned community members to come to the next commissioners’ meeting and speak in favor of the menorah.

The commissioners eventually sent the matter to their Civic Engagement Advisory Board, which met with Rosenblum, Beth El Congregation of the South Hills Rabbi Alex Greenbaum, Temple Emanuel of South Hills Rabbi Aaron Meyer and other community members, Neft said.

“Things progressed to the point where, by the summer, it had been decided they were going to have two menorahs,” Neft said. “Originally it was supposed to be one on Beverly Road and one in uptown. That got changed to just the one in uptown.”

Charlene Tissenbaum spoke at the January commissioner’s meeting. Her message, she said, was simple.

“I said I’ve lived in Mt. Lebanon for 30 years and it was a wonderful place to raise my kids and I always felt that it was diverse and welcoming,” she said. “But I said if we’re going to use language like ‘holiday celebration,’ and if we talk about Mt. Lebanon being inclusive, then it should reflect the people that live here, and next to our Christmas tree, we should have a menorah.”

When she learned that the township intended to include a menorah on Washington Road, she felt the significance of the moment shouldn’t be ignored.

Tissenbaum reached out to fellow Mt. Lebanon residents Eva Gelman and Stacey Reibach, and the trio organized a public menorah lighting, to be held Dec. 17 at 5:30 p.m.

For Reibach, the event is a way to voice the community’s appreciation for the menorah’s inclusion. And, she said, the public lighting is a way to bring attention to the menorah.

“Instead of it just being up there we wanted to light it up so it wasn’t just this dark thing in the corner,” she said, noting that there is public attention on the event.

“The Facebook event is growing. People are interested in it.”

Gelman concurred, saying that even though the South Hills is home to 20% of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community, that presence often isn’t reflected publicly.

“Mt. Lebanon is full of wonderful people who want to be inclusive, but Jewish life just isn’t naturally visible here,” she said.

She’s hoping for a strong community turnout.

“We’re all excited,” she said. “We’re hoping it’s a joyful moment where kids can learn about the diversity and traditions of Chanukah.”

The trio is also hoping that some local and state officials will attend.

And while the ultimate turnout is unknown, one thing is certain: Three South Hills rabbis will attend.

Chabad’s Rosenblum said his goal throughout his attempts at a public Chanukah event in Mt. Lebanon have always been “to have more light in the South Hills.”

The public lighting — Mt. Lebanon is featuring an electric menorah and the three rabbis are each bringing their own menorahs to light and offer the traditional holiday blessings — isn’t so much a victory for Rosenblum, he said, but for the entire Jewish community.

He pointed to the township’s magazine, which features a menorah on its December cover.

“It’s unbelievable in this largely Christian suburb of Pittsburgh that the holiday spirit is being ushered in with Chanukah,” he said. “The truth is that the victory is that Chanukah will be present in Mt. Lebanon and Dormont and Washington and everywhere else in Pittsburgh.”

Beth El’s Greenbaum, too, is thankful that the township is featuring a menorah as part of its holiday celebration and is pleased that community members arranged the public event.

“It’s perfect,” he said. “I don’t need any more.”

Temple Emanuel’s Meyer said the joy of the season should be shared with Mt. Lebanon officials, who not only listened, but acted as well.

“I’m so grateful to Mt. Lebanon Municipal Manager Keith McGill, Rev. Noah Evans and the civic engagement board, and the Mt. Lebanon commissioners for hearing and acting upon the concerns of the Jewish community,” he said.

In addition to the menorah lighting, the celebration will include holiday favorites like gelt, dreidels and kosher pareve donuts.

“This is a community lighting for everybody in the community led by Mt. Lebanon residents,” Tissenbaum said. PJC

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.