Dreidel House highlights local Hanukkah celebration

Rabbi Aryeh Goodman addresses children in front of a large Lego menorah during last year’s Hanukkah celebration inside the Brunswick Square Mall, East Brunswick.

EAST BRUNSWICK — A megasized Dreidel House with a built-in theater, a colorful Lego menorah, hot latkes and doughnuts will greet shoppers at the Brunswick Square Mall on Saturday.

The Chabad of East Brunswick’s annual Hanukkah Festival will be held in the J.C. Penney Court at 6:30 p.m. The event will feature a hands-on olive press demonstration, and “Judah the Maccabee” will guide children in building the Lego menorah and enjoying a movie in the Dreidel House Theater.

“We are always looking for new ideas to keep the kids at the edge of their seat. The life-sized Dreidel House was perfect,” said Rabbi Aryeh Goodman. “It is sure to be a hit where children will actually be able to walk into the familiar Hanukkah dreidel and meet Judah the Maccabee.”

Goodman noted that the roofed Dreidel House will be so large that he had to obtain approvals from the township and the fire department.

Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish “Festival of Lights,” begins tomorrow evening. Each evening at sunset, an additional candle is lighted to commemorate the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago. The holiday also celebrates the miracle of one day’s worth of pure ritual oil burning for eight days until a new supply could be obtained.

“In ancient times, our ancestors rededicated the temple in Jerusalem with the menorah,” Goodman said. “Today, we rededicate ourselves to making this world a better and brighter place.”

As part of the Hanukkah outreach campaign, Chabad of East Brunswick will join thousands of Chabad centers around the world that stage similar public displays of the menorah and its symbolic lights.

For more information, contact Chabad of East Brunswick at (732) 579-8273 or log on to www.chaicentral.org.