Mount Airy celebrates first night of Hanukkah with train station menorah lighting
Nov. 29—As the sun set over Mount Airy Sunday evening, two flames glowed from a towering menorah erected behind the town's historic train station.
From the parking lot, Rabbi Sholly Cohen of the Chabad Jewish Center of Carroll County smiled broadly as he watched a crowd of children play in front of the building, their faces illuminated by the strand of small blue lights hanging on the brick.
"Look at this, isn't it beautiful?" he asked.
The town of Mount Airy gathered Sunday to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah with a menorah lighting. The eight-day Jewish festival — which marks the re-dedication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem following the Maccabean revolt against the Syrian-Greek army — began at sunset and will end Dec. 6.
This was the second time the town hosted a menorah lighting at its train station. Last year, families parked behind the building and stayed in their cars for the lighting to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The event doubled in size this year, and the town hopes to only expand it in the future, said Mount Airy Parks and Events Manager Ashley Collier.
Collier, who is Jewish and celebrates Hanukkah annually with her family, said the town's menorah lighting helps community members who don't observe the holiday understand their neighbors a bit better. It's also important for Jewish folks to have a place in their community where they can come together and celebrate the holiday, she said.
Her grandmother is a Holocaust survivor and lives in the area, she said, and it's "nice for her to know in Carroll County this happens."
Next year, Mount Airy Councilwoman Lynne Galletti and newly elected Mayor Larry Hushour hope to recruit the town's fire company to drop chocolate coins from a ladder as a form of "gelt," which means "money" in Hebrew and Yiddish.
Galletti's husband is Jewish, she said, and her family celebrates both Hanukkah and Christmas. She laughed as she recalled how excited her adult children get when they find one of the matzahs she and her husband hide around the house. The prize for doing so? A dollar bill.
After the menorah lighting on Sunday, children from Carroll County's Hebrew School performed Hanukkah songs they had been practicing for the occasion. Before leaving with their parents, little ones approached Rabbi Cohen, one by one, to say goodbye.
He squeezed their cheeks and gave them two gelt each — one nickel to keep for themselves and one to give to charity. Cohen, the only rabbi in Carroll County, tries to educate children while they're young on the importance of helping others.
It's a similar idea to why some families will light the menorah in their homes after celebrating the public lighting in town, Cohen said: So they have light for themselves and light to share with their friends and neighbors.
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