There was a full house at the Sunday morning Chabad Jewish Center of Vernon Hills’ Chanukah Celebration.
The center was founded on Dec. 1, 2009, and is co-directed by Rabbi Shimmy and Rochel Susskind.
Chanukah or Hanukkah, depending on the choice of spelling, is an annual, eight-day Jewish tradition called the Festival of Lights that began on Dec. 25 and runs through Jan. 2.
“As much as darkness evil wants to implement, a little bit of light will always overtake the darkness,” Rabbi Susskind said.
Rabbi Susskind illuminated half of an interior menorah using tall candles with real flames in front of the audience.
“You can’t dispel the light of Judaism, the light of religion, the light of God, because even the littlest light dispels all the darkness in the room,” the rabbi said. “One star lights up the dark sky. The Torah describes the soul as a candle, as a light, because the soul within each of us is the light.
“When we do more and more good deeds, there’s more and more light spread to more and more people,” he continued. “We are proud of who we are.”
Rabbi Susskind talked about Oct. 7, 2023 in Israel, when many were killed and some are still missing.
“Post-Oct. 7, people would think that there would be diminished spirit in the Jewish nation, the Jewish community,” he said. “We found the opposite. There’s a lot more involvement. There’s an increase of observance. The amount of people who come through our door since Oct. 7, 2023 until now (more than) doubled.”
Shimmy and Rochel Susskind are the parents of five boys.
“We are very excited to celebrate with the community and with our own family, and the beauty of Chabad is that we are open to everyone who wants to come and enjoy their Judaism and celebrate Chanukah,” Rochel Susskind said. “So it feels like one big happy family, with everyone coming together.”
The Chabad Jewish Center of Vernon Hills has two large menorahs built with PVC plastic pipe fitting material by Israel Moskovits of Buffalo Grove, an attorney.
The outdoor menorah is new this year. The interior large menorah uses tall candles with real flames.
“I saw the concept online and I’m like, ‘Oh, I bet I can do that,’ so I built it,” Moskovits said.
He was inspired to create the outside public menorah after the November abduction and killing of a young Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi in the United Arab Emirates.
“I figured he can’t light a menorah this year, so I was going to make that one in his honor,” Moskovits said. “He was targeted because he was Jewish, so I figured in his honor I would build another menorah.”
It took about four days to make the outside menorah. “They come up pretty quick,” he said of the assembly.
The Vernon Hills family celebration included crafts, a toy raffle, donuts, latkes, chocolate coins and snacks, professional entertainment by The Spoon Man, and variety entertainer Jim Cruise of Jenison, Michigan. Cruise spoke of wanting a drum set as a child, but discovered making music using spoons and utensils as percussion instruments.
Music, “touches the spirit,” Cruise said. “Everyone’s touched by the music.”
Marina Kunesh of Downers Grove came from DuPage County to attend the celebration with son Logan, 5.
“My parents live out this way in Lake County,” she said. “There’s not much Judaism going on in Downers Grove, so I would like to go somewhere that’s familiar. Our family comes here.”
Allison Stern of Kildeer attended with children Cameron, 9, and Paxton, 6, so the siblings could experience, “just connecting with the Jewish community and being proud of who they are.”
