This year’s Chanukah arrived right at the end of finals week, but that didn’t stop UChicago’s Jewish community from coming together to celebrate.
Rabbi Yossi Brackman of Rohr Chabad at UChicago, one of the university’s Jewish religious-cultural centers, spent the days before Chanukah handing out menorah kits to students across campus. On the first night of Chanukah, Rabbi Brackman gathered Jewish students in the backyard of the Rohr Chabad house to light a nine-foot menorah, which symbolizes the miracle of its oil lasting eight days. Students sang together, munched on jelly donuts, and competed to guess how many dreidels were stuffed in a jar. Afterwards, about 50 graduate students, free from the burdens of finals week, attended the graduate student Chanukah party.
“With delicious donuts and latkes, fun games, and Israeli music, what better way is there to end the quarter and get everyone excited for Chanukah?” first-year Joel Abraham told The Maroon.
Elsewhere on campus, students who could not make it to Chabad scrambled between final exams, papers, and flights to light the candles on their own. Bolting back to Woodlawn after his Arabic final, second-year Josh Milstein rallied some members of the Jewish community of his Woodlawn Residential Commons dormitory to one of the building’s common rooms via WhatsApp.
By the window of the common room, they too lit the first candle of the menorah. After singing “Maoz Tzur,” a liturgical poem that recounts Jewish deliverance from enemies throughout history, the students embraced and went their separate ways. Some of them hurried back to the library, while others left for the airport, already having finished their exams.
“Celebrating on campus is unique because it’s a time when you, as an individual, get to take charge of what Chanukah means to you outside of the context of your family,” said Milstein.
Last month, Milstein decided to usher in Chanukah celebrations early at UChicago Hillel’s interfaith holiday party. He led the newly refounded Jewish acapella group “Rhythm and Jews” in singing traditional Chanukah songs for its first performance. At the holiday party, students also handknitted scarves and packed blankets and food for those in need this winter.
Chanukah, the holiday where Jews celebrate their ancestors’ victory over the Seleucid Greeks and the rededication of their temple in Jerusalem, took on particular significance for some members of the Jewish community this year.
“With so much darkness in the world, this year’s Chanukah should bring light, hope, and joy,” Rabbi Yossi Brackman said.
