When the lovely Adina Ragettli, age 9, opened the Chanukah program by playing Padah Bishalom on the harp, we knew it was going to be a “Light Filled” Chanukah program, said Rabbi Falik Schtroks, co-director of The Center for Judaism-Chabad of The Lower Fraser Valley.
It was hard to believe that this enriching program was taking place in the Pacific Northwestern corner of Canada, where Jewishness is at risk of falling into the Pacific Ocean.
The Members of Legislature, Marvin Hunt and Tracey Redies as well as Council Members Bill Lawrence and Mike Starchuk each addressed the crowd with meaningful and very time appropriate messages. Chazzan Yakov Orzech was immensely enjoyed as he lit the Menorah and got everyone to join him in singing some Chanukah favorites.. Professor Rudy Rozanski had the audience enraptured while he played an arrangement of Jewish Lullabies and music of Jewish composers.
Perhaps the greatest highlight of the evening was The Young Lamplighter Award presented to Emily Miller and Jessie Miller. It is wonderful to see the Chanukah Lights in action. The young ladies devote a chunk of their time to making life more pleasant for those who are struggling materially or emotionally. By spearheading the Live2Give program in their NCSY chapter, they are also managing to get many other teenagers involved in projects that are focused on helping others and lightening their load.
As C4J co-director Simie Schtroks said to the crowd, “In a world where even the word Wii has two I’s that is quite impressive. Kudos to the supportive parents and grandparents of Emily and Jessie Miller. We know that these young women have great role models in their lives and that they were not raised in a vacuum.”
A few rounds of “Let’s Make a Chanukah Deal”, donuts, chocolate gelt, draidel glasses and draidels were some more items that contributed to an inspiring Chanuka 2017-5778 Program.
The Center for Judaism is grateful to Marat Dreyshner and Ella Dreyshner for donating the donuts and to Moshe Chanowitz of Plaque Impact in Montreal for the beautiful awards. Thank you to The Semiahmoo Shopping Center for hosting us once again. Photo Credits to Naomi Nelson.
A special shout out to Rabbi Yitzchak and Henia Wineberg for taking the time to come out from Vancouver on a very rainy evening.
And you pulled it off again!
As always job well done
Well done on another great Chanukah event. It was an opportunity to showcase our Jewish community to the wider community and you did a great job.
Thank you Simie and Rabbi for this great event! Every year Chanuka candle lighting become a lovely and meaningful event for the White Rock community!
Thanks for the beautiful glimpse into events at small communities across the globe
This year’s candle lighting was really beautiful.
The guest musicians were very talented and their performances were beautiful.
To see two amazing girls receive recognition for the wonderful community work they do, is very inspirational a d the girls truly deserved this recognition.
The Rabbi and Simie were amazing as always by pitting together this wonderful annual event.
We look forward to your Public Menorah Lighting each and every year! My daughter had the opportunity to pick between your program and a friend’s bowling birthday party which is pretty high up there for a 7 year old. Without second thought, she picked coming to the C4J Menorah light and also being there to support her good friend Adina. Thank you Rabbi & Simie for another great program! Sincerely, Ettie Shurack and family.
What amazing dedicated shluchim!
What a wonderful event it was thanks to the huge effort of Rabbi and Sime Schtroks.