Cork's Jewish community to celebrate Hanukkah online

The ninth lamp in Shalom Park, Cork City. File picture.

The Jewish community in Cork is celebrating Hanukkah online this year as Covid-19 limits what is traditionally a family occasion to gather and celebrate. 

The festival of light and hope began Thursday evening at sunset as the moveable feast brought Jewish families together to light the first candle of the chanukiah or menorah. 

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Ruti Lachs, a musician based in Cork said the festival was important to her as it reminds her of her childhood. "It's moving, it reminds me of my childhood," said Ms Lachs, "It's a great festival for kids. It's an eight-day festival, a happy festival, commemorating the miracle of the oil in the Temple."

For Marnina Winkler, a music PhD student at University College Cork (UCC), the festival holds its importance as a symbol of hope and togetherness. “It's this idea of hope and togetherness that brings Hannukah to life,” said Ms Winkler, "The idea of the festival and being with family is really important. The whole point of Hanukkah is to bring hope and to remind people that miracles do happen."

The Echo

For ten years the Jewish Community in Cork has gathered at Shalom Park in Cork City on the last night of Hanukkah to take part in The Echo. The art project designed by Maddie Leach sees the ninth lamp alight for the only time all year. 

The lighting cycle begins 10 minutes before sunset, which occurs this year at 4.23pm this year on December 17, and continues for 30 minutes after sunset when the ninth lamp is extinguished. The ceremony is supported by the Cork Hebrew Congregation, Cork City Council, Bord Gáis, and its local community. 

This year due to Covid-19 restrictions, the event has been restricted to 15 people in attendance. Ms Winkler who has attended the ceremony every year since moving to Cork City in 2015 is one of those invited. 

“It’s really nice to have The Echo there and having this Hanukkah lighting and it kind of giving everybody in the community involved, jews and non-jews. 

"Its nice having everybody in one location, especially now that the synagogue is not there, it’s a little sad that we’re not able to have everybody because we do usually have a really nice turnout,” said Ms Winkler. 

Since the closure of Cork's synagogue in 2016 due to the declining numbers of Jewish families in the area in recent years, The Echo ceremony for Hanukkah has taken on extra meaning for Ms Winkler and the remaining members of the Jewish community. 

“It’s a little sad just because it's one of the only times that everybody in the community kind of knows that is something Jewish,” she said. 

“It’s deeper than people I think. It’s the shared connectedness we have with the holiday. 

Even if you don’t know what Hanukkah is and you turn up to the lamp lighting, it seems really special and really magical in a way.

“When you are there in that environment or you are around the children and they are playing dreidel, the toy with the four sides, and you have lots of donuts or latkes, the potato pancakes, it just brings that togetherness and the interconnectedness.

“When you think that every person has a soul, a light, and Hanukkah is the festival of light, then we all make that light together,” she said. 

Together with technology

In the past after the lamp lighting ceremony, attendees have gathered in City Hall after the lamp lighting to hear the Lord Mayor of Cork's speech, and light the Menorahs. Drinking tea, playing music and dreidel, or catching up with a chat is unfortunately not possible this year and instead, the party will take place over Zoom. 

Using technology to celebrate Jewish festivals throughout the year as a result of Covid-19 has resulted in some positives for the Jewish community according to Ms Lachs as larger numbers can attend due to the necessity of travel being eliminated. 

"I think the numbers have grown, as people can join services on Zoom from much further away. But it's not the same as meeting in person. And we can't sing together on Zoom. Singing together is a big thing. However, it's fantastic seeing faces from all over the world enjoying the gatherings though," she said. 

Ms Winkler has found Covid-19 led to the Jewish community making an effort to reach out to one another in Ireland. The adoption of technology has also allowed her to celebrate festivals with her family and synagogue in Utah in the US. “That is one of the positives of it [Covid] that has brought this togetherness through online materials,” she said. “With Covid, we’ve had to force ourselves to get used to online materials, and with Hannukah and the emphasis on hope and togetherness, it’s nice to be able to celebrate that with my family and synagogue back home.”

The number of Jewish people living in Cork City is small at around 20 households according to the Munster Jewish Community. Their database records around 80 names in counties from Clare, Wexford, Tipperary, Kerry, Waterford, Clare, Limerick and Cork. 

In the early 1900s, the community once numbered in the region of 500 Jewish people living in Cork city and county and were mostly from former Tsarist Russia. These early Cork Jewish arrivals were very poor and lived at the Hibernian Buildings near the Gasworks in what became known as 'Jewtown' by locals.