Hannukah in Community

A New Way to Celebrate Together...

Dear JCA community,

I am writing to you today to let you know that hanukkah will be a little different this year than in the past.  If you haven’t already looked at the calendar, you will see that hanukkah falls entirely between Christmas and New Years in 2024.  This is a time of year when many families travel, and when our offices are usually closed to give our staff time with their families.

So while we will not be hosting a large community hanukkah party at the JCA this year, fear not!  We will still have an opportunity to celebrate with our JCA community.

Neighborhood Hanukkah Parties

This year, we are going to try something new, to both allow us to celebrate hanukkah outside of our building, and to help facilitate meaningful community building in smaller groups.  Here is how it will work:

We have divided up all JCA member households according to geographic “neighborhoods”.  In some cases this is a few streets, and in some an entire town.  Those who live further away or in areas without a concentration of JCA families have been assigned to a neighborhood group.  We will also have a zoom “neighborhood” for those who wish to celebrate remotely. 

The office has created google group listservs for each “neighborhood” grouping.  You should be seeing a welcome email later today.  If you wish to unsubscribe from your “neighborhood” email list, there will be a link at the bottom you can click to do so.  If you would prefer to join the “zoom neighborhood”, please email the office at info@jcamherst.org. 

We will be asking within each “neighborhood” group for one or more volunteer families who are willing to host a hanukkah party in your home, for your “neighborhood”.  You will tell us the day/time you want to host your party, and we will take care of the rest.

The kitchen staff, office staff, and education staff are hard at work putting together Party Packages.  Including frozen par-baked latkes (just thaw and fry), frozen doughnut dough (just thaw and fry), dreidels and gelt, menorahs and candles, and activities/discussion topics.  We will even give you a $100 grocery gift card to help offset any additional food costs. Party hosts will be able to pick up their party packages in the week before hanukkah.

Please let us know if you have any questions, 

The JCA Office and Education Staff