Hanukkah fest glows at library

By Saria Kraft kraft@theacorn.com

JAMES FARRALLY/Acorn Newspapers SIGN OF THE SEASON-Maya Cascpi, 6, paints a handcrafted menorah during a Hanukkah celebration at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley last Sunday. The event, sponsored by Chabad of Simi Valley and Chabad of the Conejo, featured crafts tables, traditional dancing and a giant menorah-lighting ceremony in Freedom Plaza. Hanukkah continues through Dec. 14.

Chabad of the Conejo joined the Chabad of Simi Valley on Sunday to host the sixth annual Hanukkah festival at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley.

Rabbis Moshe Bryski and Nosson Gurary welcomed nearly 800 guests to the new Presidential Learning Center. Grandparents cradled babies, all bundled in wet- weather gear, while parents helped little ones make holiday projects.

Kids crafted wooden menorahs and created edible menorahs from pretzels, raisins and marshmallow crème. Families were entertained by juggler Ivan Pecel and by a duo playing lively Chasidic and klezmer melodies.

"It’s very uplifting that (the event) is being held here," said Lucy Friedland of Thousand Oaks, who brought her daughter and two grandchildren. "It makes the holiday very meaningful."

Dignitaries, including U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), spoke about Ronald Reagan’s legacy as a champion of freedom around the globe. Bryski called Reagan "a modern-day Maccabee."

Hanukkah, the Feast of Rededication, commemorates the revolt for religious freedom led by Judas Maccabee against the Syrian forces of King Antiochus IV. It celebrates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in 164 B.C.

KABC Talk Radio host Doug McIntyre ("Mornings with McIntyre") emceed the program, which included songs by the Conejo Jewish Day School Choir.

"Could they possibly have found a bigger goy to host this thing?" said the blond Irish Catholic. "I grew up in Great Neck, Long Island, which many of you know as the Promised Land."

In opening remarks, McIntyre spoke about the importance of recalling historical events as a means to combat intolerance, ignorance and hate.

"We teach history, not in an abstract, but so that our children and their children will never forget," McIntyre said.

The radio host welcomed Ventura County supervisors Judy Mikels and Linda Parks, Council member Dennis Gillette of Thousand Oaks and council members Denis Weber and John Edelston of Agoura Hills during the program.

Cmdr. Steve Smith of the USS Ronald Reagan, the Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, recounted the origins of Reagan’s support for Jewish causes.

The Command Chaplain said that Gen. Dwight Eisenhower ordered World War II combat cameramen to document the horrors of the death camps across Europe to ensure that the genocide would never be denied or forgotten.

The raw footage of the concentration camps came to a member of the Army Signal Corps to edit. Ronald Reagan, then an Army first lieutenant, was among the first in America to view the atrocities of the Holocaust, Smith said.

In twilight ceremonies, a massive menorah was lit outdoors in Freedom Plaza. Families passed the "Torch of Freedom" (glow sticks) hand to hand from a slab of the Berlin Wall to the Reagan Memorial site.

The eight-day Festival of Lights, as Hanukkah is also called, began Tuesday at sundown.