Hanukkah celebration highlights message of hope

PALMER — The Mat-Su Valley Hanukkah Celebration, held Dec. 28 at the Palmer Depot, took a poignant turn during the menorah lighting ceremony, as Janet Kincaid stepped up to light the first candle.

Her son, Brian Kincaid, had died in a car crash just days before, on Dec. 24, the first day of Hanukkah and the day before Christmas.

Before the lighting ceremony, Rabbi Mendy Greenberg of the Mat-Su Jewish Center-Chabad addressed the crowd with a message of hope.

“The message of Hanukkah, is we light the candles when it’s dark,” he said. “Sometimes, when it seems dark, we have to reveal the light. We fight the darkness, by bringing light.”

The celebration took place on the fifth day of Hanukkah, and Kincaid lit the first of the five candles on the large Menorah at the front of the hall.

“His whole life was about light, and eradicating the darkness,” Kincaid said. “He worked with addicts a lot. He was one. And when he recovered, that was his passion — helping others.”

Greenberg said that the practice of lighting the Menorah reminds people that the path to spiritual nourishment is to focus on the light, and spreading light and hope to others, rather than focusing on the dark. When the menorah is lit, he said, it is placed near the windows of a home to shed light to the world outside, and illuminate the darkness beyond the walls of one home.

Palmer mayor Edna DeVries and Wasilla mayor Bert Cottle were in attendance at the packed event.

“We welcome you, on behalf the community council, and the community of Palmer,” DeVries said. “I look forward to learning much more about Jewish culture, and look forward to a long, supportive relationship with you and the Mat-Su Jewish Center. Just call on us anytime you have needs, and in the meantime, we will continue to pray for the peace of Israel.”

Cottle also spoke, and talked about the menorah display Wasilla had hosted last year, and fielding a lot of questions from non-Jewish members of the community about why the Menorah display was missing some lights when it first went up.

“’Mr. Mayor, your candle’s broke. Light up the other seven,’” Cottle shared. “So I got to learn a lot about the Jewish tradition, and the holiday, and got to explain that to people on the phone.”

This year, he got calls about why it was missing.

“In checking, we figured out that Palmer had snuck over in the middle of the night and stolen it,” he said, garnering a hefty round of laughter from the crowd. “It took three days of investigation. So yesterday, the Menorah went back up.”

Cottle said it’s smaller than the big Menorah hosted last year by Wasilla and this year by Palmer, so he couldn’t pass it off as the original, but he was glad to have one back up.

“Hanukkah is an eight-day celebration of lights to remind us to be good stewards of our community,” Cottle said. “To share this holiday with all of us, to help foster the tolerance and respect for all.”